At the Third Annual Symposium on Careers in Corporate Law, Students Network with Alumni Leaders in the Field

Career advice to students from Visiting Professor Steve Hills, founding director of Georgetown Law’s Business Skills Program? Find your competitive advantage. Take risks. Connect with people, network. And that’s just the beginning.

“Follow your passion, because ultimately, life is not a destination, it’s a journey,” says Hills, the former president and general manager of The Washington Post who enjoyed a 28-year career with the paper. “That’s a cliché, but it’s true. Sometimes all we have at the end of it is the ride.”

Hills spoke at the end of the 3rd Annual Symposium on Careers in Corporate Law, hosted by Georgetown Law’s Office of Career Strategy on Friday, February 10. More than 40 in-house counsel and law firm practitioners, many of them Georgetown Law alumni, spoke to students throughout the day on their career trajectories and honing that competitive edge.

Panels included a plenary session on hot topics in corporate law as well as breakout sessions on capital markets, banking and securities; private equity, funds and venture capital; project finance; mergers and acquisitions; and more.

“I still have family members ask me about court,” Matthew Owens (L’01), a partner at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer who practices M&A (and does not go to court). “In corporate law, we’re building something together, bringing parties together and trying to work together to negotiate and piece together a transaction that hopefully both sides can be happy with.”

Michelle Berninger (L’95), deputy general counsel at Maersk, offered a perspective on going in-house, where she found a niche in employment law. “The fact that you have all these clinics and other practical opportunities [at Georgetown], it can only help you find out what interests you down the line,” she told students. “You are putting in a lot of time, effort and money into becoming a lawyer. Educating yourself now is a great thing.”

Other participating alumni included Marissa Alcala (L’00), Monica Arora (L’00), Brian Ashin (L’08), David Azarkh (L’06), Peter Ban (C’93, L’97), Ginger Collier (L’12), Karen Dewis (LL.M.’91), Gregory A. Fernicola (L’85), David Fogel (F’93, L’97, MBA’97), Michelle B. Gold (L’97, MBA’97), Angela Liang (L’99), Matthew Linsky (L’13), William Majeski (L’15), Paul Manca (L’93), Amit Mehta (L’00), Andrew Miller (L’12), Elizabeth Silva Roberts (L’99), David Sanders (L’95), Jan Shanklin (L’12), Michael Telis (L’14), Andrew Tucker (L’87), S. Andre Warner (L’08) and Damien Zoubek (L’99).