Contact Tony Perriello, J.D., Program Director, Associate Professor
Email: tperriello@champlain.edu
Phone: 802.651.5989
Gain important experience in the legal field.
Through our Upside-Down Curriculum, Law students are equipped to take on meaningful externships and internships starting after their second year of school. An externship is typically an opportunity for a student to shadow a job or gather information through observation and discussions, while an internship includes hands-on projects for the student. In either case, students gain valuable insight through these immersive experiences.
Champlain Law students have a unique opportunity to participate in the Prison Law Initiative (PLI), visiting Vermont prisons to teach law to incarcerated people. By helping inmates better understand their own legal cases and constitutional rights, students gain critical perspective and communication skills.
Starting their Law courses in year one, students have more time to take on law-related internships throughout their college studies. In fact, 9 out of 10 Champlain students complete at least one internship or other experiential learning opportunity before graduation—and most students do more than one.
Recent Externship & Internship Locations for Law Majors
| Chittenden County District Court | Vermont Judicial Bureau | Chittenden County State Attorney's Office |
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How We Prepare You for Experiential Learning
We want you to be well prepared for your first internship, externship, or other fieldwork. After your first year of exploratory practical education, you'll be ready to work with your Career Advisor to take the next step.
- The Upside-Down Curriculum allows you to get extensive classroom learning and hands-on experience with industry professionals in your first year, which gives you the real-world skills and qualifications needed to begin taking an internship or externship as early as the summer before your sophomore year.
- Champlain's Career Collaborative will help you develop your professional résumé and hone your interview skills. Early on in your studies, you'll be able to show employers what you know.
- Your professors will become your reliable mentors, pointing out the strategic academic and co-curricular activities that will help you build your professional skill set and enhance your résumé.
Local and national employers turn to Champlain for college interns because they are better prepared to work in professional environments than the majority of their peers from other institutions. Many Champlain graduates receive full- and part-time job offers from the organizations where they first took their internships or externships.