The “Legal Issues in Strategic Business Planning” course is an excellent opportunity for students who are interested in practicing law in an in-house setting, or in learning generally how to deal with clients. The course is offered in conjunction with the Fox School of Business’s Enterprise Management Consulting Practice (EMC). The EMC program allows Fox MBA students to engage in paid strategic planning work for real companies from various industries, such as healthcare, technology, and finance. Each law student enrolled in Legal Issues is assigned to one of the EMC teams to act as general counsel, thereby gaining valuable real-life experience as well as insight into the role of general counsel. Because each EMC project is different, and the composition of the teams is different, the law students have different challenges and experiences.
My experience so far has been both challenging and rewarding. My EMC counterparts and I worked with a start-up company based in Australia. The company is developing a mobile wellness application that will help patients with chronic illnesses manage their treatment plans without having to make frequent trips to the doctor. The EMC business team’s task was to assess the viability of the product in the US market, while mine was to identify the legal issues.
I faced a number of legal issues involving intellectual property and corporate law, but the biggest challenges have come from figuring out how to handle the regulatory and compliance issues. The product the company is developing is so cutting edge that it has been difficult to say definitively whether certain rules apply or not. For example, in September, the Food and Drug Administration issued guidance on which medical applications it intends to regulate. The EMC team’s product fell into a grey area and I assessed the likelihood that it would ultimately be regulated. Other major issues involve HIPAA compliance, the applicability of the Affordable Care Act, and tax concerns.
The experience gave me a greater understanding of the lawyer’s role as general counsel.
Finding my place in a team of “non-lawyers” was a challenge in itself. There were days when I was in the background observing and listening, and then there are days when I was called upon to offer advice on a proposed course of action. Additionally, the way a lawyer would analyze and process a particular problem may be different from the way a businessperson would. Thus, the experience was also a lesson in effective communication among group members.
The class met on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Tuesdays, we met with our EMC business teams to work on our projects and on Thursdays, the law students met with Professor Marks to discuss each group’s progress, and each law student’s experience with the group. Outside of those meetings, the law students often participated in meetings or conference calls with the rest of the team and the clients. We also had the opportunity to participate in our respective EMC team’s presentations of their research findings to advisors at Deloitte, who offered feedback and constructive criticism, which each team used to improve its presentation before presenting it to the client. Overall, the course was definitely a rewarding and engaging experience.