The CBP Career Experiential Program will offer second-year and third-year law students clinical experience in the areas of Customs, emloyment and administrative law. The program will also expose students to employment opportunities within CBP's Office of Chief Counsel, Office of Regulations and Rulings and the Office of Special Assistant to the Commissioner for Equal Employment Opportunity.

Photo Credit: James Tourtellotte

Dean Kurt L. Schmoke, Howard University Law School and CBP Commissioner Robert C. Bonner after signing the MOU

"The CBP program will provide students with invaluable legal skills and experience," said Kurt L. Schmoke, Dean of the Howard University School of Law. "It advances the law school's commitment to the production of leaders, and extends our tradition of producing lawyers committed to excellence."

"This is an invaluable opportunity to bring some of the best law students in the country into a real hands-on relationship with Customs and Border Protection," said Robert C. Bonner, Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. "This program will not only be invaluable to the students but will be equally invaluable to CBP. We know that the students will get hands-on, real world experience, and perhaps they will be attracted to a career in public service with U.S. Customs and Border Protection."

The MOU between CBP and Howard University School of Law demonstrates CBP's commitment to support Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's). Howard University, established in 1867, is among the nation's oldest institutions of higher education. It was the third university established in Washington, D.C. Howard University School of Law has a great legacy of graduating lawyers who have had an impact on every aspect of American life. Their alumni includes Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, first African American on the Supreme Court; Douglas Wilder, first African American governor of the state of Virginia; Everett J. Waring, first African American to argue a case before the Supreme Court; and Charlotte E. Ray, first woman to practice law in the District of Columbia.

CBP embraces this opportunity to work and learn from some of the finest legal minds of the 21st century from the Howard University School of Law. Both CBP and Howard University School of Law expect that the exposure the students will have to the CBP mission and the work of CBP attorneys will lead to full-time CBP careers.