Indiana Law Student Admission

Rule 2.1 of the Indiana Rules of Court allows law students and law school graduates to practice law in Indiana on a limited basis.

Eligibility
Law students must:

  • Have satisfactorily completed one-half of the academic requirements for a first professional law degree.
  • Have completed or are enrolled in a legal ethics or professional responsibility (2 cumulative semester hours).
  • Received permission from the law school Dean to participate in a legal intern program determined to be beneficial to the law student’s training.

Law school graduates must:

  • Be eligible to take the bar exam.
  • Have received permission from an attorney who is a member of the Indiana Bar to serve as a legal intern under the attorney’s direct supervision.

Practice
Legal interns may interview, advise, negotiate for, and represent parties in any judicial or administrative proceeding in Indiana. All activities must be supervised and approved by an attorney who is a member of the Indiana Bar. Legal interns must also inform each client of his or her status and that the intern is not a licensed attorney.

Legal interns cannot interview any person represented by an attorney without the express permission of such attorney. Clients, including private corporations, cannot be charged for the services of a legal intern acting in a representative capacity. The supervising attorney must be personally present in any proceeding in open court.

Application and Certification
The law school Dean sponsoring the legal intern program is required to advise the Indiana Board of Law Examiners regarding the qualifying students and the length of the internship.

Indiana Bar attorneys who wish to sponsor and supervise a graduate as a legal intern must advise the Indiana Board of Law Examiners. The law school Dean where the graduate received the first professional law degree has to advise the Indiana Board of Law Examiners of the date of graduation and the date when the graduate will be first eligible for the bar exam.

The Application Forms include:

  • Student Legal Intern Agreement
  • Supervising Attorney and Dean Signature
  • General Information Sheet
  • Graduate Legal Intern Agreement
  • Supervising Attorney

Termination
Law students may serve as legal interns until graduation from school or for a shorter period if designated by the law school Dean.

Law school graduates may serve as legal interns from the date of graduation until the individual has taken and been notified of the results of the first bar exam for which the graduate is eligible.   If the individual passes the bar exam, the graduate is eligible until the first opportunity for formal admission to the Indiana Bar.