UGA School of Law debuts semester in Washington program; hires instructor

Abstract

Monday, August 29, 2011

Writer/Contact: Cindy H. Rice, 706/542-5172, cindyh@uga.edu

Athens, Ga. - The University of Georgia School of Law will launch a new program this spring that will allow approximately 15 students to live and work in Washington, D.C., for a semester while earning course credit.

"The Washington, D.C., Semester in Practice program is an exciting new opportunity for our students to have a full time clinical experience while in law school," said Georgia Law Dean Rebecca Hanner White. "Importantly, they will gain that clinical experience in our nation's capitol, providing our students with a distinctive legal experience they could gain nowhere else."

Participants in the program will have the opportunity to live in housing maintained by UGA in the Washington, D.C., area while working 35 hours per week at legal positions with federal-level governmental agencies and the D.C. headquarters of major national organizations, among other placements.

In addition to their externship hours, students will complete a non-clinical course taught by a professor from a Washington, D.C., law school and a clinic seminar class, earning a total of 13 credits for the semester.

Jessica Heywood, a 1997 graduate of Georgia Law, will be responsible for recruiting and maintaining ongoing contact with externship sites, teaching the clinic seminar class, and serving as a supervisor and mentor to students participating in the program.

Heywood has lived and worked in Washington, D.C., for the past nine years. She moved to the area in 2002 and worked as an associate at Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi before joining The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, where she served as director of the Office of Career & Professional Development, as an instructor for the school's legal externship program and, most recently, as director of employer outreach.

Previously, Heywood served as a judicial clerk for Judge G. Ernest Tidwell of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia and worked in private practice for a law firm in Atlanta, Ga., and in Palo Alto, Calif. She earned her undergraduate degree with honors from Emory University before earning her law degree with honors from UGA, where she served as a member of the Georgia Law Review.

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