Student Commentary

Center for Compliance and Ethics Summer Fellowship | Student Perspectives

This past summer, several Temple Law students completed the Center for Compliance and Ethics Summer Fellowship. They shared their experiences here:

Dave Garton LAW ’23 – Lincoln Financial Group 

My experience was fantastic, and I would recommend it to anyone regardless of their specific legal interests. I had opportunities to work with Lincoln Financial Group’s business units to update HIPAA compliance guidelines, with the financial advisory group on tracking and updating client compliant client disclosures, and on traditional legal memos and research questions for the litigation team. I also had opportunities across the legal department and have already benefited from references to OCI firms and have been offered contacts at firms of all sizes in the area. Lincoln’s legal department was helpful and considerate from those I worked with directly up to the Chief Counsel and other heads of departments. They all did a good job of keeping the internship engaging in a virtual environment, but I imagine it would only be better in person.

Molly Herbison LAW ’22 – Otsuka

I had a great experience at Otsuka. Over the course of the summer, I not only had the chance to attend compliance team meetings, but I ended up meeting and working with people from many other groups within the organization, including Legal, IT, Medical Affairs, Promotion Compliance, Sales, Marketing, and the Promotional Review Committee. This gave me a sense of how important relationship building is for compliance professionals.

For my main project, I worked with the other compliance intern to create a promotion compliance training for those going on “ride-alongs.” To create the training, I interviewed members of the Medical Affairs and Promotion Compliance teams to learn about the key issues associated with the promotion of each one of Otsuka’s products. I was also given several research projects: one project helped the compliance department track their price transparency reporting obligations and the other project involved collaborating with the legal interns to ensure that Otsuka’s consulting contracts comply with the recently updated AKS safe harbors.   Overall, I got a wide range of experiences while at Otsuka and had a great time! Maureen (my supervisor) was wonderful. She gave me plenty of freedom to take ownership of the projects and conduct meetings on my own, but she always made herself available to answer questions and point me in the right direction. I would highly recommend this opportunity to anyone interested in getting hands-on experience in pharmaceutical compliance. 

(During the summer, Molly participated in Temple Law’s #LawOwlEyes Instagram takeover, sharing her fellowship experience. Visit the Temple Law Instagram to see her posts.)

J. Braun Taylor LAW ’22 – Comcast

This past summer I was a Corporate Compliance Fellow at Comcast. From the first day, I was immediately introduced to an array of assignments from the compliance and legal departments throughout both Comcast Corporate and Cable. The assignments ranged from shadowing, to preparing company-wide compliance training, researching legal issues and how they may impact Comcast and their businesses, and multiple national and international surveys of the law in various areas. My coworkers and supervisors were welcoming and approachable. Everyone wanted to make sure that my experience with them provided me as many learning opportunities as possible.

Beyond my work, I was also able to get a sense of what it is like to work at Comcast through various company-wide intern events, participation in the employee resource groups, and a tour of Comcast’s campus in Center City. Working at Comcast allowed me not only to learn more about compliance, but also to use my legal skills in a new way. I also have found valuable new friendships and connections both from my fellow interns and from all of the wonderful people who I worked with over the summer. After this experience, I am definitely interested in eventually returning to an in-house compliance position, whether it be at Comcast or elsewhere. I would recommend this program and this specific position to anyone who is interested in exploring in-house work or exploring a different way to use their law degree.

Megan Young LAW ’22 – TabulaRasa Healthcare

I really enjoyed my internship with Tabula Rasa! My 10-week internship actually got extended to 12-weeks so I could give a presentation to their compliance committee. Overall, I only have good things to say about it. Anytime I expressed interest in a topic/area of law, they were quick to set me up with someone I could talk to or give me a relevant assignment if available. Beyond doing research related to compliance, I got tons of exposure to commercial contracting and litigation preparation. I would say I did more “legal department” work than “compliance department” work but, with Tabula Rasa being a healthcare tech company, it felt like compliance bled into everything the legal department did. I’d recommend this internship to anyone who may think they’re interested in going the in-house track at some point in their career.


Learn more about the Center for Compliance and Ethics Summer Fellowship program by contacting:
Beatrice Raccanello
beatrice.raccanello@temple.edu

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