2011 Corporate Externship Program: Course Description

3 Credits - 150+ hours

The law school offers a corporate externship to a small number of students during the summer session. This externship is available to students who have completed two years of law school.

Students will be placed with in-house legal departments and will spend approximately 20 hours each week with a mentor supervisor attorney.

These are the additional class requirements:

• Corporate Law Refresher Workshop
• Plain English drafting workshop
• Revision of a corporate document based on Bryan Garner's Legal Writing in Plain English
• Interview of placement supervisors on their experiences with the roles of corporate counsel
• Weekly journal of experiences

This summer opportunity is a great way to experience an in-house corporate law department.

2011 participating companies:

Examples of past projects:

• Review a contractual agreement with a vendor to determine liability and insurance issues
• Make an employee manual more user-friendly
• Attend staff meetings, strategy meeting, and in-house CLEs
• Brainstorm solutions to antitrust questions
• Help prepare for negotiation between a parent and subsidiary
• Create a system for tracking SEC filings
• Revise a licensing agreement
• Craft a list of corporate governance questions that might be asked by shareholders during an annual meeting
• Revise a vendor agreement template for clarity
• Draft a confidentiality agreement for UMN corporate externs
• Watch
• Listen

Note: Students may not register for the Corporate Externship and the Judicial Externship in the same summer session.

Mary Alton is the faculty member responsible for this program. You can contact her at alton003 [at] umn.edu or by phone at 612-624-5779.