Regulatory Practice

Zoe Sharp, a 2003 graduate of Stanford Law School, is assistant general counsel at Optoro, a software company that keeps her busy in many areas of law. She talks about how she plans for the worst, which has been especially helpful after a tornado destroyed one of the company's warehouses and during a pandemic.

Choi Portis, a 2011 graduate of Thomas Cooley Law School, is a lawyer for the water and sewerage department in Detroit. She handles litigation for the department, develops policies and procedures, and reviews contracts—so one day is rarely the same as the next.

Deepan Patel, a 2013 graduate of FSU College of Law, explains his role at the IRS. While the IRS has many types of lawyers, he focuses on business taxpayer guidance, which ensures certainty for businesses making major decisions. He describes how he got into tax, where his career might go, and trade-offs between government and private practice.

Melina LaMorticella worked in publishing and as a paralegal for 15 years before graduating from Lewis & Clark Law School. She moved from a local immigration boutique to a larger firm in Portland to practice business immigration law. In this episode, Melina talks about the charged political atmosphere she operates in, as well as what her typical day looks like.

Seamus Boyce is a 2006 graduate of the University of New Hampshire School of Law and an education attorney at a 38-person firm with offices throughout Indiana. In this episode, he tells us about routine work advising clients with one-off questions, as well as more complex work involving student services, discrimination, and legislation.

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) seeks to create inclusive communities that accomodate citizen's rights to affordable housing. Kevin Krainz is an alum of the University of Pennsylvania Law School who talks about being a HUD attorney and how it differs from other affordable housing related public interest work.

At a large law firm, the hours, pay, and exit opportunities are among the tradeoffs associates continuously negotiate–if they get the job in the first place. This week Holly Carnell, a 2009 graduate of Loyola University Chicago School of Law, describes her challenge of getting her corporate healthcare biglaw job at McGuireWoods from a non-elite law school.

Professional licensing boards are a major way lawyers protect the public from wrongdoing. In this episode, we talk to Vanderbilt Law School alumna Johanna Barde, a lawyer for the Tennessee Department of Health. Johanna creates health policy and prosecutes medical professionals before state health boards. The work can be repetitive and bleak, Johanna admits, but her desire to protect public health keeps her motivated.

Small and mid-size nonprofits have legal needs dependent on the donation of time and resources by lawyers. The Pro Bono Partnership of Atlanta (PBP-ATL) organizes volunteer lawyers to serve non-litigation needs of nonprofit clients. Rachel Spears, executive director of PBP-ATL, discusses how rare organizations like PBP-ATL keep nonprofits within the law by leveraging generosity of members of the legal profession.