Washington, D.C., Summer Program

2004 Recap - by Bassel Korkor (2L)

The DC summer program in 2004 was a unique and important experience for the 17 OSU students who attended. The courses were practical as well as academic; the social aspect was both familiar and new; and working in DC provided valuable legal and non-legal experience.

• 2004 Students and Externships

The Courses
There were three two-credit-hour courses offered: an externship course, a professional responsibility course, and a cybersecurity law course. The externship class consisted basically of writing a position paper about a topic with some legal origin in the agency or organization where we worked. The research is mostly independent, with Professor Swire's guidance on the methodology and initial subject choice. The research we did into our own papers engaged us closely with some aspect of our job, but an equally interesting aspect of the course was learning about one another's topics. They ranged from voting access to predatory lending practices. One student's paper even foretold the August failure of a government program. The drafting process was also helpful from an organized-writing perspective.

In the large "Ethics of DC Lawyering" course, there was some focus on the Model Rules, but a bulk of the material came from a star-studded cast of guest lecturers. They included a national security defense attorney, corporate lawyers in huge DC firms, and former legal counsels from the White House and Department of Justice. This course gave real, practical advice that actually did distinguish "DC Lawyering" as a specific kind of lawyering. That said, the information and processes of professional responsibility are also applicable to general legal practice, of course. The guest professors were great speakers and accomplished lawyers.

Cybersecurity law was an interesting topic because so much about it is still unresolved. Combined with Professor Swire's particular expertise, it became an in-depth course in both substantive law and public policy. An underlying thread to the course dealt with institutional choice, a topic prevalent in cyber-law, and prominent in DC and even law in general. I didn't know a thing about cybersecurity before taking this course, but now whenever I see a news or law review article about the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, national security and the CALEA debate, mp3-sharing, or world-wide viruses and hackers, it's easy to see the layers of legal dimensions that we studied, in action.

Student Experiences
The social aspect of the DC program is what one makes of it. Of course, we were busy with work and classes, but that generally didn't stop us from going to dinner together between classes or going to bars around DC after classes. We certainly went out on the weekends and did happy hours with other interns at our offices, too. DC has a range from relatively calm nights out in Georgetown, to the party scene at Adams Morgan, and the land-of-a-thousand-interns scene in DuPont and Foggy Bottom. There is also a ton else to do, of course. I tend to get a kick out of the museums and monuments. We also watched Independence Day fireworks on the steps of the Capitol, and golfed on a peninsula in the Potomac. NY is a short bus ride away for the weekend, too. Professor Swire and students previously familiar with DC end up being great resources for what to do while you're in this exciting city.

The working-in-DC gig was dependent on where one worked. For some students, they were in an intensive legal environment. For others, there was a lot of exposure to policy-oriented lawyering. Either way, working in DC is very valuable to experience, particularly because DC is a legal market unlike any other in its policy-based take on everyday legal work. We also picked up practical skills such as balancing a job with school and personal activities, and meeting people who can give advice for law school and career-seeking (both in general and in DC). Putting both the work experience on the résumé and the classes on the transcript also look good and make for great conversation during fall interviews. As for the weeks after spring semester and before the program begins, some students went to DC and started work early, some found jobs in Ohio before heading out to DC, and some took advantage of time to get some travel in.

Comments from Ohio State Moritz Law Students

"The D.C. program is a great alternative to the typical post-1L summer experience. You're guaranteed to gain valuable legal experience at any of the externships offered by Professor Swire and you'll also have the opportunity to make some great contacts. Future employers will be really impressed by the fact that you worked full time and took classes in D.C. after your first year of law school (but I had to explain this concept slowly at a recent job interview)." - Jonathan Rizzardi (2L), Intern at the Coast Guard Judge Advocate General.

"The 'Ethics of D.C. Lawyering' was a FANTASTIC class. Professor Swire brings in famous Washington power-brokers to teach relevant aspects of Professional Responsibility. What could be better than learning about executive privilege from a former White House counsel or the ethics of lobbying from a famous D.C. lobbyist?" - Lisa Page (2L), intern at the Federal Reserve Board, Office of Consumer Affairs.

"For students interested in working "Inside the Beltway," there's no better exposure to D.C. than the D.C. summer program. And the extra-curricular, cultural possibilities were seemingly endless: the WWII memorial dedication, a lecture on lawyers and the holocaust at the Holocaust Museum, President Reagan's funeral procession, visiting CIA headquarters, and watching the fireworks on the Mall, to name a few." - Greg Smith (2L), intern at the Center for Democracy and Technology