SUPERVISED EXTERNSHIP SEMINAR: ADMINISTRATIVE LAW IN THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT
Introduction to the Course
Spring 2008
Professor Jeffrey Lubbers*
Supervised Externship Seminar: Administrative Law in the Federal Government is a threecredit, one semester, graded course in which students enroll while engaged in fieldwork for
additional academic credit at a federal government executive branch agency. This memo describes
the requirements for this course.
1. Goals of the Course
The primary purpose of this course is to enrich and provide an academic context for your
externship through an overview of a wide range of administrative law topics and through reflective
study of your fieldwork experience. The course will cover issues such as agency adjudication and
rulemaking, judicial review, enforcement, the role of offices of general counsel, ADR, FOIA,
government ethics, and congressional relations. The focus of the seminar will be how these
substantive areas are relevant at your agency.
In class and through your journal writing you will have the opportunity to think and talk
about:
-- How you feel about working as a lawyer in the public sector. Do civil servants get a “bad
rap?” Who is the client? Are agency procedures fair and/or efficient?
-- Many aspects of the work skills of being a lawyer in a large organization, including time
management, dealing with office hierarchies; seeking desirable work assignments and participation
in interesting events, eliciting clear instructions and supervision, responding to unethical behavior,
and other workplace problems.
The placement experience might be viewed as a microcosm of a possible future career as a
public service lawyer. The course, combined with the fieldwork, offers you an opportunity to
explore the pros and cons of government lawyering, to think carefully about it as a possible career,
and, to obtain advice from experienced government lawyers about how to make such a career
worthwhile and fulfilling. In class you will be exposed to the experiences of other students at a
diverse group of agencies.
As you begin work at your placement, you should be aware that you have two primary tasks.
*
I wish to thank Professor Lisa Lerman, Catholic University of America School of Law, for allowing me to use her
Introduction to her Supervised Externship Seminar on The Legal Profession as a model for this introduction, and for her
other assistance in preparing this course.
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One is to do your work, and the other is to think about your work or the work of the institution.
Spend some time thinking about what you are interested in studying about your experience. Your
thoughts could be mainly introspective (how do I organize my own work?) or mainly outer-directed
(what accounts for the success of this agency?)
2. Summary of Course Requirements
To complete the course, you must:
(a) complete one, two, or three credits of fieldwork (10, 15, or 20 hours per week).
(b) maintain and submit a reflective journal, spending at least one half hour a week writing
it.
(c) maintain and submit weekly time sheets showing your fieldwork activities.
(d) attend, and participate actively in all (or nearly all) of the seminar meetings.
(e) complete reading and “agency-specific” research assignments for each class.
(f) co-facilitate class discussion of research assignments during one class, making a
presentation during that class about an aspect of your fieldwork
(g) meet semi-weekly with me individually or in small groups to discuss the externship
(h) submit a memo during the first 2-3 weeks of your fieldwork on your goals for the
semester, after discussing it with your supervisor.
(i) complete a mid-semester evaluation meeting with your placement supervisor and an endof-term exit interview.
(j) obtain a written evaluation of your performance from your placement supervisor.
(k) complete evaluation forms on your placement and on the seminar (to be distributed at
the end of the semester).
Grades will be based primarily on journals, research assignments, and class participation.
Participation in out-of-class meetings and other submissions such as the goals memo, will be
considered in grading also. (A rough breakdown is as follows: 25% for each of the first three, 15%
for out-of-class meetings and 10% for the goals memo.) I will not grade you on your fieldwork,
except that failure to complete the required number of hours could result in an incomplete in the
course or a lower grade. The fieldwork is separately credited and is on a pass-fail basis.
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3. Student Discussion Leaders
During nine of our fourteen classes (marked by an asterisk in the syllabus), students will be
the primary discussion leaders for the discussion of the previous week’s research assignment. You
will sign up to co-lead with another student. During the class, each of the co-leaders will make a
presentation designed to share the results of the research assignment with the rest of the class. The
co-leaders may do one joint presentation or two separate presentations. I will assist in the
facilitation of each of these classes.
4. Goals Memo
The goals memo is a statement of your goals in undertaking the externship, and of how you
intend to accomplish those goals. The memo should be 1-2 pages typed, and should be addressed to
your placement supervisor (cc to me). Ideally, you should complete a draft of your goals memo
during your first week at your placement. Submit the draft to me (no later than January 19) for my
review. After I review it and return it to you, rewrite it in the form of a memo to your supervisor.
When you have completed it, give it to your supervisor, and ask him/her to read it, write comments
on it, and then sit down to talk about it together. After you have met with your supervisor and gone
over your memo, turn it in to me (preferably by February 2). The more your supervisor knows
about your goals, the better he/she may be able to assist you. If you have difficulty in formulating
your goals, please let me know during your first week at your placement.
Your experience in the field will be shaped primarily by how carefully you formulate your
goals. If you go into your fieldwork passively, thinking you will just see what happens and do what
you are asked to do, your supervisor will determine your experience. On the other hand, if you have
specific goals, they may lead you to seek particular types of experience.
For example: If you are working in the FCC’s office of general counsel, and one of your
goals is to learn about broadcasting law, you might explain your objective to the lawyers with
whom you work, and ask for assignments in that particular area and ask whether you may sit in on
meetings they have on that subject during the semester. If you think of the field experience as an
observation research project, and decide what you want to learn about, you will have much more
control over how you spend your time.
Try to be honest in your statement of your goals, and to be as specific as possible in your
statement of how you might accomplish them.
5. Research Assignments
The weekly research assignments are an important part of this seminar. They are designed
to require you to learn practical lessons in your agency environment and also meet with important
officials of the agency. Most of the assignments relate directly to the topic discussed in the second
hour of the previous Monday’s seminar. Thus you should be able to put to quick use what you
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learned at that session. The assignments also form the basis for the discussion in the first hour of
the next session—and many of these discussions will be student-led.
Report the results of your research assignments to me in memorandum form and append
them to your journal submissions for that week. (Unlike the journal submissions, they will not be
treated as confidential, and I may decide to circulate them.) These reports need not be written in a
formal, bluebook, style, but do take care in writing them because they will be a significant factor
(along with class participation and the journals) in your grade.
6. Journal Entries
During the semester, you must write and submit one or more journal entries each week
that discuss your observations, reflections on, or reactions to a particular aspect of your field
experience. You may write as often as you wish and as much as you wish, but submission of
journals should be once per week. In general, your submission each week should include at least
three double-spaced typed pages. [You may submit these to me under my office door (Room 515B)
or by e-mail <JSL26@aol.com>]. If you use e-mail, please use MS Word if you can.
For each week I have suggested one or more themes. I have also included research
assignments that carry over from the previous week’s readings and discussion. These are listed on
the schedule of classes. You should discuss the themes and assignments in your entry, but you may
write about other topics as well. When assignments require a written report, that report should be
appended to your journal for the week.
Your journal should not simply be a report of your activities at your placement (I will get a
summary of your activities on your time sheets), but of your thoughts about any part of your
experiences. You might write an entry about a single conversation with your supervisor, or a single
meeting. Or even a ten-minute event in a meeting.
Journal entries should normally (unless otherwise specified) be turned in by noon on
Saturday of each week. Please be sure you write your name and the date on every journal entry, and
on every other paper you turn in to me. I will return the journal entries during a subsequent class,
usually with comments.
a. The Goals of the Journal Topic (adapted from writings of Professor Sandy Ogilvy,
Catholic University)
Here are some of the purposes served by keeping a journal for this course.
i. Journal keeping can help you to learn from your fieldwork experiences.
Through your journal keeping, you can greatly enhance your learning from your fieldwork
experiences. You increase your understanding of the concepts or skills that you are working with
by committing to paper your observations and your interpretations of your observations. By
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reflecting actively on paper about your experiences, you may understand better what you are doing,
what is happening in your placement, and how you are reacting to your experiences.
ii. Journal keeping can improve written communication skills.
Teachers in many disciplines other than law frequently assign journals to improve written
communication skills. Although the audience for a diary or academic journal is quite different than
the audience for most “legal” writing, writing a journal will help your legal writing skills. Experts
who have studied the writing process agree that the writing product is improved by development of
the writer’s composing processes, which involve exploration, discovery, development, evaluation,
review, and revision—processes that are inherent in thoughtful journals.
The quality of expository and persuasive writing, the two most common modes of legal
writing, depend on the writer’s confidence in her own voice, her ability to express “in her own
words” what she wants to convey to an audience. Writing for others then begins with writing for
self. A journal is a place to write to yourself.
iii. Journal keeping can improve higher order thinking skills.
Law school trains students to “think like lawyers.” This includes a variety of thinking skills
such as applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating. A journal is a natural tool for engaging
in these higher order thinking skills. The articulation of ideas, orally or in writing, leads the speaker
or writer to think about what to say or write. The act of speaking or writing requires more thought
than just “thinking.” Likewise, most people find that writing involves more careful or deeper
thought than does speaking—the writer sees the idea on paper and often has the opportunity while
writing to reflect and revise more than in conversation. This is one way to increase your learning
from your placement experience. Also the habits of observation and reflection may be useful in
other contexts.
iv. Journal keeping can assist in relieving stress.
Legal education produces a great deal of stress. Some of it is healthy stress, which is
essential for learning, but some of it is unhealthy stress, which inhibits learning. A journal provides
an outlet for some stresses. The writer can describe the stressors, “letting off steam,” talking to
someone who will listen.
v. Journal keeping enhances your becoming a “reflective practitioner.”
Psychologist Donald Schon has argued that the difference between a professional who is a
mere technician and one who is a creative practitioner of her craft is the capacity for and willingness
to engage in both “reflection on action” and “reflection in action.” If Schon is right, it is essential
that each law student improve her capacity for reflexive thought. It is important to develop the
habit of stepping back from the product or process of learning to reflect on your learning strategies,
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your goals, your progress, and yourself. A journal is a place for stepping back.
In The Journal Book, Toby Fulwiler lists a few modes of reflection that will frequently be
found in good journals:
* Observations: writers see something of interest and attempt to capture it in language [read
in order to interpret].
* Questions: writers use journals to formulate and record questions:
academic queries, questions of fact, administration, and theory.
personal doubts,
* Speculation: writers wonder aloud, on paper, about the meaning of events, issues, facts,
readings, patterns, interpretations, problems, and solutions The journal is the place to try out
without fear of penalty.
* Self-awareness: writers becoming conscious of who they are, what they stand for, how and
why they differ from others.
* Digression: writers departing as they write from what they intend to say, sometimes to think
of personal matters sometimes to connect apparently disparate pieces of thought.
* Synthesis: writers putting together ideas, finding relationships, connecting one course or
topic with another [connecting a series of cases or statutes or materials, or some combination of
each].
* Revision: writers looking back at prior entries, realizing they have changed their minds, and
using the journal to update and record their later thoughts.
* Information: does the journal contain evidence that reading has been done, lectures listened
to, facts and theories understood? Journals that read like class notebooks will be dull, but
journals should give evidence that attention is being paid to course materials.
b. Frequency of entries
A good journal also contains frequent entries; the more often a journal is written in, the
greater the chance to catch one’s thoughts. The more writing one does at a single sitting, the greater
the chance of developing a thought or of finding a new one. Short entries tend to be superficial.
A good journal has a systematic and chronological appearance. Even if you do not write
every day, your entries should be recorded in chronological order, with the date and time of entry
clearly indicated.
c. How should you write?
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The point of the journal is to think on paper. To the extent you can, you should use correct
spelling, punctuation and grammar, but you should not interrupt your writing to edit. You should
use language that feels natural and that expresses your personal voice and style. Do not try to write
formally. Allow your writing to assume a conversational form—as if you were thinking aloud.
d. What should you write about?
As suggested above in the lists of purposes and modes of reflection, a journal is a place to
write about everything related to this course, administrative law, regulation, your agency’s (or your
office’s or supervisor’s) particular (or peculiar) attributes—from your vantage point as a temporary
insider. How is your thinking evolving on the possibility of government as a place to begin your
legal career? Feel free to use the journal to write about anything else you are interested in thinking
about.
e. Privacy.
As distinguished from a diary, which is usually written with the understanding that no one
but the author will read it, the academic journal must necessarily be read by at least one other
person, the instructor. Your academic journal will be a private dialogue between you and me. I will
keep your journal entries as confidential unless I have received explicit permission for an entry to
be circulated.
f. Sharing Journal Entries
Sharing journal entries with other students can promote collaborative learning. It can help to
build a sense of a learning community. It helps by modeling entries from which others can learn. It
promotes dialogue and discussion. If you write a journal entry that you would like to circulate to
the class, please write “may be circulated” (or even “please circulate”) at the top before you turn it
in. If I want to circulate an entry and you have not preauthorized it, I will ask your permission prior
to circulation.
7. Supervisor and Student Evaluations
By the end of the semester your supervisor must send me a letter certifying that you have
completed your hours and evaluating your work at the placement. You are responsible for seeing
that this letter gets in on time. You will be provided with a copy of the letter.
Also by the end of the semester you must fill out evaluation forms on your fieldwork and on
the seminar, which will be distributed.
8. Hours
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You get one ungraded credit for the first 140 hours of fieldwork, two credits of fieldwork for
210 hours, and three credits of fieldwork for 280 hours. You may schedule your time in any way
that works for you and your supervisor. You may complete your hours before classes end if your
supervisor agrees.
Once you are ready to begin work at your placement, you should sit down with a calendar
and count the number of weeks remaining in the semester, taking account of holidays, and then
calculate the number of hours per week that you need to work for your placement to meet your
target number of hours. If you plan to finish your work at your placement a week or two before
classes end, and your supervisor agrees to that plan, calculate accordingly.
You must keep a contemporaneous record of your hours, showing dates, times, work done
during each time period, and the location of work done elsewhere than at the organization. This
record should be kept on a form I will provide and submitted to me at appropriate intervals.
What can you count toward your required hours?
You may count:
-- any time spent working on assignments for your placement, whether the work is done at
the office or elsewhere;
-- time spent at your placement talking with lawyers or other employees about work or
workplace issues;
-- any time spent doing field observation when you have time to do fieldwork but your
supervisor is unavailable or has no work to delegate to you (see below).
-- reasonable time doing research assignments for the seminar (but your supervisor should
be generally aware of this activity).
You may not include in your hours:
-- transportation time to and from your placement;
-- time spent in the seminar, or preparing for the seminar;
-- time spent at your placement doing schoolwork for other courses.
9. Work Assignments at Placement
The work you do at your placement should be structured primarily for your educational
benefit. Your assignments should include types of work being done by lawyers or other
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professional staff at the placement.
When one begins a new job as a law clerk (as distinguished from an extern), it is appropriate
to show up for work and ask “What would you like me to do?” On the other hand, when you begin
an externship, your objective on your first day of work should be to determine what the institution
has to offer you by way of experience. In the process of obtaining that experience you will
undoubtedly provide some valuable service. The more actively you seek a good educational
experience, the more you will get from the fieldwork. At the outset, you should have a discussion
with your supervisor about what will be the primary work of the institution during the coming
months and what might be your role in it. In addition, I will send a letter to each of your
supervisors advising them of their responsibilities.
A semester spent in the library is not much of a change from the rest of law school. You
should seek to become involved in the interactive aspects of the institution where you work. Ask to
go to meetings, to hearings, to sit in on important phone calls. Arrange your schedule to make those
types of events a priority—you will learn the most from live experience. Don’t worry about
whether you are producing something of value to the placement during all of your hours there. If
you are sitting in on a deposition, you might not be “doing” anything for them. You should not be
concerned about this, because the primary purpose of the fieldwork is to offer educational
opportunities to you, not to provide free labor to your placement.
You may not get credit for hours spent doing administrative work, except to the extent that
such work is necessary to complete your own assignments. A good rule of thumb is that if other
lawyers in the office engage in administrative or clerical work on occasion, then it’s acceptable. If
they don’t, then neither should you. If your supervisor goes beyond that and asks you to answer
phones or do typing, filing or copying, you should simply explain that you are doing the externship
for academic credit, and that the school does not allow you to take on such assignments.
10. Field Observation
If there are days when your supervisor is out of town, and you are in the office but have no
specific assignment to work on, try to be creative about using that time. Find yourself an interesting
field experience. If there is nothing happening in the office, go visit one of the courthouses. Go
watch an agency or legislative hearing. Visit the U.S. Supreme Court. Seek unfamiliar experiences.
Every day the Washington Post publishes a list of cases being argued in the Supreme Court and of
activities in Congress. If you haven’t spent much time in the DC federal court building at 3 rd Street
and Constitution Avenue, go wander around. Observers are welcome at most public legal
proceedings. You may count any field observation time toward the hours required to receive credit
for the course. Of course, this activity must be reported in your journal in some detail.
11. Supervision and Feedback
Whether you get good supervision and useful feedback on your work is determined by
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whom you have chosen as a supervisor, and by how much supervision and feedback you ask for.
Your goal should be to develop a relationship with your supervisor that allows the two of you to
communicate freely about the work.
You should try to schedule a regular weekly meeting with your supervisor. This will
provide you with some time each week that belongs to you, when you can ask questions about work
that you have been doing, or about other things going on in the office. A regular meeting will allow
you to organize your questions, and will provide a structure within which to go over work product
or discuss other aspects of the work.
Around the time of class 8 (March 3), you should schedule a mid-semester evaluation
meeting with your supervisor. At this meeting you should ask your supervisor for feedback on
your own work, and you should talk with him or her about aspects of the experience that have or
have not been satisfying. This is an ideal time to identify types of experience that you had hoped to
have that you have not yet had, and to ask whether you will be able to (go to a hearing/interview
some clients/write a brief) or whatever.
At the end of the term, you should schedule an exit interview with your supervisor.
This meeting, like the mid-semester meeting, is an opportunity for mutual feedback. If you are
interested in constructive criticism of your work, make sure that your supervisor knows that.
12. Problems
Most people enjoy the fieldwork and find it interesting. Occasionally, students encounter
problems at their placements, such as inadequate supervision, inappropriate assignments,
inappropriate behavior by a supervisor or a co-worker, etc. If you should encounter a problem in
your fieldwork—even boredom—please come talk with me about it. Don’t let it build up for
several weeks. In most cases the discussion revolves around how to improve the quality of the
experience. In a few instances, students have changed placements part way through the semester.
13. Out-of Class Meetings
One of the requirements for all externship programs at WCL is that class members meet
individually or in small groups with the Professor for about 7 hours during the semester. The
purpose of these meetings is to allow informal, frank discussions of the issues that have arisen in
your placements. During the first two weeks I will attempt to schedule individual 50-minute
meetings with each student. Bi-weekly small group meetings will start the week of January 21. A
sign-up sheet will be available during the first or second class to schedule these meetings.
14. End of Semester Check-out
At the end of the semester you should fill out the attached “Course Requirements Form”
(you can photocopy it out of these materials) and submit it to me with the last papers that you turn
11
in. You should not turn in the form until you have completed all of the items on the list. It offers
you an easy way to check whether you have completed the course requirements.
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SUPERVISED EXTERNSHIP SEMINAR – SPRING 2008 - PROF. LUBBERS
COURSE REQUIREMENTS FORM
At the end of the semester you should submit this sheet to Professor Lubbers as a cover
sheet with the course evaluation forms and other last submissions. This will allow you to check
whether you have satisfied the course requirements. Do not turn in the form until all requirements
are completed. If your performance varies from the listed requirements, note the variance on the
form and submit an explanatory memo if appropriate.
_____ 1. I have submitted time sheets every week showing that I have worked the required number
of hours, and describing the work I did during those hours. (140 for 1 credit, 210 for 2 credits, 280
for 3 credits).
_____ 2. I attended all or nearly all the meetings of the seminar and led my assigned class
discussions.
_____ 3. I attended all or nearly all of the individual or small-group out-of-class meetings.
_____ 4. I completed a goals memo at the beginning of the semester, and submitted journal entries
and research reports each week. The journal entries averaged at least three double-spaced pages per
week.
_____ 5. I have completed a mid-semester evaluation meeting with my placement supervisor and
an end-of-term exit interview.
______ 6. I am submitting a completed course evaluation form with this form.
______ 7. I have verified that my supervisor has sent a letter to Professor Lubbers evaluating my
work and certifying my satisfactory completion of the required hours.
_____________________________
Signature of Student
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SUPERVISED EXTERNSHIP SEMINAR:
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Professor Jeffrey Lubbers
SCHEDULE OF CLASSES AND ASSIGNMENTS
Spring 2008
Class will meet Mondays from 4:00 p.m. to 5:50 p.m.
Co-Requisite: All students enrolled in this course must also obtain academic credit for an
externship at a federal (executive branch) agency (or related externship with permission).
Students need not have found a placement prior to enrollment. The seminar is three credits;
one to three additional credits may be obtained for the fieldwork, depending on the number
of hours worked.
For most weeks there is listed below a research assignment, a journal submission and a
reading assignment. You should undertake the research assignment for each week before
you write your journal entry, since in most cases the result of the research assignment is to
be appended to the journal entry for the week. The reading assignment is prospective—to
help prepare for the next class’ discussion topic.
Journal entries and appended research reports should normally be turned in by noon on the
Saturday (unless otherwise specified) before each week’s class. Please date each entry using
the due dates listed on this schedule. They should be deposited under the door of my office,
Room 515B or submitted by e-mail <JSL26@aol.com>. I will read them before class on
Monday; important aspects of the class discussion will be directed by the content of the
research reports and journals.
Two of my publications will be placed on reserve in the library as references and
background readings: (1) Federal Administrative Procedure Sourcebook (3rd ed.) (ABA
2000) (contains text and commentary on all major procedural laws), (2) A Guide to Federal
Agency Rulemaking (3d. ed.) (ABA, 2006). Additional Xeroxed materials must be
purchased. Students are also expected to be familiar with the materials and links available
on the ABA/FSU Administrative Law Database: [http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/admin/].
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CLASSES
CLASS 1: JANUARY 7, 2008: Introduction to the Course & Overview of Federal
Executive Branch—Structures and Missions
Class Discussion
First hour: After we all introduce ourselves, I will go over the course requirements.
Please read the Introduction to the Course, and the Schedule of Classes and Assignments.
Please read these items with particular care—they offer instructions and information about
course requirements. We will also discuss setting learning goals for the fieldwork
experience, and for communicating with supervisors about goals and supervision. Finally,
we will discuss placement selection and obligations of confidentiality to placement
organizations.
Second hour: As time permits, I will present an overview of the Federal Executive
Branch—structures and missions. This will assist you in undertaking the first week’s
research assignment.
Research Assignment: Identify and describe the unique or special attributes of your
agency’s history, mission, structure, and independence (or lack thereof). Please also
familiarize yourself with your agency or department’s internet home page. As a starting
point, see the links available on the Library of Congress website:
[http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/fedgov.html].
Journal Topic (due by noon January 12): [Before you write your first journal entry, be
sure to review part 6 of Introduction to the Course. The following suggested topic (like all
those that follow) is not intended to be exclusive—you may address the suggested topic,
but also be as expansive as you desire.] Discuss your perception of your strengths and
weaknesses as a soon-to-be-lawyer, what you do well or poorly, how you feel about your
own performance. After you have considered your educational needs, think about what your
placement offers by way of opportunity to work on “filling gaps” in your skills. Begin
thinking about your “goals memo,” identifying your educational objectives for the
semester. (See part 4 of Introduction to the Course). Consider why each is important to you
and how you expect to work on it. After you receive my comments on this entry, you
should rewrite it, put it in the form of a memorandum, and discuss it with your supervisor.
Reading Assignment: Tabs 1 and 2
CLASS 2: JANUARY 14, 2008: The Appointments Process
Class Discussion
First hour: Discussion of previous week’s research assignments
Second hour: Above topic (The appointments process).
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Research Assignment: Find out where the nomination/confirmation process stands for all
the officials in your agency who must be appointed by the President and confirmed by the
Senate. Where there are vacancies, find out who is serving in an acting capacity. Find and
read the transcript of a confirmation hearing for one of these officials. Summarize the main
issues addressed in the hearing?
Journal Topic (due by noon January 19): Attach your draft goals memo. Discuss your
observations about and reactions to your work in selecting a placement. Explain how you
identified the organization and the contact person. Describe your interviews at any of the
agencies you considered, and your reactions to the experience. What were your first
impressions of the organization(s) and the people? If you looked at more than one
organization, explain how you made your selection. What are you early impressions of the
agency you selected?
Reading Assignment: Tab 3
[Note: There is no class on January 21 due to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day]
CLASS 3: JANUARY 28, 2008: The Budget and Appropriations Process
Class Discussion
First hour: Discussion of previous week’s research assignments
Second hour: Above topic (the budget and appropriations process).
Research Assignment: Find out what your agency’s FY 2008 budget is (if possible find
your overall agency’s and your own component’s). Try to compare that figure to last year’s
and previous years (e.g., FY 2003 and 1998). See if you can also find out what the staffing
levels are for your overall agency and your own component, and how they have changed
over the same time periods. Find out which office in the agency works on budget matters
and, if possible, call or meet with someone in that office to discuss and document these
issues.
For further information on the U.S. Government’s budget and appropriations process, see
the links at http://www.thecapitol.net/Research/federalbudget.htm.
Journal Topic (due by noon February 2): Discuss your observations about the budget and
appropriations process. Is it serving our country well? Do you have any ideas for
improving it? What about the effect on your agency? Have your agency’s resources
increased or decreased in recent years (using “constant dollars”)?
Final Goals memo also due February 2. By this date you should have submitted a draft of
the memo, rewritten it after receiving comments from me, and discussed it with your
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supervisor. The final memo you hand in should include your supervisor’s comments on
your goals for the semester. These may be written by your supervisor, or may be your notes
on your supervisor’s oral comments.
Reading Assignment: Tab 4.
CLASS 4: FEBRUARY 4, 2008: Government ethics rules
Class Discussion
First hour: Discussion of previous week’s research assignments
Second hour: Above topic (Government ethics rules).
Research Assignment: Consult your agency’s ethics rules, ascertain what special rules
apply to lawyers in your office—(e.g., rules against owning certain types of stocks, rules
governing pro bono activities, etc.). Find out who serves as your agency’s Designated
Ethics Officer (DAEO), and if possible call or meet with him/her.
Journal Topic (due by noon February 9): Discuss your observations about the
appointment and confirmation process. Should politics play a role in this process? How
about ideology? What if the President appoints someone who has appropriate credentials in
the field, but has what you perceive to be extreme views on the policies developed and
enforced by the agency he/she is appointed to head. If you worked for a Senator would you
advise confirming the person anyway since it is the President’s choice? Shouldn’t your
answer be the same whether the President is named Bush or Clinton.
Reading Assignment: Tab 5; also review pp. 3-46 of Rulemaking Guide (optional).
CLASS 5: FEBRUARY 11, 2008:
Exemptions
Agency Rulemaking—Procedures and
Class Discussion
First hour: Discussion of previous week’s research assignments
Second hour: Above topic (agency rulemaking—procedures and exemptions)
Research Assignment: Find out what your agency’s actual rulemaking process is. Describe
the organizational and procedural steps involved, from beginning to end, in developing and
issuing a significant rule in your agency. You may use a schematic diagram if you wish.
Journal Topic (due by noon February 16): Describe your feelings about the mission
(regulatory or otherwise) of your agency. Is there a political component to your view? Has
your view changed in any way? This may be a recurring topic in your journal.
Reading Assignment: Tab 5
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CLASS 6: FEBRUARY 18, 2008: Presidential Oversight of Rulemaking
Class Discussion
First hour: Discussion of previous week’s research assignments (*) (denotes
student-led discussion)
Second hour: Above topic (Presidential oversight of rulemaking)
Research Assignment: After consulting the most recent Unified Agenda of Federal
Regulations (which is online at http://www.reginfo.gov/public/), select a significant pending
rule of your agency’s that is currently or was recently under review by OMB/OIRA. Using
www.regulations.gov, locate the docket (“rulemaking record”) for that rule, and summarize
the most important issues raised by the proposal.
Journal Topic (due by noon February 23): Discuss the office atmosphere. Is it conducive
to work? Observe your colleagues (both professional and support staff). Do they measure
up to what you expected. Are there good role models among the lawyers?
Reading Assignment: Tab 7 and APA adjudication provisions.
CLASS 7: FEBRUARY 25, 2008: Agency Adjudication; Right to a Hearing, But
What Kind of Hearing?
Class Discussion
First hour: Discussion of previous week’s research assignments (*)
Second hour: Above topic (agency adjudication; right to a hearing, but what kind of
hearing?)
Research Assignment: Make a list of the statutes administered by your agency that may
give rise to agency adjudicative hearings. Annotate the list to show whether or not they are
ALJ hearings. Attend a hearing in an agency proceeding—preferably in your agency. (If
none are scheduled I will help you locate one in another agency.)
 Journal Topic (due by noon March 1): What do you think about the current push
for “regulatory reform”? What parts do you like and dislike and why? Has your
externship influenced this view?
Reading Assignment: Tab 8
CLASS 8: MARCH 3, 2008:
Adjudicators
Administrative Law Judges and “Non-ALJ”
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Class Discussion
First hour: Discussion of previous week’s research assignments (*)
Second hour: Above topic (Administrative Law Judges and “Non-ALJ”
Adjudicators)
Research Assignment: Make an appointment and meet with an ALJ (or other adjudicator)
in your agency. Report on his/her views—of his/her responsibilities and on the importance
of his/her role in the agency. Ask about whether ALJs might be better off employed by a
“central panel” outside the agency.
Journal Topic (due by noon March 8): Provide your reflections on the hearing you
attended. Did it seem like “a real trial”? Was the atmosphere forbidding or congenial?
Could you see yourself in the role of the government attorney (or the private attorney)?
Reading Assignment: Tab 9
[SPRING BREAK]
CLASS 9: MARCH 17, 2008: Enforcement—Civil Penalty Procedures
Class Discussion
First hour: Discussion of previous week’ research assignments (*)
Second hour: Above topic (enforcement—civil penalty procedures)
Research Assignment: Describe your agency’ enforcement procedures. Assess whether
they are adequate.
 Journal Topic (due by noon March 20): Provide your “review” of the meeting with
the ALJ. Did he/she impress you? Why or why not? What do you think of the ALJ
Corps proposal? Is it a good idea because the judges need more independence or just
an attempt by ALJs to enhance their status?
Reading Assignment: Tab 10 and Sections 701-706 of the APA; also review pp. 405-468,
of Rulemaking Guide (optional).
CLASS 10: MARCH 24, 2008:
Court, and Scope of Review
Judicial Review—Reviewability, Appropriate
Class Discussion
First hour: Discussion of previous week’s research assignments
Second hour: Above topic (judicial review—reviewability, appropriate court, and
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scope of review)
Research Assignment: Find a recent reported appeal of an action of your agency’s where
the agency lost (at least partially). Explain the reason for that result. Ascertain the views of
OGC lawyers on that decision and its eventual practical outcome. I will also try to find a
scheduled D.C. Circuit argument in an agency case for you to attend.
Journal Topic (due by noon March 29): Has your agency become embroiled in
controversy about its enforcement efforts? What flexibility does your agency have in this
regard?
Reading Assignment: Tab 11
CLASS 11: MARCH 31, 2008: Agency Use of ADR and Negotiated Rulemaking
Class Discussion
First hour: Discussion of previous week’s research assignments (*)
Second hour: Above topic (with video) (agency use of ADR and negotiated
rulemaking)
Research Assignment: Make an appointment and meet with the agency’s designated
Dispute Resolution Specialist. Report on his/her views—of his/her responsibilities and on
the importance of his/her role in the agency.
Journal Topic (due by noon April 5): Does your agency end up in court often? Do you
think courts should be relatively deferential to agency decisionmaking or closer to de novo
in their review? Why? Does it matter that neither judges nor agency heads are elected? Do
you believe that the notion of “expert” agencies is valid?
Reading Assignment: Tab 12, also review the text of the FOIA.
CLASS 12: APRIL 7, 2008: FOIA and Other Openness Statutes
Class Discussion
First hour: Discussion of previous week’s research assignments (*)
Second hour: Above topic (FOIA and other openness statutes)
Research Assignment: Meet with an official in your agency who is responsible for
handling FOIA requests. Report on the most frequent types of requests, the most frequently
invoked exemptions, and the most difficult problems faced by that office.
Reading Assignment: Tab 13
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Journal Topic (due by noon April 12): Do you think ADR (including reg-neg) is taken as
seriously as it should be in your agency? Reflect on your meeting with the agency Dispute
Resolution Specialist. What did you think of the video shown in class? Are you interested
in possibly becoming an ADR practitioner?
CLASS 13: APRIL 14, 2008: Role of Offices of General Counsel and the
Department of Justice
Class Discussion
First hour: Discussion of previous week’s research assignments (*)
Second hour: Above topic (role of offices of general counsel and the DOJ)
Research Assignment: None—concentrate on Journal
Journal Topic (due by noon April 19): As you obtain your letter of evaluation from your
supervisor, take the opportunity to discuss his/her career path. Ask him or her: “If you had
it to all over again, what might have you done differently and why?” Also, talk with your
supervisor about professional satisfaction issues. Ask him or her to compare different jobs
that he/she has had in terms of the level of satisfaction experienced and the reasons for the
satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Record the comments that most impressed you in the journal,
and then write about your own reactions. How do the comments affect your view of what
you would like to do during your career? In addition to your reflection on your supervisor’s
comments, this week you should do some thinking about your externship experience. What
have you learned? What skills have improved? To what extent were your expectations met,
exceeded, disappointed? What surprised you most about the experience?
Consider how, if at all, your thinking about your career plans have been affected by your
work at your placement this semester. How useful is the externship in assessing whether
you would want to work as an attorney in an organization like the one where you worked
this semester? What if any new goals have you developed this semester?
Reading Assignment: None—concentrate on Journal
Note also that you are responsible for obtaining a letter of evaluation from your supervisor
before the end of classes, December 6.
CLASS 14: APRIL 21, 2008: Evaluating Your Fieldwork Experience
Class Discussion: Above topic, based on journal entries
Closeout: By April 25, you should have submitted the closeout form and completed all of
the work described on it. Also, all hours should be completed by the last day of the semester.