The University of Houston Law Center (UHLC) Career Development Office (CDO) now offers the Apprentice Program, an initiative designed to meet the needs of busy small law firms and provide upper-level law students additional experience with real-world legal work. By participating in the Apprentice Program, your firm can hire a law clerk at a reduced cost while providing meaningful, real-world experience to a law student.
Eligibility: The Apprentice Program is open to firms with four or fewer attorneys. Firms should be willing to give their apprentice hands-on legal experience and mentoring. Firms can participate in the program for no more than two consecutive semesters at a time (e.g., if your firm participates in the summer and fall programs, your firm is not eligible for the following spring program, but is eligible to register to participate again in the next summer program). In order to remain eligible during the consectutive semesters, firms must reapply by posting a job in our online Job Bank during the application period.
Compensation: The hourly wage for students in the program is $16 per hour, split evenly between the firm and UHLC. Once you hire a student through the Apprentice Program and submit an initial invoice, UHLC will advance their half of the hourly wages for a four-week period, so your firm can pay the student every two weeks. After that initial compensation, your firm must submit an invoice (just like billing a client) to the CDO every other week to receive reimbursement.
Registration:
To learn more about the Apprentice Program or to inquire about participating, please contact Kecia Branch in the CDO.