Clinics

Lawyers as Leaders: The Corporate General Counsel Seminar and Externship

LW.12597 / 
Trevor W. Morrison
Open to 2L, 3L and LLM students
Maximum of 4 students
Not offered 2023-24
1 credit for the seminar (credit/fail)
3 credits for the externship (credit/fail)
No prerequisites or co-requisites.

Course Description

This one-credit seminar and 3-credit externship provide insight into the role of the corporate general counsel, and particularly the legal, ethical, business, and other concerns that occupy a corporate general counsel.

The seminar uses case studies, which are presented at each session by a visiting general counsel. In past years, guests have included the current or former GCs of Verizon, Estee Lauder, and Dropbox.

Up to four students can participate in the externship. This externship is separate from, but complementary to, the seminar. Three externship students will work under the supervision of McKinsey & Company’s general counsel (or a member of her team) to develop the skills needed by corporate general counsels. One externship student will work in the general counsel’s office at AppNexus.

McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm that serves leading businesses, governments, non-governmental organizations, and not-for-profits. For over nearly a century, McKinsey & Company has helped its clients make lasting improvements to their performance and realize their most important goals.

AppNexus is an internet technology company that harnesses data and machine learning to power the world’s open digital audience platforms. Its powerful, real-time decisioning platform supports core products that enable its clients to acquire, engage and monetize their audiences.

Externship students will work on personnel, employment, litigation, contract, technology, and intellectual property issues. Assignments will include such tasks as drafting training documents on behavioral topics that raise legal risks, assisting with subpoenas, reviewing contracts with the firm’s clients, researching vendor contract provisions, and creating templates to be used with certain types of vendors. Students will be required to work approximately ten hours each week.

Application Procedure

These courses are not part of the clinic matching system. Students interested in enrolling in the seminar should send a short (no more than one page) statement of interest along with their CV to Professor Endo. Students interested in enrolling in the externship should send an additional short (no more than one page) statement of interest to Professor Endo.

Student Contacts

The following students are in the externship in the Spring 2019 semester and are available to discuss their experiences: Isabella Chen, Louis Coppersmith, Haley Moritz, and Jocelyn Shih.