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PBGC Externship EB 390 (3-4 credit hours)
Professor Kennedy supervises this externship program and thus her pre-approval is required.
PREREQUISITES:
EB 361: Fundamentals I of Retirement Plans;
EB 362: Fundamentals II of Retirement Plans;
Tax 333: Tax Employee Benefits Research;
Must Have completed 10 credit hours in the
LLM program before applying.
The Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits offers a student externship program with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) in its Washington, D.C. location. The PBGC is a governmental agency established under the federal ERISA statute in 1974 to provide pension insurance to single-employer plans and multi-employer plans. In exchange for work assignments with the PBGC, students will earn law school credit (either 3 or 4 hours). The purpose of the PBGC externship is to provide employee benefits students with a blend of theory and practice of law that would assist them in their later practice of law. One of the Employee Benefits Advisory Board members, Harold J. Ashner, previously served as assistant general counsel for legislation and Regulations at the PBGC, where he drafted or supervised virtually al regulations and policies issued by the PBGC since 1988. He put us in contact with Israel Goldowitz, who is the PBGC’s Deputy Chief Counsel, The PBGC’s Office of Chief Counsel is willing to supervise our students during a summer externship.
Details of this PBGC externship program include:
(1) It is supervised by Professor Kathryn Kennedy, a full-time faculty member (referred to as the program director) in conjunction with Israel Goldowitz, Deputy Chief Counsel at the PBGC’s National Office in Washington, D.C.
(2) Students in the PBGC externship program will receive a copy of the Student Handbook prepared by the school’s Clinical Externship Program and must abide by its requirements. Students are required to keep a journal regarding the types of projects engaged in, to be submitted to the program director at the conclusion of the semester.
(3) Students interested in applying to the program must have completed the prerequisites and be enrolled as a candidate for a joint degree or LL.M. degree program in employee benefits. Students with a quantitative undergraduate degree (e.g., accounting, math, finance) are preferred. Students must be in good academic standing in order to apply. The PBGC requires students to forward a copy of the student’s law school transcript, a writing sample, and three professional recommendations. Interviews will then be scheduled via phone conference with Mr. Goldowitz before he selects a qualified extern.
(4) An initial on-site visit will be conducted by the Program Director prior to selecting the first Extern. On-going visits will be made on as-need basis; the program director will be in email or phone contact with Mr. Goldowitz.
(5) The classroom component consists of meeting with the program director weekly or every other week to update him/her on the student’s progress in the program. Other educational experiences consist of assisting PBGC attorneys on current employee benefits issues and in their preparation of research memoranda and briefs.
(6) Summaries of the students’ assignments will be placed in the student’s file. At the conclusion of the summer, the student’s PBGC supervisor will prepare a formal written evaluation (sample copy attached) of the student’s proficiencies and deficiencies in legal skills and general traits, to be placed in the student’s file,
(7) Each extern is assigned to a PBGC supervising attorney, who is responsible for the extern’ s orientation; verification of hours worked; introduction to other PBGC attorneys, paralegals and clerical/administrative staff; assignment of work; and final evaluating of performance (listing of responsibilities attached).
(8) Formal written evaluation of the student’s performance is made at the end of each summer and forwarded to the program director. Students also must meet with the program director for an exit interview to assess the student’s extern experience. Copies of the student’s formal evaluation and the results of the exit interview are kept in the student’s file.
(9) Students are expected to be afforded a variety of writing experiences (e.g., memorandum, client letters, and policy guidelines) in their assignments.
(10) Students are required to complete 150 hours per summer for 3-semester hours of school credit, or 200 hours per summer for 4-semester hours of school credit.
(11) The number of students participating in the PBGC externship will vary depending on the PBGC’s need. We expect one student for the summer of 2008.
(12) List of current field placement supervisor with addresses and phone numbers:
Israel Goldowitz
Deputy Chief Counsel
PBGC’s Office of Chief Counsel
1200 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005-4026
202.326.4020
(13) Students selected to participate inn this program work with the PBGC attorneys, accountants, and actuaries over the summer months in Washington, DC. The PBGC is a federal corporation created by the Employee Retirement Income Security act of 1974. It insures private single-employer and multi-employer defined benefit plans. the educational objections of this externship include practical experience in defined benefit plans and their terminations; to further develop research, writing, and drafting skills; and to learn practical lawyering skills of document review and application of law and policy.
(14) Program director will keep in phone contact with the applicable PBGC supervisor on a regular basis during the term of the externship, as well as periodic email/phone meetings with the student during the summer and a final exit interview. At the conclusion of each semester, the program director reports to the Dean and Professor Kandaras (director of the Clinical Education Program) by a written memorandum as to the results of the student’s experience.
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