Paralegal Internships (Cooperative Education)
The PCC Paralegal Internship/Cooperative Education Program
The Paralegal Cooperative Education/Internship Program is a critical supplement to the classroom learning experience, providing hands-on opportunities for students to practice their legal skills under close supervision. To qualify for a paralegal internship, you must be admitted to the PCC Paralegal Program, and have completed at least 18 credits toward your Paralegal degree or certificate. Internships for the PCC Paralegal Program are completed through the PCC Cooperative Education Program. PCC Paralegal student interns work in law offices of all sizes, in-house legal departments, legal non-profits, prosecutors’ and public defenders’ offices, city, state, and federal agencies, public interest organizations, and other legal organizations.
The first step is finding an internship worksite.
Paralegal students are responsible for finding their own law firm or legal internship worksites, but the Paralegal Program is happy to brainstorm potential internship sites, keeping the following requirements in mind:
- The worksite must offer experience that is in or related to the legal field.
- The work experience must provide an opportunity for new learning and skill development.
- A worksite supervisor must be available and willing to train, supervise, and evaluate you, and to communicate with the college representative.
- As the Paralegal Internship Instructor, I will review your work and talk to your supervisor. When possible, a brief conference with you and your supervisor is scheduled.
- You may already have a legal job that could qualify as an internship worksite.
- Employers are not obligated to hire a paralegal student intern after their internship. However, employers sometimes do offer interns continuing employment after a successful Cooperative Education experience.
The second step is filling out the Cooperative Education forms.
Once a Paralegal student finds a legal internship worksite, the student and the employer-supervisor will fill out and sign the combined internship forms.
Writing learning objectives can be difficult; for help with the process click here, or contact me to discuss! Once you fill out and sign these forms with your supervisor, send them to me for my approval and signature. Then I send them on to PCC Career Services, who verifies all the information and gets your registered for the PL 280A Course credits. You cannot register yourself for the internship course, you have to go through the process laid out above.
The third step is completing work at an internship worksite.
Students must complete work at their internships that meets their learning objectives and credit-hour requirements. Students must work at their internship worksites for 30 hours per credit earned. So, for example, if a Paralegal student wants to replace a three-credit Paralegal classroom elective with an internship, they would register for a three-credit internship, and complete a minimum of 90 hours of substantive legal work over the course of the term. The legal work can be done on a schedule that is mutually acceptable to the employer and the student. Paralegal Cooperative Education/Internships may be paid or unpaid. As a part of the internship course, we also meet as a group twice over the course of the term, either in person or virtually, and I communicate with the student and supervisor about the internship experience.
The fourth step is completing an employer evaluation and reflection paper.
Employer-supervisors must fill out and return an employer evaluation at the end of the term, verifying that the PCC Paralegal student-intern completed the required 30+ hours of legal work per credit, and successfully met the learning objectives identified at the beginning of the term. Paralegal internships are all graded on a pass/no pass basis. Paralegal student-interns must also turn in a brief reflection paper about their internship experience at the end of the term.
For more information, see the PCC Cooperative Education Student Handbook [pdf]. I hope to work with you on the internship process!
Paralegals may not practice law and may not provide legal services directly to the public except as permitted by law.
Paralegal program students must complete 14 quarter credit hours of synchronous instruction. Synchronous instruction means students must attend a scheduled class meeting time each week. This restriction is not applicable to Legal Assistant students.