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Friday, 14 February 2025
Each year the School of Law offers one student the opportunity to take part in an externship programme in the Los Angeles County Superior Court externship and the 9th Circuit Federal Court, supported by the Irish American Bar Association. Benjamin Taffe was the successful candidate in 2024 and you can hear about his experience below!
I am proud to say that last Summer I took part in the annual externship to Los Angeles. This programme is a one-of-a-kind opportunity afforded to one student from UL, UCD, UCC, NUIG, Trinity College and Queens University each year. Organised by the Irish American Bar association of Los Angeles (IABA), participants are given a place in both the Los Angeles County Superior Court externship and the 9th Circuit Federal Court externship programs. This gives a unique insight into, and understanding of, the largest common law court system in the world.
In Federal Court I was so fortunate to serve for four weeks under the Honourable Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald and a further four weeks with the Honourable Phillip S. Gutierrez. Here I learnt enormous amounts from my clerks and fellow externs. Our work consisted of serving memos and drafting orders for the judge’s clerks, with this came a lot of responsibility, but it honed my legal writing skills. We regularly got the chance to witness fascinating hearings and trials ranging from multi-billion-dollar anti-trust cases to murder trials, which we would in turn discuss with our judges.
In state court all six of us Irish had the privilege of externing under the Honourable Judge Mary-Ann Murphy, former president of the IABA. There we were given a curated introduction to life in State court, meeting with many judges from varied and diverse backgrounds each with a different, personalised outlook on the law. State court really does it all and Judge Murphy made sure we got to see a little bit of everything, this included a trip to children's court, the criminal courthouse and the high security floor in Stanley Mosk courthouse. This personally helped in giving me direction for my own career as I got to see how each area of law differed in practice.
Outside of the externship the IABA arranged for us to go to some incredible legal events including a talk by Erwin Chemerinsky (Dean of Berkley Law) on constitutional originalism at the Jonathon Club, countless bar association socials and even getting us seats to a 9th Circuit Supreme Court oral arguments hearing.
However, it wasn’t all work and no play, in our free time we had ample opportunity to travel around the city and further afield. We almost did too much to recount, but highlights for me were our frequent surfing trips to Santa Monica, KBBQ in Koreatown, the many live music events we attended and our adventures in San Francisco.
I would highly recommend applying to anyone considering this program, it’s truly an opportunity that will only come around once. You will make new friends both here in Ireland and abroad, growing your network. You will gain an understanding of the law as it is practiced, and the skills required to excel in the legal profession. And very importantly, you will have great fun while doing it!
Pictured from left to right: Síomha Ní hAinféin, Staci Momii, Ethan Duffy, Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald, Benedict Taaffe, Taylor Montgomery, Hannah Cannon and Ámhra Carey.