Riverside County District Attorney's Office: Volunteer 1L Externship Program
Each year, we invite approximately 15 to 20 exceptional candidates to participate in our 1L Summer Externship Program. Beginning the first Tuesday after Memorial Day and ending the first week in August, this full-time externship is one of the most competitive and exciting opportunities for future career prosecutors in the state.
We begin the externship with a mandatory week-long training academy, where we teach externs about re-search, motion-writing, prosecutorial ethics, the life of a criminal case, and other pertinent topics. We end the week with a trip to watch oral arguments at either the California District Court of Appeals or the California Supreme Court in Los Angeles.
Our 1L Summer Externs are supervised centrally and assigned to offices in Riverside, Banning, Indio, and Murrieta. All externs countywide receive a variety of research, writing, trial preparation, and discovery organization projects from prosecution units throughout the organization.
These projects are real criminal cases with real outcomes. Examples include drafting a response to a motion to suppress evidence, drafting a pre-trial motion in limine, organizing evidence in a multi-million dollar fraud case, researching a novel evidentiary issue, drafting an objective memorandum, and providing trial support to an attorney in a murder trial. We give each 1L Summer Extern a wide variety of prosecutorial work and experience dealing with many types of crimes. We also afford 1Ls ample opportunity to observe court appearances, preliminary hearings, motions, and trials.
Our 1L Summer Externs meet weekly with their designated supervisors to answer questions, discuss issues, and share experiences. Our 1L Externs also participate in an oral advocacy training track under the guidance of experienced trial prosecutors.
We also schedule various “field trips” for our 1Ls throughout the summer, such as tours of courtrooms, jails, prisons, crime labs, and police ride-a-longs. We conclude the summer by inviting all of our externs to compete in the Riverside County Summer Extern Closing Argument Competition.
How to Apply:
The preferred method of applying for an interview is through your law school’s career services office. We regularly do on-campus interviews and participate in numerous public interest and public services career days and events. If your law school is not local or does not participate in any of these events, you are invited to submit a resume and cover letter to apply for a law school externship at the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. Resumes can be a maximum of two pages. Cover letters can be a maximum of one page. The resume and cover letter should be sent to: ExternshipProgram@RivCoDA.org
Contact:
Mike Romney
Deputy District Attorney
Riverside County
951-955-8625