Law students begin new internship in Solicitor's Office

A new internship program for rising third-year law students considering a career in criminal prosecution began Monday in the 14th Judicial Circuit Solicitor's Office, with three students as its first participants.

Brian Hollen, a student at the University of South Carolina School of Law, said prosecuting criminals is the best way he can think of to help others.

Until this year, however, Hollen said he couldn't find opportunities to get hands-on experience in the field before he graduated.

A new internship program for rising third-year law students considering a career in criminal prosecution began Monday in the 14th Judicial Circuit Solicitor's Office. Three students were selected from a pool of five applicants.

Solicitor Duffie Stone said it's the first internship of its kind in South Carolina, though it is modeled after similar programs in other states that he learned about while serving as the state's representative to the National District Attorneys Association.

The internship, in partnership with the Charleston School of Law and the USC School of Law, includes classroom training and actual casework. As the three-month program progresses, the interns will be assigned to teams of prosecutors to help prepare cases for trial -- a process that will also involve going to court to assist with the arguments before a judge, Stone said.

Some prosecutors in his office will participate in the same training as the interns, including a program on prosecutorial ethics taught by USC School of Law professor Greg Adams.

Stone said he based the program on the kind of internship he would have wanted when he was in law school. Then as now, there are few chances for budding prosecutors to cut their teeth in the courtroom until they land their first jobs, Stone said.

"It gives these students the opportunity to see if this is really what they want to do," Stone said.

It also allows him the chance to evaluate them as potential employees, he said.

Bill Dunker Jr., an intern also from the USC School of Law, said he is excited about getting "the whole experience" of being a prosecutor.

"There's classes that explain the criminal system, but there are none that are practical in their application," Dunker said. "I haven't found another opportunity like it."

This story was originally published May 28, 2013 at 7:45 PM with the headline "Law students begin new internship in Solicitor's Office."