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HOME SCHOOLED: Law students getting real-world business experience from clinics, externships

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//August 28, 2017//

HOME SCHOOLED: Law students getting real-world business experience from clinics, externships

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//August 28, 2017//

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Nathan Hammons, a visiting clinical associate professor and director of the Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic at Marquette University Law School, stands in the school’s atrium in Milwaukee. Hammons says many Marquette students complete internships and externships in corporate legal departments and agencies. (Staff photo by Kevin Harnack)
Nathan Hammons, a visiting clinical associate professor and director of the Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic at Marquette University Law School, stands in the school’s atrium in Milwaukee. Hammons says many Marquette students complete internships and externships in corporate legal departments and agencies. (Staff photo by Kevin Harnack)

To Daniel Aiman, vice president and general counsel at Ashley Furniture Industries Inc., curiosity is an essential attribute if a law student wants to work effectively as an in-house attorney.

“When you go in-house, you’re a generalist,” he said. “You’re not pigeonholed into one area. You’ve got to be very inquisitive and very curious. … You have to be willing to branch into things you don’t know about and ask questions.”

For Ryan Murphy, general counsel at Oak Creek-based construction company Edgerton Contractors, another important attribute is an ability to recognize the difference between giving legal advice and business advice.

“It’s a very fine line,” he said. “You have to learn or gain that skill.”

In Wisconsin, law schools are helping students develop this sort of expertise by offering students opportunities to either work part-time in legal departments or in clinics intended to help entrepreneurs.

Both Marquette University Law School and the University of Wisconsin Law School let students earn a master’s degree in business administration while also getting a law degree and taking standard courses in business law.

At Marquette, the law school has been expanding its offerings beyond classes on topics such as tax law, corporate finance, corporate compliance and employee-benefits law, said Nathan Hammons, a law professor at Marquette.

UW, meanwhile, has in-house oriented classes on subjects like securities regulation, taxes and accounting for lawyers.

Recent years have seen the schools develop programs that let students do legal work in a supervised setting, whether it be in a corporate legal department or a clinic.

“I think there has been from the judiciary, from law firms, from corporations, a demand for more practical skills and transactional skills and training,” he said. “I think Marquette is making a lot of headway in expanding its offerings to train students with those skills.”

Hammons said many students at Marquette complete internships and externships in corporate legal departments and agencies such as the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Department of Risk Management and the Blood Center of Wisconsin.

At UW, Jane Heymann runs the school’s externship program and encourages students to apply to corporate legal department externships even if they aren’t looking to work as in-house counsel in the future. The program has placed students in the legal departments of various large companies, including North Central Group, a hotel operator and developer, and Promega Corp., a biotechnology firm.

“Even if a student’s ultimate destination is a law firm, it can only be helpful for a student to understand what in-house legal counsel looks for in outside counsel,” Heymann said. “I think having something like that on your resume … can only be a benefit.”

Supervising attorney Jeff Glazer, left, and law student Emaad Moinuddin, center, work with their client, Kyle Treige, on a start up business that is the focus of a high school curriculum project Aug. 10 at the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic in Madison. The clinic is one way the law school prepares students with skills that can be helpful for working as in-house attorneys. (Staff photo by Kevin Harnack)
Supervising attorney Jeff Glazer, left, and law student Emaad Moinuddin, center, work with their client, Kyle Treige, on a start up business that is the focus of a high school curriculum project Aug. 10 at the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic in Madison. The clinic is one way the law school prepares students with skills that can be helpful for working as in-house attorneys. (Staff photo by Kevin Harnack)

Both schools also run law and entrepreneurship clinics that are led by former in-house attorneys and offer opportunities to encounter real-world business clients. UW’s law and entrepreneurship clinic has been operating since 2009, when the university tapped Anne Smith, former general counsel at Promega, to devise a way to help campus inventors get legal advice. The clinic now serves about 300 clients.

“We, I think, clearly prepare students for the practice because we have them bill hours and do all the things you would do in a firm,” Smith said. “But we also do things like contract drafting and dealing with legal issues dealt with in-house-like employment, intellectual properties issues and a lot of employment issues.

At the clinic, students are supervised by attorneys but still do the brunt of the work, leading meetings and staying in touch with clients.

“It’s their clients, not our clients,” said Smith.

Marquette started its clinic recently after working with the Association of Corporate Counsel for the last two summers. Hammons, who used to work as assistant general counsel for DePaul University in Chicago, is the director of the clinic, which served 40 clients in its first full year.

Like the UW clinic, Marquette’s operates similarly to a small law firm, pairing students with start-ups and new-business owners in the southeastern part of the state. Students get training in actual business transactions, which can come in handy when they practice business law. They also get a taste of in-house work by doing things like helping clients assess legal risks and comply with rules and regulations.

“Being responsive to client needs, assessing key legal risks and then prioritizing those and maintaining great communication with clients are all important skills,” he said. “Our clinic strives to teach students those skills.”

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