Intern Update: Andrew Clark

Andrew Clark

Corporate Accounting & Finance, College of Business, Influence, and Information Analysis

Sandberg Phoenix & Von Gontard P.C. - Legal Intern

This fall I have had the opportunity to work as a legal intern at Sandberg Phoenix and von Gontard law firm. I am primarily working directly for a top Shareholder at the firm. Many of my duties include research, providing executive summaries of documents, and any other special projects that I might be given. Along with legal work, I also run the LinkedIn account of my boss. This is not a typical internship where I am just doing busy work that the attorneys do not want to do. My internship is focused around learning how to be a lawyer.

I have known my boss for many years now, and reached out to him when I decided I want to pursue a career in corporate law, which is his area of expertise. He immediately found a way for me to be hired at the firm, even though they normally do not hire current college undergrads or non-law school students. The work I have been doing is real life legal work that he is using in helping his clients. Throughout each project I am learning more and more about the language used in legal documents as well as the processes of different matters and how they are handled. Another great part about my internship now is that it can lead to many more opportunities with the firm in the future.

During my time with the firm, I have had the opportunity to meet and talk with many lawyers. The most rewarding part of all this is to hear about their different experiences and how they got to where they are today. I am confident that if I work hard for the firm, and prove to them I have what it takes to be a hard working employee, I will have numerous opportunities for other positions both during law school, and beyond. This whole process has shown me that if you make connections and use your network to your advantage there are countless opportunities and that even an entry level internship has the potential to lead to bigger and brighter opportunities down the road.