Category: Audio

You may be listening to this podcast for many different reasons: you may have received an offer but were not thrilled with your summer experience; you may still be waiting to hear from your summer employer; you may not have received an offer; or, you may have worked in a position that would not have resulted in an offer anyway (either at a smaller firm, international office, or at a public interest employer).

Listen to JD Advisor Yih-hsien Shen discuss callback interviews after EIP. In this podcast Yih-hsien will give an overview of the callback process, including what to expect and how to prepare. She will also talk briefly about the post-callback process: waiting for, and considering offers.

Hear Diane Downs '97, the Chief Talent Officer at Morrison & Foerster, San Francisco discuss EIP from the recruiting director's perspective. Diane has extensive experience in this area, having worked before in the recruiting departments of Akin Gump and Paul Hastings, and before that in the career services offices of the University of Pennsylvania and U. Chicago. 

In this podcast we'll cover how you should go about considering various practice areas to narrow down your list of employers. 

As you prepare for EIP, you need to determine in which city you would like to spend your 2L summer and begin your legal career. For some students the answer to this question is easy and for others narrowing down the choices is a genuine struggle. In this podcast, advisor Sara Dana offers suggestions on how to decide on a location and also explains how critical it is that you make these choices now rather than putting them off until later.

Congratulations on your acceptance to Harvard Law School! Get up to speed on the Early Interview Program at HLS with this podcast exclusively for transfer students. This podcast will help you navigate the logistics of EIP and get you prepped for a great EIP week.

If you are thinking of investigating opportunities in management consulting or investment banking, this podcast is for you. Learn about business careers recruitment at HLS and ensure that you’re up to speed on how to best prepare for this type of recruitment process.

Edward Manheimer ’03 is a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley working in Power & Utility M&A. Before transitioning to investment banking, Eddie worked as an Associate at Proskauer Rose in New York for 3 years.

Atif Azher is a partner in Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s Palo Alto office. Atif’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, and he has been recognized as a rising star for his work representing private equity clients. His representations involve software companies, internet retailers, and pharmaceutical giants, among others.

Brian Goldstein is the co-chair of the Business & Technology Group at Boston’s Choate Hall & Stewart. Brian advises companies and venture capital investors in a range of industries, such as biotech, medical devices, Internet and digital media from start-up formation to M&A and other strategic transactions. He has spoken at multiple panels on representing start-up businesses and on ethical obligations of attorneys working in the tech/venture capital world.

Prokauer partner Jeffrey Neuburger is co-head of the firm’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications Group in New York. Jeff advises companies on a myriad of issues ranging from use of social media, technology acquisitions, to blockchain and crypto currencies. He also represents companies in privacy and data security matters. In addition, Jeff also teaches E-Commerce at Fordham University Law School and is the co-author of two books on business, law and technology, as well as editing and writing for the firm’s New Media and Technology blog and the firm’s blockchain blog: blockchainandthelaw.com.

Dan Chung ’03 is a litigator and partner in the Washington, DC office of Gibson Dunn. He worked as an Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of New York and has a specialty as a trial litigator. Though not his only practice, a big part of what he does is securities litigation. When thinking about what you want to do in private practice, Dan advises law students to “start to think about ‘how can I be a counsellor or an advisor’ apart from being a lawyer… think about the skills or demeanor [needed in this respect].”

Lisa Haddad ’96 is co-head of Goodwin’s mergers & acquisitions practice and a partner in the firm’s Boston office.  Lisa has been with Goodwin since the start of her career.  In this podcast, she helps parse out the differences between “private M&A” and “public M&A” (Lisa explains that the distinction hinges on how is the buyer or seller in the transaction.)   Lisa also says that “if you have an interest in this area, you should pick up the Wall Street Journal or business sections of other newspapers – there’s a lot of interesting stories about mergers and acquisitions and market dynamics and how that might be playing into whether, and what type, of deals are getting done.”

John Gildersleeve is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Munger, Tolles & Olson. His practice focuses on securities and complex commercial litigation in state and federal court. He started his career in litigation at Cravath in New York following a clerkship with a federal judge in the U.S. District Court, Southern District. When it comes to being a strong and successful litigator, he says “first of all, you need to enjoy writing, very much; maybe not to the extent of an appellate lawyer, where it’s the primary thing you do, but among trial court litigation practices, [securities litigation] tends to be fairly focused on writing.”

David Kafafian ’18 will start as an associate with JP Morgan in the Fall of 2018 and serves as President of the Harvard Association for Law and Business. David spent his 1L summer as a summer associate in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis and his second summer at JP Morgan. Prior to law school, David worked as a consultant at IBM.

Virginia DeMarchi ’93 is a Partner in the Litigation Group at Fenwick & West in Silicon Valley. Virginia represents technology and life sciences companies in patent litigation and in litigation involving other forms of intellectual property.

Susan Lee ’02 is a Partner in the Healthcare Group at Hogan Lovells. Susan specializes in FDA work and works primarily with the pharma and biotech industries. Prior to practicing law, Susan served as a vice president for economic policy at a Washington, D.C. think-tank and as a consultant and manager at a premier global management consulting firm. In this podcast, Susan gives an overview of regulatory work and notes that regulatory work can be particularly attractive for those looking to develop a deep expertise in one particular subject matter and for those who are interested in the dynamics of a particular highly regulated industry.

Neil Levy is a partner in King & Spalding’s Energy Regulatory practice who is based in Washington DC. He represents power producers, marketers, developers, pipeline and distribution companies before federal and state agencies and courts of appeal. His work covers regulatory, litigation and transactional issues arising under the Federal Power Act, the Natural Gas Act, and other laws related to the energy sector. Earlier in his career, Neil also served as a Trial Attorney and Attorney-Advisor in the FERC Office of General Counsel. He has been recognized in band one by Chambers Global for his expertise in energy matters.

Becky Zelenka is a corporate partner in the Washington, DC office of Fried Frank. Her practice focuses on “asset management work,” which is a broad description for what she does. Day-to-day, her work focuses on working with private equity firms and creating investment funds. She says, “we raise the funds for an M&A [mergers & acquisitions] team to go and use that money to buy a company or sell a company.” Becky’s practice is unique – and has a surprising “global nature” to it. In the podcast, she connects the type of corporate work that she does to the types of work that hedge fund, M&A and capital markets lawyers do.

Wondering how to land an in-house position either during the summer or later in your career? Interested in hearing what it's like to work for Nike, Warby Parker, or Amazon Robotics? Listen to what the in-house legal departments at companies are looking for, which practice areas are in demand, and how and when you can make the move in-house.