For almost 20 years, third year law students at the University of British Columbia have had the chance to spend a term as interns in the BC Provincial Court. They observe court, conduct legal research and participate in a weekly reflective seminar, earning academic credit for their work. Now this program, unique in Canada, has been expanded to include students from Thompson Rivers University’s Faculty of Law. 

On January 5, 2026, three TRU students joined seven students from UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law for a week-long orientation program in Vancouver. The UBC students will then be assigned to one or more courthouses in the Lower Mainland and Victoria while the TRU students will move to Kelowna, Kamloops and Prince George for the spring term. 

They’ll receive training from judges on topics including the impact of judicial ethics and independence on their work, the purpose of judgments, criminal law and sentencing, family and child protection law, and civil law. Their work will include legal research, writing memoranda, and observing trials and other court proceedings. They will spend four days a week working with judges and reflect on their experience in a law school seminar on the fifth day. 

Judges’ support essential

Judges’ active support is essential for this partnership between the Court and law schools. They volunteer enthusiastically to participate in different ways. Judge Gregory Rideout has been the Court’s Principal Program Director since the program’s inception. He chairs an Intern Advisory Board composed of five judges and works closely with law school faculty, Dean Daleen Millard at TRU and Lecturer Lisa Martz at UBC, in its administration. 

Other judges serve as mentors at the ten courthouses where interns may be based: Vancouver Criminal, Vancouver Civil, Surrey, Abbotsford, Port Coquitlam, Richmond, Victoria, Kelowna, Kamloops and Prince George. 

Judges who travel regularly to bring the Court to remote communities also mentor a student who accompanies a travelling court team for a week during their internship. During that week, students may observe the collaborative, and often warm, relationship between Indigenous communities and the court team. They also deepen their understanding of the roles of court team members: court clerks, sheriffs, probation officers, lawyers and the judge. They often consider the time they spend in remote communities to be the highlight of their internship, and some have said it influenced their decisions about where and how to practise law. 

Judge Rideout notes that from the outset, the Court and the law school shared a vision of the program as an educational opportunity for students, rather than as a form of work-study project common in other internship programs. “Our innovative Judicial Externship Program provides a unique opportunity for third year law students to spend an entire term providing research services for and learning from judges”, he says. “We have seen how the program can impact students’ views of the legal profession and help to produce reflective and socially conscious professionals who bring both skills and a sense of ethics and professional responsibility to their own legal practice.”

Welcoming TRU students

Discussions over the last year have resulted in a three-way collaboration between the Court, Allard School of Law and TRU Faculty of Law to expand the program to include TRU students. This seemed a natural progression for judges in the Court’s Interior Region, who are already active volunteers at the Kamloops law school. Their contributions include teaching courses, speaking to classes, judging moot courts and hosting gatherings. 

Dean Millard considers the Judicial Externship Program a good fit for TRU Law, where they place a high premium on a doctrinally sound legal education infused with practical skills. She comments, "The inclusion of TRU law students into this program is another opportunity for students to experience the law in action and to gain hands-on experience. We are embracing the opportunity to enrich our JD program and we are indebted to the BC Provincial Court for making this possible.”

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Photo:Thompson Rivers University Faculty of Law (Mathias Fast)