Fielding a Transformative Experience
Thriving Field Placement Program broadens meaningful opportunities for students
Chung started listening to the news program “Up First” on National Public Radio (NPR) in high school, researched the effects of social media misinformation and disinformation, and went to law school “specifically to be involved in the decision-making of news media and social media companies amid the always-changing dynamics of technology and politics.”
Last semester, thanks to the Field Placement Program, she was a general counsel extern at NPR and worked on business contracts, reviewed digital content before publication, researched and wrote memos on artificial intelligence and intellectual property, scoured articles for potential defamation, and assessed constitutional protections for journalists.
“The work clicked with my desire to advance a digital media world that centers free, creative, and safe expression,” Chung says.
The Field Placement Program had 102 students last semester. In addition to vital hands-on experience, they gain academic credit through legal work at a nonprofit or government agency that is directly supervised by an attorney.
Placements extend around the world in civil, environmental, and criminal law, judicial externships, and more. They include the UCDC Law Program in Washington, D.C., which combines a weekly seminar with a full-time placement, and varied international law options such as the INHR: Geneva Program, where students support countries before the Human Rights Council.
Field Placement Program Director Sue Schechter, who joined UC Berkeley Law in 2006, is a national leader in experiential legal education and recently won the Association of American Law Schools Clinical Section’s inaugural Impact on the Externship Field Award (see page 4).
“One thing that I can tell is how much she loves her students and cares about their success,” says Bay Area Legal Aid Supervising Attorney Jessica Mark, who has worked with Schechter for several years.
Chung’s field placement reinforced her career ambition — and instilled greater confidence in producing high-quality work on unfamiliar topics.
“I’ve found that in-house lawyering requires proactive preparation for the changing frontiers of the law while also maintaining daily operations,” she says. “Contracts need to be written and pieces need to be published, but also AI policy needs to be created and regulatory issues need to be tracked closely.”
Pursuing a career working in areas that affect digital media and online ecosystems, Chung used her field placement as a springboard to summer work in Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s Internet Strategy and Litigation practice group.
“In hindsight now, everything seems linked together,” Chung says, noting how her field placement showed she doesn’t have to limit herself to being only a tech lawyer or media lawyer. “I can just be me, and that can take me so far.”