Corporate

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.

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.

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.

In this episode, Andy Park, a graduate of the Temple University Beasley School of Law, discusses his work as a junior associate for a 23-attorney business law firm in Philadelphia. Due to the firm's size and staffing, Andy has amassed diverse experience in just over a year of practice from negotiating loans to litigating and settling loan defaults, and more.

In this episode, Jessica Morgan, a 2012 graduate of the University of Colorado Law School, discusses her responsibilities as Vice President of Legal for Boulder Brands, a public company that owns a variety of food manufacturers. Jessica talks managing outside counsel, negotiating contracts, and automating as many legal processes as she can to save and make her company money.

In this episode, Joan Kerecz, a graduate of Duke University School of Law, discusses her large firm’s public finance practices, which gave her a rare chance to help public entities raise money for projects, from building roads to expanding hospitals and schools. Joan also talks to us about the on-campus interview climate at her law school, and her decision to move firms after two years.

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.

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.