What you can expect to gain:

The Employee Benefits Legal Practicum is intended to give full-time students without law practice experience an introduction to practice in the context of employee benefits law. It gives students an opportunity to experience life in a law firm or other office involved in employee benefits such as an actuarial consulting firm or in-house human resource department. During the Practicum students will see how employee benefits attorneys work with other attorneys and employee benefits professionals (e.g., head of human resource, actuaries, accountants, administrators) in accomplishing transactions for their clients. Students should begin to develop an understanding of the relationship between employee benefits attorneys and their clients as well as the relationships between attorneys and their firms. Students will be given assignments similar to those given to new lawyers in this practice area.

Practicum Assignments:

Professor Kathryn J. Kennedy, Director of the Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits makes arrangements with the Chicago attorneys and the firms where students will be assigned to do their Practicums. Professor Kennedy assigns each student to a participating law firm or law office where one attorney has been designated to serve as the student’s supervising attorney. Students receive a written notice giving them their Practicum assignments. Firms have been advised that they may be assigned a student who has not yet passed the Illinois or other state’s bar exam.

Supervising Attorneys:

Supervising attorneys are the “professors” for this course though Professor Kennedy determines the final grade and credit that students receive for their Employee Benefits Legal Practicum. Supervising attorneys are responsible for the assignments students are given and for providing the Center with an evaluation when the Practicum is over. Since this is to be an educational experience, supervising attorneys try to give their students exposure to as many aspects of employee benefits practice as is possible. They are asked to provide students with background information and answer questions about the matters they assign to students. The Center hopes that in the course of a Practicum supervising attorneys will share insights that they have gained from their years of practice.

An employee benefits practice is client driven and constantly responding to the client demands for cost effective and productive employee benefit plans. Since the Center assigns students to law firms and corporations with active and on-going employee benefits work, students can expect to have a variety of practice and work experiences.

Participating Firms:

Participating Firms are asked to provide their Practicum students with an office or other workspace, a phone, e-mail address, computer and access to office systems, services and supplies customarily provided to their new attorneys. For solo practitioners that are participating in the Practicum, the student may be working at home with access to the school’s Lexis/Nexis and West Law services, as well as the RIA Employee Benefits service. Thus, students working with these firms may not have as much office experience as students working with other participating firms. Firms have been advised that they may be assigned a student who has not yet passed the Illinois or other state bar exam.

Because the Employee Benefits Legal Practicum is being done as part of an academic program, participating firms cannot pay students for any work that they do during the course of their Practicum. In addition, participating firms cannot charge or bill their clients for work performed by students.

As a result of this, students, for perhaps the only time in their careers, will not be subject to the constraints of the billable hour. This makes it possible for supervising attorneys to take students to meetings and conferences and to let them sit in on phone calls, There is much that can be learned by being able to hear an experienced employee benefits attorney discuss issues, propose solutions to problems and advise clients. This is a valuable experience that young attorneys today rarely have.

Firms decide to participate in the Practicum Program for many reasons. Some firms participate as a way to “give something back” by helping to train the next generation of employee benefits attorneys. Others see participation as a way to develop a relationship with an attorney that expects to practice in another jurisdiction. Students should not expect that they will receive an offer of future employment from doing an Employee Benefits Legal Practicum. However, the Practicum certainly provides a basis for an attorney to provide a meaningful letter of reference.

Student Requirements:

Meetings with the Center Director:
In addition to an orientation session with Professor Kennedy, students are required to meet with Professor Kennedy during the course of their Practicums. During these meetings, students will talk about their experiences. The Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits will notify students when these meetings will be held.

Prior to each meeting, students are to visit the library and the Career Services Office to find articles and books relevant to helping the beginning attorney learn the “business” of practicing law and how to succeed in today’s law firm or legal organization. Students are strongly encouraged to look for publications by the American Bar Association’s Section on Law Practice Management. Students are to bring copies of one book or article to each meeting and should be prepared to make a brief presentation about the publication they have brought in and why it is helpful.

Written Assignments:
Students are to provide the Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits with a copy of their work schedules before starting their Practicum.

During the course of their Practicum, students are required to keep a Journal detailing their Practicum work assignments and to keep daily time records. This Journal is to be turned into the Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits when the Practicum has been completed.

In addition to their Journals, students are to prepare a Report on the Practicum for the Center Director. The Report should describe the insights that the student gained about the practice of employee benefits law as a result of doing an Employee Benefits Legal Practicum. Reports should be typed and be no less than three pages and no more than five pages in length.

All written assignments are to be turned into the Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits by the end of the semester.

Getting Started:

After students receive their assignments, students are then responsible for contacting their supervising attorneys and setting up an initial meeting with their supervising attorneys. During the initial meeting, students and attorneys should agree upon a schedule for completing the 120 hours required to complete an Employee Benefits Legal Practicum. Proposed schedules must be submitted to the Center Director for approval prior to the time that students begin their Practicums. Student schedules should provide for the student to complete the Practicum over the course of a semester.

Students are expected to follow the approved schedule and to be in the office when scheduled to be in. Students are expected to comply with firm dress codes and comply with firm policies and procedures while doing their Practicum.

If a student is assigned to a firm or office that has a regular new employee orientation program, participation in this should be included in the schedule as well as training sessions on the office systems and procedures for such things as time keeping, checking conflicts, opening files etc. The schedule may also include training on the use of the firm’s telephone, copying and fax equipment as well as its e-mail and document management programs. Learning how an office operates is an important part of the Practicum experience.