SMU Dedman School of Law's Corporate Counsel Externship Program Turns Ten!

When Dean Stephen B. Yeager joined SMU Dedman Law in the summer of 2009, he believed an in-house counsel course made perfect sense for SMU Dedman School of Law. According to Yeager, “Business law has long been a curricular strength of the law school, many corporations make their homes here, and our students are interested in working in-house at some point in their careers.” He created an upper-level class called “The Role of the General Counsel,” which proved very popular.

As a result of teaching the class, however, he realized that the in-house world was virtually unknown to law students. In addition to teaching them about legal and ethical issues facing inside counsel, he wanted to give them a glimpse of what in-house lawyers actually do. And he found a partner in his mission—Marc I. Steinberg, the Rupert and Lillian Radford Chair in Law and Professor of Law. Together, they designed an academic program combining the corporate counsel class with externships in corporate legal departments. They also authored a nationally-adopted textbook for the class, Inside Counsel – Practices, Strategies and Insights (West 2d ed. 2020) and are currently working on the third edition. Professor Steinberg serves as the Director of the Program and Dean Yeager is the Faculty Supervisor.

The Corporate Counsel Externship Program was born in fall 2013 with 30 companies hosting students. This fall marks the tenth year of the program, which has been a resounding success. It is the premier program of its kind in the nation and the largest, with over 100 different companies participating. The program now falls under the Robert B. Rowling Center for Business Law & Leadership. One of the secrets to the program’s success is that students may tailor their experiences. Students are placed with companies, industries, and practice areas in which they have an interest.

The program puts students in real‐life situations where they have educational opportunities unobtainable in a classroom setting. Many students have landed in-house jobs through the externship program. Over 700 law students have been placed in the program in the last ten years.

Steinberg and Yeager are passionate about teaching law students about the in-house practice of law. As Yeager says, “It has been an absolute joy to look back at the last ten years and retrace our students' incredible learning experiences. There is a whirlwind of synergies when a law school works closely with companies for the benefit of law students. If properly structured and supervised, experiential learning in corporate legal departments supplemented by classroom learning provides law students with an incredibly valuable educational experience.

The First Extern Class: Where Are They Now?

Of the 30 students who externed in the inaugural class in Fall 2013, 9 are currently working in corporations.

Fall 2013 Externs – The first class.

Dana Arnold - Tap Rock Resources, General Counsel (externed with Commercial Metals Company)

Arnold is the first former extern to become a general counsel.

“The program was a great introduction to other legal career paths. Back then (and still today) going in-house straight out of law school was unconventional. Ultimately, I was attracted to being part of making day-to-day business decisions. When people asked me what I wanted to do, I said I want to work for and, more importantly, with, a company that is doing interesting things.  I love that SMU offers a program that grants exposure to the variety of issues that in-house counsel deal with. During the brief externship, I was able to observe everything from a mediation to multiple complex contracts. It is that diversity that I still find so compelling about being in-house. I also have been lucky to be able to hire another graduate of the program (from fall 2016) as part of our team—Lauren Kramer.”

Anne (Moretti) Langford - Keurig Dr Pepper, Corporate Counsel (externed with Lennox International)

“The Corporate Counsel Externship Program was an invaluable part of my law school experience.  I not only had the opportunity to gain a unique inside perspective on the day to day work of the in-house attorneys at a large global company, but I also built relationships with these attorneys who have been trusted mentors and friends for the past 10 years.” 

Chandrika Shori – Alorica, Counsel and Healthcare (externed with American Airlines)

“The Corporate Externship Program gave me an invaluable opportunity to meet new friends and mentors, people who genuinely believed in sharing their time with me. Each and every role that I’ve had since leaving SMU, has been tied to the connections I made and experiences shared during the program.”

Patrick O'Brien – American Med Spa, Legal Coordinator (Chicago) (externed with MADD)

Seth Rasmussen – Vistra Corp. (parent company of TXU Energy and Luminant), Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary (externed with Denbury)

“The Corporate Counsel Externship program was one of the highlights of my time at SMU Law!  Not only was it incredibly insightful to hear from in-house counsel on various topics each week, it was a great opportunity to gain substantive experience working alongside experienced legal professionals. My externship experience at Denbury, an oil and gas producer, was a tremendous boon during the interview process at firms with strong energy transactional practices, as it reflected my interest in that area of law.”

Tanner Robinson - Senior Legal Counsel at Forsta (London) (externed with RealPage).

Emily Stutts - Willis Towers Watson, Director, Employee Benefits Compliance (Dallas)(externed with Baylor Scott & White Health)

Lauren Thedford - Sixth Street Partners, Vice President and Corporate Counsel (Dallas)

Lauren says her favorite memory of the program was making contacts in the business who she still sees at networking events today. 

John W. Turnage, Stearns Bank, NA, In-House Attorney

"Participating in the Corporate Counsel Externship Program remains one of my fondest memories of my time at SMU. While I had the long-term goal of becoming an in-house attorney from the first day of law school, it was an invaluable blessing to me to be able to test, and ultimately reinforce, my initial plans by gaining experience within the legal department of a substantial company (Fluor)."

Some Side-Benefits of the Program

There are many side-benefits to the program beyond the legal knowledge the students gained.

• Better Understanding of The Client: While many law students work as summer associates in law firms or serve as judicial interns with state and federal courts, relatively few have the chance to see a corporate legal department during their law school careers.Corporate externships provide students with a unique look at the practice of law from the client’s standpoint. These students will be at an advantage when they are first-year associates at law firms because they will better understand what qualities and services corporations are looking for when they select outside counsel.
• Capstone Learning Experience: The program served as a capstone learning experience for many students. Stacy Phillips, a third-year student assigned to Reddy Ice Holdings Inc., described the experience as the “icing on the cake” of her legal education. “Property law was my Achilles’ Heel in law school because I really didn’t have a frame of reference for any of the topics we covered,” she said. “It all suddenly made sense after working on a project involving real estate titles, title insurance policies and land survey plats.”

• Corporate Relationships: Allows the law school to maintain and grow our relationships with corporations and our alumni there.

• Jobs: Some students have found permanent job opportunities as a result of contacts made in their externships.The program also gives students experience they can include on their resumes and makes them more attractive to prospective employers.
• Large number of primarily transactional experiential learning experiences: All too often, law students find it difficult to gain transactional experience in law school.The program provides a large number of transactional placements where students can work with contracts, conduct due diligence and attend negotiations.
• Externships help students explore additional career options. Many externs work in areas of the law they never even knew existed and discover they enjoy the area.If students find the job opportunity they thought the wanted is not feasible, they now know that satisfying alternatives exist.
• A “Taste” of In-House Practice: The program opens students’ eyes to in-house practice and often piques their interest in working as corporate counsel at some point in their careers.And if they stay in the DFW area, working in-house is a real possibility.
• Recruiting: Many incoming students tell us they chose SMU Dedman Law because of the program and some come to law school with an idea of which company they would like to be placed.
• Confidence Building: One student comment I see consistently on final evaluations is that students gain confidence in their legal skills and abilities. This comment surprised me at first, but now I come to expect it every year. Confidence is an important trait for young lawyers. When students finish the program, they are confident they have the practical skills and substantive knowledge it takes to succeed in their first real legal job, whether it is in a law firm, corporation or government agency. Typically, law schools alone don't instill much confidence in their students. To the contrary, they do an excellent job of making students (particularly first‐years) feel like they don't know very much. This program helps build law students back up and realize, "Hey, I've got this!"

Classroom Component

Students in the program take a simultaneous corporate counsel course in which they learn about substantive areas encountered in an in-house legal department, ethical responsibilities of in-house counsel, as well as professional skills, such as working with outside counsel, working with internal “clients”, contract drafting, and conducting internal investigations. In-house counsel guest lecture in some of the classes, adding yet another opportunity for students to learn from, and interface with, corporate counsel.

This fall’s class will include the following topics:

• The Corporate Law Department (Stephen B. Yeager)
• An Overview of the Securities Laws (Marc I. Steinberg)
• Global Aspects to an In-House Practice (Vinod Mahboobani, Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel, Yum! Restaurant International)
• Corporate Compliance and Ethics (David Huntley, Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer, AT&T)
• A Fireside Chat on ESG (Betty Ungerman, VP, Deputy GC, ESG Leader and Chief Sustainability, Ethics and Compliance Officer, Lennox International)
• 2013 Extern Homecoming: Where They Are Now and What They Want You to Know
• Cybersecurity and Data Privacy (John Ansbach, Managing Director, Stroz Friedberg)
• Corporate Governance (Elizabeth Giddens, SVP, Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer & Corp. Secretary, Integer Holdings Corporation and Muriel McFarling, Deputy General Counsel, Included Health)
• Is GC for a Pro Sports Franchise Your Dream Job? Panel of Sports In-House Counsel (Jason Cohen (Cowboys), Robert Fountain (Rangers), Taylor White (Stars), James O'Sullivan (FC Dallas))
• So – You Want to Work In-House? (David Starr, SVP, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, PlayPower, Inc. and Kelly Noblin, Recruiter & Owner, Newhouse + Noblin)
• Working with Outside Counsel (John Torres, EVP, CLO and Secretary, Lennox International and Betty Ungerman, VP, Deputy GC, ESG Leader and Chief Sustainability, Ethics and Compliance Officer, Lennox International)
• A Conversation with Steve McManus, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, State Farm
• Demystifying Technology for the Legal Department (Meredith Brown, Senior Managing Director and Brandon Lee, Managing Director, FTI Consulting)

Initially, there was not a good textbook for the classroom component of the program. Professor Steinberg and Dean Yeager cobbled together articles on in‐house practice and that served temporarily as a less‐than‐ideal substitute. Finally, they actually wrote our own book for the class ‐ Inside Counsel ‐ Practices, Strategies, and Insights (West 2015). They are now working on the third edition of the book.  Other law schools that have since started corporate counsel classes and externships have adopted the text.  In‐house lawyers have also found the book beneficial.

Navigating COVID-19

When COVID-19 hit, the classroom component was moved to the Mack Ballroom, the largest class room on campus, so that students could distance appropriately.  And 92 students externed with companies in DFW as well as a handful in remote placements outside the state, including Walmart in Arkansas and AIG in New York.  

Supervising law students remotely during a global pandemic presented some special considerations.  We revamped our handbook and included a number of suggestions for making the most of the new learning experience.  The remote placements were extremely successful and taught students how to navigate the new remote and hybrid work environments.

The Corporate Counsel Externship Program was recently featured in the Texas Lawbook. Read more