After her first year at Minnesota Law, Jessica Gao ’17 knew she didn’t want to be a litigator going to court every day. So instead, she turned her focus to transactional law.
In her final year, Gao joined Minnesota Law’s Corporate Externship Field Placement—a course any law student can enroll in that lets them spend several hours a week working with a company’s in-house law department. Gao was placed with a German-based company called SICK, Inc., where she helped with contract reviews and general transactional work. She also learned the nuances of what it means to be an in-house lawyer whose duty is to the corporation rather than individuals.
Today, Gao is an associate general counsel for Cars.com, and she also supervises current Minnesota Law externs. She credits her own corporate externship with helping her get her foot in the door.
“Having that exposure really helped me narrow down what type of in-house positions I wanted to go for,” Gao says. “It also helped me during the interview process. I had valuable training from the in-house position that distinguished me from other candidates.”
Location matters
Minnesota Law’s location in the Twin Cities—with numerous large companies headquartered in the area—make it a perfect fit for the corporate externship program, says executive director of Minnesota Law’s Corporate Institute Kiri Somermeyer, who oversees the program.
Students are placed with a range of companies of all sizes, from Great Clips and Sleep Number to U.S. Bank and Target. In the class that accompanies the semester-long field placement, students share their experiences, helping each other figure out what kinds of companies they’d like to work for later in their careers.
The field placement is also unique among law schools, and working in-house at a corporation is not a job that many recent law school grads can easily get. Having early experience in the field gives them a head start.
Sydney White ’25 did a corporate externship through Minnesota Law with Cars.com before finding another externship at Xcel Energy. White, who’s originally from Texas, plans to return to her home state after graduation and look for a government job in energy law. Eventually, she hopes to work in-house for a renewable energy company.
The opportunity has given White experience in energy regulatory work, and she’s also learned things such as how energy rates are set. “To see it from the inside has really opened my eyes,” she says.
Alex Jones ’25, who’s earning his JD and MBA in Minnesota Law’s dual degree program, combined his professional interests with a corporate externship at U.S. Bank. He’s had coffee chats with numerous members of the nearly 200-strong in-house legal team, which have helped him figure out what he wants to do after he graduates.
“Everyone always says ‘network, network, network,’” Jones says. “Through this process, you are actually talking to people who are super interested in your career. Almost every person I’ve talked to, including some who reached out to me, wanted to learn about me and help out.”
Experiential learning is key
The companies, too, can get a lot out of the externships. Land O’Lakes, a farmer-owned cooperative headquartered in Arden Hills, Minnesota, hires summer interns between their first and second years of law school. During the following fall and spring semesters, the same students stay on through the Corporate Externship Field Placement. Some stay for even longer.
Katelyn Tarrolly ’25 stayed for nearly two years. She says that one of the biggest benefits was gaining practical skills that are hard to learn in the classroom.
“Being in that working environment, you are on your own to problem solve and also to build your confidence in the application of your skills,” Tarrolly says.
Nathaniel Gier ’19, lead counsel for mergers and acquisitions and corporate ventures at Land O’Lakes, now oversees Minnesota Law externs.
He encourages current students to get the most out of the experiential learning opportunities that Minnesota Law provides. They might get a leg up on learning early on what career path they want to pursue—and then hone the skills they’ll need.
The corporate externship “is a good peek into what in-house life is like,” he says, “especially for those students who have a goal of working in-house at some point down the line.”
- Categories:
- Law and Policy
