Second-year student Christopher Hedges spent his\nspring semester working at the United States Attorney\u2019s Office (USAO) for the\nMiddle District of Florida. Professor Beane\u2019s Federal Litigation Externship\nclass places students in the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, the U.S. Department of\nJustice, and the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs in order to gain real-world\nexperience in federal litigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hedges is a second-career law student with a\nbackground in business and a passion for courtroom litigation. He sees the\nfocus on experiential learning at Stetson Law as a way to stand out from the\ncrowd, as well as a way to gain valuable experience and knowledge that does not\ncome from a classroom or textbook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hedges urges interested students to participate\nin some kind of experiential learning at Stetson, and if possible, to devote an\nentire summer to an externship or clinic. Students may need to carefully\nevaluate their course loads when taking an externship during a semester full of\nclasses\u2014Hedges spent 16-24 hours a week at the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office. He\nemphasizes the importance of being able to come into work regularly and\nconsistently in order to reap all the benefits of the externship experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, interns can be\ndoing a different task each day. Some days Hedges was doing work preparing for\na trial, such as redacting documents that will be used as evidence. Some days\nhe spent researching and writing or drafting documents. Because of the nature\nof the office, interns can encounter cases of first impression where extensive\nresearch is required to examine a novel or unknown issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Students are not assigned to just one attorney at\nthe U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, so they have a chance to experience a variety of\ncases and procedures. For Hedges, this was an invaluable experience to see how\na case proceeds from beginning to end. He shadowed one U.S. Attorney who built\nan entire case upon jury instructions, beginning by asking what needed to be\nproven to the jury to get a guilty conviction. Hedges emphasizes the holistic\nnature of the experience and says, \u201cIf you don\u2019t see the case from beginning to\nend you don\u2019t see how all the pieces fit together.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hedges encourages students interested in trial\nadvocacy, either civil or criminal, to seek out this externship. You will have\nthe opportunity to meet specialized legal personnel, including trial team\nspecialists who create exhibits and support attorneys in preparing for trial.\nHe describes this kind of experience as getting students out of the \u201cbubble\u201d of\nlaw school and providing the kind of real-world experience that is integral to\nbeing an effective attorney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During his externship Hedges utilized information\nfrom multiple classes, including Criminal Procedure, Criminal Law, Research and\nWriting I and II, Evidence, and Trial Advocacy. Ultimately, working at the U.S.\nAttorney\u2019s Office gave him the chance to blend the black letter law he learned\nin the classroom with experiential skills utilized by successful attorneys in\norder to prepare himself for a career in litigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Second-year student Christopher Hedges spent his spring semester working at the United States Attorney\u2019s Office (USAO) for the Middle District of Florida. Professor Beane\u2019s Federal Litigation Externship class places students in the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs in order to gain real-world experience in federal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-1"],"yoast_head":"\n