Young Alums Diving In to Top Practices
While my blog typically focuses on people and events within the law school, from time-to-time I like to profile the accomplishments of our graduates, and in this case two who ended up at the top firm of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge. Jason Van Volkenberg (’07) and Joe Farside (’06), both of whom hail from New Jersey, were terrific students at RWU Law, and now have made their professional homes in Rhode Island.
In Jason’s words:
I have been working in the Business Law Department at EAPD for the past year and a half. My work has mostly involved conducting research and providing advice to partners and clients on private equity transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate governance. I also had the opportunity to work on a 6 month project with the in-house counsel of a large multi-national corporation implementing a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance program in response to sanctions issued by the Department of Justice.
The learning curve has been steep, as most of the work I do involves tasks not typically covered law school, like conducting due diligence review of various types of contracts (software/licensing/employment/severance/manufacturing/consulting/vendor agreements), reviewing financial statements and corporate records, forming business entities (mostly LLC’s and corporations), and drafting and negotiating agreements. Getting up to speed on how things really work inside a corporation, learning what each deal document does, and trying to gain an understanding of the key issues that are negotiated with respect to each document, has required a big time commitment, a willingness to really push through things when they seem difficult or impossible, and an understanding that if you make the commitment, things will start to come together and the big picture will become clear (something that I learned time and time again when putting my course outlines together at RWU).
My RWU Law experience really paved the way for my practice. The hard work and dedication that it took to excel in law school provided me an understanding of the commitment necessary to succeed outside of the academic setting. In addition, the high level of instruction that I got at RWU, and the fact that the courses were often geared toward real world legal issues also really helped provided me with an edge.
And from Joe:
I became an associate in EAPD’s Litigation Department after graduating from RWU Law in 2006, and have since become a contributing attorney in both the firm’s Antitrust Practice Group and Commercial Litigation Practice Group. My antitrust work consists of advising clients on pre-merger notification issues under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, providing strategic merger-related guidance relative to the constraints imposed by the Clayton and Sherman Acts, and advising clients regarding federal antitrust investigations. I also participated in many aspects of a national class action lawsuit against the major credit-card companies and their member banks. The highlight of my antitrust experience occurred in 2008 when I, along with a team of EAPD antitrust attorneys, successfully advised our client in its $8.8 billion acquisition of a public company, which included complex filings, extensive substantive antitrust guidance, information management, and numerous dealings with FTC staff in order to address potential anti-competitive concerns. I also had the chance to work with a partner in the EAPD Boston office on the intersection of antitrust law and college football’s Bowl Championship Series which was well received in the legal community.
My practice also includes some interesting environmental issues, including two large CERCLA matters involving a well-known university. I work closely with a partner in EAPD’s New Jersey office to assist the client through the investigation, development of alternatives, remediation, and mediation processes. I also address other more localized environmental issues for clients when they arise, usually by helping clients respond to and deal with regulatory inquiries, as well as with the interface of newly proposed infrastructure and existing environmental regulation.
RWU Law prepared me for every new challenge that arises at work. No one leaves any law school with all of the substantive answers, but RWU Law undoubtedly provided me with the tools to find answers to difficult questions.
