The Corporate Counsel Program at Mercer is a program that's dedicated to the in-house practice of law. Many students, first of all, were not aware of the career opportunities that exist in the in-house counsel world. Not many law schools have a program dedicated to in-house counsel practice, so we're very proud of it. It gives students a way to gain practical legal experience in an environment where they have a mentor supervising attorney of the company, as well as an experienced in-house counsel as their faculty.
Typical law programs are mostly litigation-focused. Corporate counsel kind of unlocked that other side of the legal profession, which this program in particular gave me the opportunity and the competitive edge within the marketplace to gain that experience, head on in a safe space. So I had the opportunity to start last fall with Tractor Supply, I was offered an extension to come back. But during that time, I was placed at Coca-Cola in Atlanta, Georgia. I spent the beginning of the year in Coca-Cola's Global Customer Operations Group, and now have recently transitioned into their Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Department.
What this program offers a student is practical, real-world experience. In-house legal departments today run the gamut of expertise. You have lawyers who are working in-house environments today, who manage litigation, who are doing privacy, they're doing technology law, they're doing employment, they're doing real estate, they're doing corporate transactions, almost any area of the law. So it gives students that ability to further pursue those opportunities in an area they may not have known anything about.
You know, academia is very abstract, but sometimes not practical. What makes this program a little bit different than your traditional classroom setting is that you're going to be able to have that opportunity to practice what you've learned through this program. It's helped me to be able to identify the transferable skills I had in my previous profession, and being able to narrow that focus where I didn't actually lose what I came to law school with, but being able to incorporate it going forward.
Usually, more than 20 companies per semester offer externships. It's a very flexible program, with a lot of options for students, but students can take the program more than once and have more experiences than just an experience with one company. Like many of our programs here at Mercer, we are trying to make sure that the student is successful, not only in this class, and during law school, but after graduation as well.
