Foley’s Milwaukee office gives students taste of lawyering

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Over the summer, two Milwaukee high school students got a rare chance to have a glimpse of the inner workings of a large law firm through an internship offered at Foley & Lardner’s office downtown.

The two students, Brandon Pope of Messmer High School and Maayan Montoute of Riverside High School, spent the summer following attorneys around, sitting in on meetings and talking to lawyers and summer associates about the many different paths one can take to a legal career.

Chelsey Metcalf, a litigation associate at Foley, was charged with ensuring that Montoute and Pope got the most out of their time at the firm. She noted that Foley has long made it a point to hire high school interns for various tasks at the firm.

“What we wanted to do this year, since we hand-picked the interns from our Street Law education program, where we’re teaching these kids about the law and getting them inspired about the law, is that they were actually integrated into our firm as someone who wants to be a lawyer someday,” Metcalf said. “So we didn’t just want to have them only doing mail or only doing records or only doing catering.”

Pope and Montoute are the first pair of summer interns that Foley’s Milwaukee office has brought in as part of an expansion of its Street Law Diversity Pipeline Program, which is run by Nick Welle, a senior counsel at Foley and a business attorney.

Street Law Inc. is a non-profit that encourages law firms to go into local schools to teach kids about the law and legal system. The organization provides template lesson plans for firms to adapt for their purposes and then use for instruction.

One goal of Foley’s Street Law program is to bring about more diversity not only at Foley, but in Wisconsin’s legal profession as a whole.

“That doesn’t have to be the color of your skin but it can be your gender, your culture whatever things that make diversity great,” Welle said. “I think that really is one of the goals of the program. I told our two interns, Brandon and Maayan, that, ‘Our goal is that you guys are lawyers here in seven years.’”

Welle said he and others at the firm hope one day to be able to continue working with interns throughout high school, college and law school.

Foley has long been involved with Street Law. For the past four years the firm has sent lawyers to the Wisconsin Conservatory for Lifelong Learning to teach 45- to 50-minute classes about particular aspects of the law.

Students who attend the classes are brought, a few days later, to the law firm for a mock exercise that’s related to what they’ve learned. Students, for instance, who took a class on the basics of contract law would get to sit in on a mock contract negotiation between an athlete and a shoe company.

In addition to these sorts of internships, Foley offers “mini-boot camps,” which are meant to mimic at least some of the rigors of law school. The camps are offered to 25 students at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee.

These youngsters are taught by Foley lawyers, who are often working alongside local members of the Association for Corporate Counsel, about various civil matters, including contracts, employment law and copyright law. Over four months, the students visit Foley’s downtown Milwaukee office six times. The experience culminates in the students conducting a mock investigation into allegations of sexual harassment. Six attorneys take on the roles of the witnesses, the accuser and accused.

Welle said the program results from collaboration among four groups: ACC of Wisconsin, the Boys and Girls Club, Street Law and Foley.

Metcalf says programs like these give Foley an opportunity to give back.

“I think if you have this much power and prestige in the community, none of that is worth it if you’re not able to help out in some way,” she said. “I know for me, as a corporate lawyer, I could not do all the stuff I did if I didn’t have so many opportunities through Foley to volunteer and give back.” Follow @erikastrebel