Home»Academics»Field Placement Program»UCDC Law Program

UCDC Law Program

UCDC Law Program

  1. General Information 
  2. Seminar Description
  3. Application Procedures 
  4. Program Staff

General Information

The UCDC Law Program, recently instituted by Berkeley and UCLA Law Schools, is a uniquely collaborative semester externship program in Washington, D.C.  The program combines a weekly seminar with a full-time field placement to offer law students an unparalleled opportunity to learn how federal statutes, regulations, and policies are made, changed, and understood in the nation’s capital. During four months’ total immersion in a structured environment that integrates the theory and practice of Washington lawyering, students will have contact with all three branches of the federal government, independent regulatory agencies, advocacy nonprofits, and the media.

The Program currently includes law students from U.C. Berkeley and UCLA.  Students will receive 13 units for successful completion of the program: 10 units for the field placements and 3 units for the required companion seminar, “Law-Making and Law-Changing in the Nation’s Capital.” Approximately 12 students from each school are accepted into the program each term.  The program is housed at the University of California Washington Center, a UC facility centrally located just minutes from the White House and most government departments and agencies.  The address is:


UCDC Law Program
University of California Washington Center
1608 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W., Rm. 342
Washington, D.C. 20036
 (202) 974-6392
(202) 974-6250 (fax)

Back to Top of Page

Seminar Description

Students’ externships in the UCDC Law Program have two main components: the full-time lawyering they do at the externship site, guided by their externship supervisor, reflected on in their journal and monitored and supported by the Program; and the companion course, a 3-credit once-a-week evening seminar with frequent guest speakers, lively class discussions, and a major paper by each student on a legal topic relevant to their externship.

The seminar is designed to enhance the externship experience in three principal ways:
  1. Teach students about the process of federal lawmaking directly from leading government lawyers, lobbyists, public interest advocates, and journalists.
  2. Allow students to explore new career opportunities unique to the lawyering in Washington as they enhance their skill sets for success in any career path.
  3. Have students investigate the unique roles of lawyers in making and changing federal law and policy.

Class sessions generally include guest speakers and class discussion based on students’ questions submitted in advance. Part of each session will be devoted to a “grand rounds”-style exchange to facilitate peer-to-peer learning about lawyering at the broad range of externship sites. Each student will write a final paper, typically on a legal topic selected in consultation with the instructor and the externship supervisor for educational value and salience to the office. The final classes of the term will be devoted to presentation of papers in progress. Each student will make detailed written comments on one fellow student’s draft paper, and where possible will share those comments as a discussant when that paper is presented in class. A sample syllabus for the seminar is available here.

Back to Top of Page

Application Procedures

Students may apply to the Program as early as their third semester in law school, for externships in their fourth, fifth or sixth semesters subject to the academic rules cited below. The Program helps students identify quality placements and apply to them, and helps prospective and current UCDC law students connect with alumni of the program as well as with alumni of the participating schools who have made their careers in Washington. The Program Director visits each participating law school at least once a term, and is available from D.C. at other times for individual consultations with students considering applying.

Download application

  1. Before you start the process, confirm that your available externship credits, together with the three-credit companion seminar, are enough to let you maintain full-time status when you are in Washington. (Students are directed to Academic Rules 1.03(A)(d), (e), and (f) for clarification.) Students have up to 10 credits they can devote to externships or field placements. First-year students may not undertake field placements for academic credit. Students in their third or final semesters of law school may take no more than 5 externship units. If you need an exception to the last semester rule, please talk to the Dean of Students.
  2. Bring your initial questions to UCDC Law Program Director Steve Pershing. He can be reached by email at steve.pershing@ucdc.edu. The Field Placement Director, Sue Schechter, is also knowledgeable about the program. She is located in 489 Simon Hall and can be contacted by phone at (510) 643-7387, or by email at sschechter@law.berkeley.edu.  As you consider whether to apply to UCDC, you can read these thoughtsby Mr. Pershing.
  3. Try to identify the kind of experience you seek. Do you want to learn about:
    • Legislation and the political lawmaking process? Examples include:
      • House or Senate personal staff or committee
      • Office of Legislative Counsel
      • Government Accountability Office, Congressional Research Service, etc.
    • The regulatory, oversight and/or enforcement work of the executive departments, independent agencies, federally chartered corporations, or quasi-official agencies?  Examples include:
      • Justice, State and Treasury Departments
      • Agencies in executive departments like the Federal Aviation Administration or the Food and Drug Administration
      • Independent administrative agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Election Commission, etc.
    • Influencing federal lawmaking as an advocate at a national nonprofit?  Examples include: 
      • American Civil Liberties Union
      • American Enterprise Institute
      • Human Rights Watch
      • Center for Strategic and International Studies, etc.
    • A particular area of substantive law, regardless of where you work in the lawmaking continuum?  Examples include:
      • economic regulation
      • national security
      • civil rights and liberties
      • health car
      • education, etc.
    • More traditional lawyering unique to D.C.? Examples include:the litigating divisions of the Justice Department, the general counsel’s office of another department, or national public interest law firms like the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Washington Legal Foundation, the Public Citizen Litigation Group, etc.

These are just some of the factors to consider when choosing what kind of placement you would pursue in Washington.  Read information about agencies and organizations and don’t be afraid to ask us any question you think will help you decide. We will help you identify quality placements and apply to them. We also, try to keep current students in touch with alumni of the program, as well as with alumni of the participating schools who have made their careers in Washington. 

The program has a growing number of placements. Here are a few from the past two terms:

    • Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution
    • Office of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer
    • Human Rights Watch
    • Executive Office of the President, Domestic Policy Council
    • U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division
    • U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of General Counsel
    • Securities and Exchange Commission
    •  National Public Radio

A complete list of all placements since the program’s inception in Spring 2009 can be found here. We are constantly developing new externship opportunities, and will work with students and externship supervisors to achieve the best possible matches. All placements, whether secured by you or by the Program, must be approved by Mr. Pershing and will have to meet certain criteria, ordinarily including:

  • Direct supervision by an attorney
  • Involvement with federal law (either legislative, executive, regulatory or advocacy work)
  • Commitment from the externship supervisor to ensure an educational experience consistent with the UCDC Law Supervisors’ Checklist

If you do not have any initial questions, or after you have had basic questions answered, proceed to downloading and completing the UCDC Law application, and e-mailing it as an attachment to Mr. Pershing at steve.pershing.ucdc.edu, with a copy to Joelle Brown at jbrown@law.berkeley.edu. The Berkeley Law application deadline for Spring 2010 UCDC externships is September 29, 2009.

Once your application is in, Mr. Pershing will set up an appointment with you to discuss it, with an eye to making the best placement matches and class composition possible. Although the number of slots in the UCDC Law Program is limited, students who are not in the UCDC Law Program can participate in the Away Placement Program with a Washington externship if they meet that program’s requirements. See Sue Schechter if you want to explore this option.

Once you have been approved for the UCDC Law program, you will be given the course control numbers to enroll through TeleBears.

Back to Top of Page

Program Staff

Stephen B. Pershing, director of the UCDC Law Program since 2009, is a public interest lawyer of two decades’ experience. From 2005 to 2009, he was senior litigation counsel at the Center for Constitutional Litigation, P.C., in Washington D.C., which litigates civil justice issues nationwide under the U.S. and state constitutions. From 1996 to 2005, he was a trial attorney in the Voting Section, Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, which enforces the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other federal voting-related statutes. Before going to the Justice Department, he spent seven years legal as the director of the Virginia ACLU. He also has served as law clerk to U.S. District Judge Julian A. Cook, Jr. (E.D. Mich.). He is a member of the adjunct faculty at George Washington University Law School, where he has taught a course in voting rights law since 1999, as well as a course in government lawyering. He has also taught civil rights law courses at the law schools of American University and the College of William and Mary. He is co-chair of the D.C. Bar Section on Courts, Lawyers and the Administration of Justice, and a member of the D.C. Bar strategic planning task force. He has chaired the board of the Virginia ACLU's northern Virginia chapter since 1997. He is also an accomplished amateur classical violinist and a former public radio music producer. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Virginia Law School.    

The Program’s founding director, Karen A. Lash, an internationally experienced consultant to legal education and public interest organizations, is serving during Fall 2009 as a part-time consultant to the Program. For nearly 20 years, Ms. Lash has created programs to build bridges between the academy and the legal profession. She founded the law externship program at the University of Southern California Law School, where she also taught an Access to Justice Seminar and co-founded the Greater Los Angeles Consortium on Externships. She helped design and launch Equal Justice Works’ “E-Guide to Public Service at America’s Law Schools,” as well as the American Constitution Society's ACS ResearchLink. She has worked with the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative and Public Interest Law Institute on clinical legal education in Moldova, Ukraine, Slovakia, Cambodia, Bahrain and Kyrgyzstan. She helped the UC Irvine Law School create service-learning programs; and she has designed volunteer projects and trainings for more than 1000 law student volunteers with the Mississippi Center for Justice, where she has helped coordinate pro bono and advocacy efforts since Hurricane Katrina. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California Law School

Stephen Pershing Contact Information:
mailing:  UCDC Law Program
             University of California Washington Center
             1608 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W., Rm. 342
             Washington, D.C. 20036
phone:   (202) 974-6392
fax:        (202) 974-6250
email:    steve.pershing@ucdc.edu    

Karen Lash Contact Information:
email: karen@lash.us

 

 

Back to Top of Page