Students grow as they go
EVEN STUDENTS WHO HOPE for careers in litigation, like Kate Jungers, find the transactional skill practice they get at the Business Law Clinic helpful for their career preparation. “If you don’t know how a contract is structured, for example, how can you litigate it?” asks Jungers, who counted the Youth Development Center of America among her clients. “The clinic has been really helpful inputting the pieces together.”
Joe Oliver says his confidence expanded exponentially over his time with the clinic. “Picking up the phone to call Jenna [Paley of Project Decibel] was my first time ever reaching out to a client,” he recalls. “I was nervous—clients have real-life obligations and aspirations, and you’re jumping in as a student. Knowing what I know now, I’d be much more relaxed on that call today.”
Chris Dempsey worked with Natrina Kennedy’s Women’s Health Initiative. He says conversing with clients and translating their undefined problems into legal solutions was the most valuable soft skill he acquired at the Business Law Clinic.
“Clients are smart and motivated, but not necessarily legally sophisticated,” Dempsey explains. “They might say, ‘This is my mission and here’s what I want to do.’ They’re probably not going to tell you, ‘I need you to file forms X, Y, and Z.’ So there has to be a translation between what the client says and what the law student-lawyer mind hears.”
