IMPORTANT: In order to receive notices and updates about any of the following, sign up for the pre-law email list.
Catholic University’s pre-law advising program offers several different opportunities for pre-law students to meet and talk with current law students and practicing lawyers over the course of the academic year.
PLEASE NOTE: Some of this (such as shadowing and on-campus events) are currently (Fall 2025) under development; updates will go out as soon as they are in place.
Many of these involve Catholic University’s “pre-law alumni”: people who did their undergraduate degrees here, and went on to law school (here or elsewhere), and now work in a wide range of legal sectors. Events and interactions with them include:
- On-campus career panels and networking events.
- Opportunities to sit in on a law class and interact with current law students, in cooperation with Catholic University's law school.
- Opportunities for individual mentoring.
- Opportunities to “shadow” lawyers: that is, to visit their places of work and follow them through an afternoon of their professional lives.
More information about these opportunities will circulate via the pre-law email list.
A side note: it’s an unfortunate but well established fact that the great majority of law firms and other workplaces (including for instance government offices such as district attorneys’) do not afford the opportunity for regular internships to undergraduates, partly because of confidentiality issues and partly because they can and prefer to meet their intern needs with current law students. If you are passionate about an ordinary internship related to law you can consider applying to intern for members of Congress or lobbying organizations. Occasionally in the recent past, Catholic University pre-law students have found internships at the U.S. Department of Justice and it’s worth checking there, though opportunities depend upon budgeting and other variables typical of federal programs.
Opportunities in cooperation with the Columbus School of Law
Every year, several Catholic University students receive their baccalaureate degrees and then go on to the Columbus School of Law ("Catholic Law" for short, Catholic University's own law school) to begin study for their J.D. degrees. We call these students "Double Cardinals". And most Double Cardinals sign up to volunteer to connect with Catholic University undergraduates who are interested in talking about law school and/or Catholic Law. Catholic Law also offers any undergraduate interested in law school the opportunity to sit in on a first-year law class and/or to take a tour of the law school building. Anyone interested in any of these options should contact the pre-law advisor.
Shadowing
[See above; this program is currently under development and not yet operational, but watch for updates.] “Shadowing” is our term for a different means of giving students experience of the legal workplace: it means arranging for a student to spend an afternoon each with a series of working lawyers, to see what an attorney’s day is like and what attorneys actually do.
Also, Catholic University’s pre-law advising program partners with the Columbus School of Law (CUA’s own law school) for a number of kinds of engagements.
- Pre-law students can sign up to sit in on one or more classes at our law school (information about this will circulate via the pre-law email list; the URL for sign-up for this changes from semester to semester).
- We are in the process of setting up a pairing/mentorship program, by which pre-law undergraduate students can be matched with current Columbus School of Law students (who were also CUA undergraduates: we call these “Double Cardinals”) to sit in on classes and generally follow to get a sense of the life of a law school student. Again, information about this will circulate via the pre-law email list.