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Week of November 1, 2010


LAW OFFICES IN-HOUSE CLINICS

Applications will be available on Tuesday, November 2. The Law Offices gives students the opportunity to learn how to practice law under the close supervision of a clinical faculty attorney - an experience that is available only in the law school’s in-house clinical programs. The areas of practice are: Criminal Defense, Employment Discrimination/Civil Rights with Some General Practice, Health and Disability Law, Low Income Taxpayer Clinic, Mediation, Immigration Law, Family Law, the Center for Open Government, and Intellectual Property

Applications for the Spring semester in-house clinics are now available in room 600 and on the table outside of the 3rd floor cafeteria.

 

LEGAL EXTERNSHIPS

LEP is a 4-credit hour non-graded program which enables you to extern with a supervising attorney in a wide variety of legal areas – private or public, civil or criminal. Externships are available for the Fall, Spring and Summer semesters. Some public sector externships enable you to obtain a 711 license and appear in court.

Why Extern?

To become a good lawyer and to supplement what you learn in the classroom, you need practical experience in real-world legal work. Most students aren't fortunate enough to receive a paid clerking position — or even a volunteer opportunity — that teaches what they want to learn. LEP presents a unique and important opportunity to gain exposure to an area of the law in which you are interested and helps you significantly broaden your future employment opportunities.

Students interested in civil law may extern in a wide variety of places. For example, some have externed at the City of Chicago Corporation Counsel's Office, Office of the Illinois Attorney General, Illinois Commerce Commission, Immigration Court of the US Department of Justice, Internal Revenue Service, and Environmental Protection Agency, as well approved in-house corporate legal counsel.

Students interested in criminal law have externed at the US Attorney's Office, the Office of the Federal Defender, and at the offices of the State's Attorney and Public Defender in Cook County as well as the surrounding counties.

Information about Spring 2011 Legal Externships and an accompanying application form are available in the Law Offices reception area (Room 600), in the Career Services Office, and in front of the Spakateria.

If you would like more information about externships, please e-mail Professor Vivien Gross (vgross@kentlaw.edu) to set up an appointment. There are many different types of opportunities in which you might be interested.

Listed below are some available for-credit externship placement opportunities:

Summer 2011 Semester: Externships with U.S. Attorney's Office
Northern District of Illinois

If you are interested in exposure to and possible participation in federal trial and appellate practice while assisting the U.S. Attorney's Office in handling its multitude of important cases, please pick up an application in Room 612 from Carole Ross, administrative assistant to Professor Gross.

Completed applications must be received at the Office of the U.S. Attorney by Monday, January 3, 2011. The reason for this accelerated date is because each accepted extern must go through a security clearance, which takes several weeks.

To receive law school credit for this externship, should you be selected by the U.S. Attorney's Office, you must enroll in the law school's Legal Externship Program. Externship applications for Summer 2011 will be available in mid-March.

Professor Gross will be happy to answer any questions you may have about either the Legal Externship Program and/or the externship position with the U.S. Attorney's Office.
 

Spring 2011 Semester: Legal Externship with the William J. Clinton Foundation

This position provides an opportunity to work with the Clinton Foundation's Assistant General Counsel in managing the ongoing legal work of the Foundation on seven initiatives addressing major global issues including infectious diseases, climate change, economic development, and childhood obesity. The Foundation's legal department manages all day-to-day legal matters, including drafting and negotiating transactional documents to facilitate relationships with third-party organizations, businesses, donors and national and local governments around the world. The department also coordinates and manages relationships with multiple outside law firms providing both fee-based and pro-bono legal services ranging from intellectual property protection matters to international entity formation. The department provides recommendations to, and strategizes with, senior management, initiative directors and third-party planners.

Externs may have opportunities to develop program strategies and provide recommendations to initiative directors regarding further expansion of domestic programming in pervasively poor rural communities in the United States.

Qualifications:
2Ls and 3Ls who have a demonstrated interest in nonprofit work and/or public service and have a specific interest in the Clinton Foundation's mission.

To Apply:
Applicants should send a cover letter, resume, and transcript (unofficial on-line transcript is acceptable) by either regular mail or email to:

Scott M. Curran
Assistant General Counsel
William J. Clinton Foundation
Suite 4000
111 S. Wacker Drive
Chicago, IL 60606
scurran@clintonfoundation.org

Application Deadline: Tuesday, November 23, 2010.

If you are selected to extern, please notify Professor Gross (vgross@kentlaw.edu) immediately for permission to register for Legal Externship (4 credit hours).

 

Spring 2011 Semester: Legal Externship with Legal Affairs Department, Silliker Group Corporation (For Credit Only)

Silliker Group Corporation is the leading internationally accredited food testing and consulting network. It is comprised of over fifty-five laboratories in 16 countries worldwide. The corporation provides consulting, testing, auditing, research and training solutions to companies who are searching for an innovative and reliable service partner.

The Legal Affairs department is in charge of all legal matters globally for Silliker, including sales support, mergers and acquisitions, corporate compliance and governance, and litigation. Some of the items an extern can anticipate participating in:

  • Providing general advice to senior management on legal implications of business and operational decisions;
  • Researching corporate governances issues impacting global operations;
  • Developing tools to promote accountability for legal and regulatory compliance;
  • Provide as needed guidance to other functions, including Finance, Sales, Operations, and Information Technology;
  • Drafting and analyzing a wide variety of commercial contracts and vendor agreements; and
  • Assisting in the management of outside law firms and legal resources.

Qualifications:
Extern applicants should be 2Ls only and rank in the top 25% of their class.

To Apply:
Applicants should send a cover letter, resume, and transcript (unofficial on-line transcript is acceptable) by either regular mail or email to:

Christopher A. McVety
Corporate Vice President of Legal Affairs
Merieux NutriSciences Corporation
Suite 2300
111 E. Wacker Drive
Chicago, IL 60601
chris.mcvety@silliker.com

Application Deadline: Friday, November 12, 2010.

If you are selected to extern, please notify Prof. Gross (vgross@kentlaw.edu) immediately for permission to register for Legal Externship (4 credit hours).  

 
Spring 2011 Semester: Legal Externship with Encyclopaedia Britannica (For Credit Only)
3Ls Only
Applicants Must Have a Minimum G.P.A. Of 3.23.

Encyclopaedia Britannica was founded in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1768 and today is primarily a publisher of reference material distributed in a plethora of languages to individuals, schools and libraries throughout the world over the Internet. As a result, much of the work of the Law Department has to do with intellectual property, its development, protection and distribution.

The Law Department serves the legal needs of senior management at the company's world headquarters in Chicago and oversees the legal functions and compliance requirements of subsidiaries located in London, Paris, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Taipei, Seoul, New Delhi and Sydney. The Law Department also provides legal services to the company's dictionary publishing subsidiary, Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts.

The extern will primarily be involved in drafting legal documents, particularly amendments to moderately complicated international trademark and copyright licenses, assist in ongoing privacy policy audits, and be exposed to strategic discussions about current litigation dealing with both the plaintiff and defendant sides.

To apply:
Please submit a resume, transcript and writing sample to Prof. Gross (vgross@kentlaw.edu) by no later than Thursday, November 4, at 5:00 p.m.
Do not contact Encyclopedia Britannica directly; your application will not be considered.
 

Spring 2011 Semester: For Credit Disability Law Legal Externship Opportunity

Equip for Equality (EFE) is a private nonprofit, statewide organization whose mission is to advance the human and civil rights of people with disabilities. EFE provides legal representation in individual cases and engages in impact litigation and public policy advocacy seeking systemic change. Externs can work in one of three programs: (1) Special Education Clinic – assisting families with obtaining the education and support that their children with disabilities need; (2) Abuse Investigation Unit – investigating abuse and neglect of people with disabilities and providing individual assistance and advocating for systemic change; and (3) Community Living Team – representing people with disabilities on a wide range of issues, including discrimination, community integration and self-determination.

Interested students should submit a resume and cover letter to Barry Taylor at barryt@equipforequality.org by Friday, November 12, 2010. The cover letter should explain why you want to work at EFE, your preference, if any, for one of EFE's three legal programs, and any disability-related experience you may have (professional or personal).

Please notify Prof. Gross (vgross@kentlaw.edu) if you are selected as an extern.
 

Spring 2011 Semester: Legal Externship with Seyfarth Shaw – IP Division (For Credit Only)
2L and 3L Applicants Must Have a Minimum G.P.A. of 3.28.

Seyfarth Shaw, LLP, will select a Chicago-Kent IP Certificate student for a for-credit Spring 2010 Legal Externship in their IP division.

To Apply:
Submit your resume and transcript to Prof. Gross by Friday, November 5, at noon.
Professor Gross will then forward the information to the participating firm to make its selection.

Do not apply directly.

For more information about intellectual property externship opportunities generally, please contact Professor Vivien Gross (vgross@kentlaw.edu).
 

Spring 2011 Semester: Corporate Law Externship with Accenture/DLA Piper (For Credit Only – 4 credit hours)
2L and 3L Applicants Must Have a Minimum G.P.A. Of 3.2

This corporate externship will expose a student to the daily operations of the Legal Department at Accenture, a commercial management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company for half of the semester (7 weeks); and to the corporate/commercial law practice area at DLA Piper, a leading global law firm, for the remaining 7 weeks.

At Accenture, the extern will be assigned to a client services group (e.g., Products, Resources, Communications & High Tech, Financial Services) and 1-2 areas of specialty (e.g., Employment, Intellectual Property, Litigation, Compliance, etc.), thereby gaining experience in legal research, drafting and internal client management. At DLA Piper, the extern will be assigned to one or two of the following five departments and will participate in research, drafting or project management assignments: Intellectual Property, Mergers & Acquisitions; Litigation, Insurance and Reinsurance, and Real Estate.

All interested applicants should submit their resume and transcript to Professor Gross by no later than Thursday, November 4, 2010. Professor Gross will then forward the materials to Accenture and DLA Piper, who will make their selection as quickly as possible to comply with law school pre-registration timelines.

If you have any questions, contact Professor Gross at vgross@kentlaw.edu.
 

Spring 2011 Semester: Legal Externship with Mitsui Rail Capital, LLC (For Credit Only)

Mitsui Rail Capital, LLC (MRC) is a railcar operating lessor servicing customers throughout North America, including Canada and Mexico. MRC's customer base includes many Fortune 500 companies in a wide variety of sectors, including energy, mining, coal, steel, automotive, appliances, grain, plastics, etc. MRC also provides rail and infrastructure advisory services to its sister-companies in Amsterdam, Munich and Sao Paolo, as well as affiliated sister-companies worldwide.

The extern will work directly with General Counsel on numerous legal matters including but not limited to: equipment leasing agreements; equipment financing and other financial documentation; NDAs or other confidentiality agreements; corporate governance documents including board minutes, consents/resolutions, company and employee policies; matters relating to human resources and employment; insurance claim handling and reporting; various litigation matters; and other legal matters as needed by the company.

Qualifications:
Extern applicants can be either 2Ls or 3Ls. Students who have had course work in Business Organizations, Commercial and Secured Transactions and/or Employment Law are preferred. In addition, the extern should have an interest or experience in cross-cultural business environments.

To Apply:
Applicants should send a cover letter, resume, writing sample and transcript (unofficial on-line transcript is acceptable) by either regular mail or email to:

Julie Schotanus
Manager, General Affairs
Mitsui Rail Capital, LLC
Suite 1800
71 S. Wacker Drive
Chicago, IL 60608
jschotanus@mrc-rail.com

Please note: cover letters should be addressed to:

Mr. Rudy A. Figueroa, Jr.
General Counsel
Director of Human Resources & Corporate Secretary
Mitsui Rail Capital, LLC

Application Deadline: Wednesday, December 1, 2010.

If you are selected to extern, please notify Prof. Gross (vgross@kentlaw.edu) immediately for permission to register for Legal Externship (4 credit hours),


Spring 2011 Semester: For Credit Legal Externship with U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Division of Enforcement

The Chicago office of the Division of Enforcement is seeking externs who will receive law school credit.

The Division of Enforcement investigates and prosecutes alleged violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations. Violations may involve commodity futures or option trading on domestic commodity exchanges, or the improper marketing of commodity investments. The Division may, at the direction of the Commission, file complaints before the agency's administrative law judges or in the US District Courts. Alleged criminal violations of the Commodity Exchange Act or violations of other Federal laws which involve commodity futures trading may be referred to the Justice Department for prosecution. The Division also provides expert help and technical assistance with case development and trials to US Attorneys' Offices, other Federal and state regulators, and international authorities.

Primary duties include conducting legal research, writing memoranda, aiding in the preparation of court pleadings and papers in the US District Courts across the nation as well as in an administrative forum; aiding attorneys and investigators who are preparing to take investigative testimony and depositions, working with exhibits, Freedom of Information Act responses; aiding with the discovery process and interacting with and/or interviewing customers or investors with complaints.

To apply, interested students should e-mail a cover letter, resume and writing sample by Monday, November 1, 2010 to:

Ms. Diane Romaniuk
Senior Trial Attorney
Commodities Futures Trading Commission
525 W. Monroe Street, Suite 1100
Chicago, IL 60661
dromaniuk@cftc.gov

Please notify Prof. Gross (vgross@kentlaw.edu) if you are selected as an extern.
 

  

For a complete description of all clinical programs, please visit the Law Offices' Home Page at http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/clinic

 

 

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