IMPORTANT INTERNSHIP PLACEMENT DEADLINE

To enroll in PLGL 251 or PLGL 252, you must complete your internship placement no later than the last day classes of the semester before your internship begins.

Placement cannot be completed during semester breaks, holidays, or the week classes begin.

This process includes:

• Meeting with Career Services

• Having your résumé and cover letter approved

• Submitting your internship site list to Professor Makosky

• Receiving permission to contact employers

• Securing a supervising attorney

• Obtaining confirmation of your placement

If these steps are not completed before the prior semester ends, you will not be permitted to register for the internship course for the upcoming term.

1. Internship Placement (Must Be Completed Before the Prior Semester Ends)

Before you may register for PLGL 251 or PLGL 252, you must complete the following steps during the semester prior to your internship:

a. Career Services Approval

• Meet with HACC Career Services to have your résumé and cover letter reviewed and approved.

• Obtain written confirmation of this approval.

• You may not proceed to the next step until this is completed.

b. Submit Your Internship Site List

• Prepare a list of 3–5 potential internship sites where you would like to apply.

• If you need help beginning the search process or would like to talk about ideas you may have for internship placement, connect with Kathleen Carusone, HACC's internship coordinator.  Her email is ktcaruso@hacc.edu.  Please see a handout below from Ms. Carusone outlining how to prepare for your meeting with her.

• Email this list to Professor Makosky along with your approved résumé and cover letter.

• You may not contact any employer until you receive written permission from Professor Makosky.

c. Contact Approved Sites

• After receiving approval, you may contact the sites on your list.

• Copy Professor Makosky on all emails seeking internship placement.

d. Provide Supervisor Information

Once you have interviewed and selected your internship site, email Professor Makosky with:

• Name of the supervising attorney

• Name of the law firm or office

• Mailing address

• Email address

• Phone number

e. Supervisor Confirmation

• The supervising attorney must confirm your placement and the type of work you will be doing.

• After confirmation is received, Professor Makosky will override registration and allow you to enroll in PLGL 251 or 252.

• You cannot register for the internship course without this approval.

2. Due on or before the first day of your internship 

o There are several forms that will need to be read, signed, witnessed, scanned, and uploaded to Dropbox before you can begin logging any hours for your internship.  Your attorney supervisor also will have forms to complete and sign.  Those forms are usually emailed from the supervising attorney to the paralegal studies internship supervisor.

o Before you begin logging your internship hours, you also will want to upload to Dropbox your current resume and cover letter along with the written approval from HACC's Career Advisor to Dropbox.  

3. Logs are due every week on Friday at 11:59 p.m.

o Your daily logs of the work you have done at your internship site will be due each week in Dropbox by Friday at 11:59 p.m.  See below for some samples of completed daily logs.

o At least 200 hours must be completed by the last day of classes for the semester.  At least half of your internship hours must be paralegal work.  You may not count your lunch or other personal breaks taken during the work day.

4. One mandatory class meeting held remotely 

o We will meet as a class remotely on Zoom once during the term.  The date and time will be determined once the semester begins, but usually we meet mid-term when most interns have at least half of their hours submitted.  During this mandatory meeting with all other interns,  ethics, law practice issues, common office issues faced by interns, and other relevant topics are discussed.  You will be assigned a topic to present during this meeting.  In addition to sharing information about your internship, you may want to prepare a short PowerPoint presentation on your assigned topic.

5. Sample work product and cover memo 

o     Before the end of the semester, you are to pick an example of an assignment you feel is representative of the work you have done during your internship. Your assignment can be a letter you drafted for a client, a pleading you wrote, a research memo you completed or some other document you prepared for an attorney. You may need to redact confidential information, especially if this document was not filed with the court. Additionally, you must ask your attorney if this document can go out of the office and be used for the purposes of your internship. It will not be viewed by anyone besides the ABA (during Site Visit for reapproval of our program) and the internship supervisor. 

o You will attach a cover page with a paragraph or two explaining what you did and who assigned it so that the reader can clearly see that you used your legal knowledge.

6. By the last day of classes – 

o Submit your student evaluation (found on D2L course page) and your updated resume and cover letter.

o Make sure your supervising attorney submits an evaluation on your performance as a paralegal intern.

This is a summary of the internship requirements only and is subject to change.  Please see the course syllabus for the semester you are enrolled in the course for all details.