Finding Mentors
Not quite sure how to make the most of your Yale Law School experience? Balancing various academic interests and discerning between different professional paths? Wondering if a clerkship is for you or how to choose between clerkships? Curious about BigLaw? Interested in working in both the private and public sectors? Come speak to our Center Fellows, who have faced these challenges themselves, and who have guided many others through their long and distinguished careers in practice.
David arrived at Yale Law School with no expectation of becoming a practicing lawyer. He then spent the next 42 years after graduation in practice – first in public service (as a law clerk, an assistant U.S. attorney for SDNY, and an associate independent counsel in the Iran-Contra investigation) and then in private practice (as the founder of the White Collar practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and as Global Head of Litigation/Controversy from 2009-2020).
Mentors played a key role in helping David shape his career. He now looks forward to mentoring others.
Topics include: making the most of YLS; choosing a clerkship; pursuing a career in White Collar or in Litigation more generally; moving between public service and private practice; identifying and creating career opportunities at BigLaw; and carving out personal space while excelling at practice.
Vicki graduated from Yale Law School with a general sense that she wanted to be a litigator but no plans to specialize in IP. After first being part of a trial team on a major securities case, she sought out more courtroom experience. Vicki discovered IP litigation, which often requires full-blown evidentiary hearings in advance of trial and critical substantive oral arguments long before any appeal. Even more rewarding, the field provides the opportunity to work closely with highly creative people in a variety of fields who are developing innovations that can better our world and who need equally creative thinking about how to share and fund their work. Law pertaining to creative fields needs to be equally creative. IP law is constantly developing refinements, balancing interests and making course corrections, exploring issues that will be familiar to Yale law students. The field is not just for those with a technical background (Vicki was a philosophy and history major in college): students and lawyers who are grounded in economics, marketing, finance, business, history, philosophy, and ethics, among other disciplines, and who are interested in innovation and engaging with new problems will enjoy the field.
Vicki was an IP partner at Paul Hastings LLP in New York for more than 30 years, leading its trade secrets litigation practice. She has worked with clients ranging from startups to global businesses. She is currently Chair of the nonprofit, non-partisan Sedona Conference Working Group 12 on Trade Secrets Law, working with judges, lawyers and academics to develop Commentaries to move the law forward. Vicki looks forward to meeting with you individually for mentorship conversations.
Topics include: making the most of YLS; choosing a clerkship; pursuing a career in IP law; distinguishing between the four main areas of IP law (patents; copyrights; trademarks; and trade secrets); identifying and creating career opportunities in private practice; building collaborative partnerships between the judiciary, academia, and practice to explore policy questions and to advocate for solutions.