Challenges Of Undergraduate Internship For Law Students – OLUWASEUN OJO

My first experience as a legal intern was in Kwara State, where my school is located. It was during my fourth year, and it took me till then because of certain impediments. The major factors that contributed to my not having access to a legal internship before my fourth year include location/accommodation and finances. Unfortunately, these factors affect a vast majority of my colleagues.

It is common among law students not to want to intern just at any law firm within their towns or states. To gain relevant exposure and experience, everyone’s dream is to intern with top tiers in the country, continent or globally. Getting an internship opportunity in the top tiers is quite challenging, and due to their reputation, very competitive. As the country is concerned, a large percentage of the most sought-after law chambers operate from the country’s economic and administrative capitals, Lagos and Abuja respectively.

If at all you got a chance, the cost of living in the firm’s location is high and unaffordable, especially for non-resident undergraduate interns. Having scaled through the rigorous application exercises, being able to sort accommodation and finances to an extent is a great challenge. Another principal issue is the lack of structure in the internship programme by the host law firms.  At this point in time, it is surprising – and of course, quite disappointing – to see that some firms still do not have a well-structured learning curriculum for their interns. That won’t just be a waste of time for interns, but also a waste of the firms’ energy and intellectual resources.

There is nothing wrong with a firm being business-oriented, but doing this when interns are involved should not in any way affect their individual choices. It is common nowadays to see law firms asking their prospective interns to attach customised hashtags to posts on LinkedIn or other social media platforms, or to tag them while posting short videos made as part of the application requirements. This includes compulsorily using customised flyers by interns as their display pictures on social media, or as part of an in-house contest among interns asking them to source for votes on social media. This kind of practice shows that such firms are only trying to generate traffic for their websites, boost their online presence and make fame off their interns.

I was to have a virtual interview with a firm but wasn’t allowed to because I was not putting on a tie, which to them meant I was “…not properly dressed for the interview.” Contrastingly, I had another interview a week after where my interviewer informed me that I could loosen my tie and relax. Such a strict culture in the former instance is what interns face at times with law firms. Of course, it is important that we keep up with basic professional ethics, but flexibility, too, matters.

It must, however, be noted that despite all the above-discussed challenges, interning for law students has many benefits.

During the undergraduate period, classroom lessons are characterised by learning of theories; demystifying the principles of law, and memorising cases and provisions of statutes with little or no practical experience. It is through internships that students learn how those classroom lessons (through their professors and books) work in practice. Students also get exposed to an array of professional ethics and different cultures of firms. Internship also serves as an avenue for professional networking.

In order to widen the range of students benefiting from internship programmes, it is important that law firms, as well as other bodies offering similar opportunities, pay attention to the challenges so as to be able to devise better approaches.

The Law Students’ Societies across law faculties should partner with firms to secure slots for students. Law firms should ensure they prepare standard learning curricula for interns. By doing this, interning in a top tier law firm will not really matter as much as worthy experience would be gained by interns.

Furthermore, it is a mere Nigerian mentality to posit that interns are not entitled to remuneration. In the United States, says a publication on Business Day, unpaid internships for law undergraduates in private law firms are illegal according to The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

Therefore addressing these challenges will create more internship opportunities, and enable law students to be a fit in competing with colleagues across the globe on legal matters of global concern.

Oluwaseun Ojo writes via ojooluwaseunridwan@gmail.com