How to Review an Internship Agreement: A Clause-by-Clause Checklist

How to review an internship agreement Reviewing an internship agreement before you sign comes down to two questions: is this a genuine, fair learning placement, and are the terms around pay, confidentiality and ownership reasonable? An internship should teach you something and pay you fairly where the law requires it, not use you as unpaid staff while claiming no obligations. Work through the clauses below, mark each one, and treat anything flagged as a red flag as something to question before you sign. This is general information, not legal advice. Whether an intern is owed pay or worker protections varies by jurisdiction, so confirm the local position for a placement that matters. ## First, the threshold question Before you read a single clause, ask what this really is. If you will do real, productive work for weeks, on set hours, replacing what a paid worker would do, then in many places you may be a worker or employee entitled to pay, regardless of the "internship" label. If the placement is genuinely educational, supervised, and time-limited, it is more likely a true internship. Note which side of the line yours falls on, then review the terms. ## The clause-by-clause checklist 1. Role and learning objectives. What will you actually do and learn?

• Green: specific tasks, a named supervisor, and clear learning aims.
• Red flag: vague wording, or a list that reads like a full-time job with no learning content. 2. Duration. How long does it run?
• Green: a fixed term with clear start and end dates.
• Red flag: open-ended, or repeated renewals that stretch an internship into months of ongoing work. 3. Stipend or pay. What are you paid, and when?
• Green: a stated stipend and pay date, or a lawful, clearly explained unpaid arrangement.
• Red flag: unpaid work that looks like a real job, vague promises of "exposure" instead of money, or pay withheld until the end. 4. Hours and location. What is expected of your time?
• Green: reasonable hours with flexibility for study.
• Red flag: full-time or long hours, mandatory overtime, or no limit at all. 5. Confidentiality. What must you keep private?
• Green: a normal duty to protect the organisation's confidential information, with standard exceptions.
• Red flag: a sweeping gag that would stop you discussing your own pay or reporting wrongdoing. 6. Intellectual property. Who owns what you create?
• Green: the organisation owns work you produce for it, but you keep the right to describe the experience.
• Red flag: a clause claiming rights in everything you make, including your own prior or personal projects. 7. No promise of employment. Is the status clear?
• Green: a plain statement that this is not employment and does not guarantee a job.
• Red flag: nothing on status, leaving it ambiguous, or promises of a role used to justify low or no pay. 8. Termination. How does it end?
• Green: a short, mutual notice period and payment of any stipend earned.
• Red flag: the organisation can end it instantly with no pay, while you must give long notice. 9. Conduct and policies. What rules apply?
• Green: reasonable policies on safety, conduct and data use.
• Red flag: penalties, clawbacks of stipend, or fines for leaving early. 10. Governing law. Which law applies?
• Green: the law of the place where the internship happens.
• Red flag: a distant jurisdiction with weaker intern protections. ## Red flags that should stop you - Full-time, productive work described as an unpaid internship, where local law would require pay.
• An IP clause reaching beyond the internship into your personal or earlier work.
• A confidentiality clause that would stop you discussing pay or reporting unlawful conduct.
• A stipend payable only on completion, used to keep you from leaving.
• A fine or clawback if you end the placement early. ## A quick scoring guide | Clause | Fair | Needs a question | |--------|------|------------------| | Role and learning | Specific, supervised | Reads like a full job | | Duration | Fixed term | Open-ended | | Stipend | Stated, or lawful unpaid | "Exposure" instead of pay | | Confidentiality | Normal, with exceptions | Gags pay or whistleblowing | | IP | Internship work only | Claims personal work | | Status | Clearly not employment | Ambiguous or dangled job | If several rows land in the right-hand column, the placement may be unfair or even unlawful, which is a fair basis to ask questions before signing. ## What to do if you have already signed one A signed internship agreement is not the last word. Read it again against the checklist and note where it overreaches, since an overbroad IP or confidentiality clause is often the least enforceable. Check the position where you work, because in some places a productive intern is owed pay whatever the contract says. If something important is wrong, such as unpaid work that should be paid, raise it with the organisation, and get advice from a qualified lawyer or a local labour authority before assuming the terms bind you. This is general information, not legal advice. ## Where a contract workspace helps Reading an internship agreement for fairness, checking it against the rules where you work, and tracking its start and end dates is careful work, and more so for an organisation running many placements at once. That is the work an AI contract workspace can carry. Instead of marking up each clause by hand, you open the document and see each term modelled and marked favourable, neutral, or unfavourable, with an overbroad IP grab or an unlawful unpaid arrangement flagged, and the duration dates tracked. Adira is one workspace built around that idea, keeping document intelligence, per-clause risk and date tracking together and tuned to how an organisation contracts. The checklist above works on its own; a workspace just makes the review and tracking less manual. Check whether it is a genuine internship first, then read for pay, confidentiality and IP, and question anything that treats you as unpaid staff.