Focus archive

Business Law Externships

Second and third-year law students gain practical experience and a head start in the job market through the law school's business externships and other opportunities:

Portland In-House Counsel Externship Students work full-time for eight weeks (8 credits) during the summer or part-time during the academic year with in-house counsel in Portland metropolitan-area corporations. Recent sites in the Portland Program include NIKE, Knowledge Learning Corporation (Kindercare), Fred Meyer Stores (Kroger), Daimler Trucks North America, Mentor Graphics, Banfield Pet Hospital, LandAmerica, and Legacy Health Prerequisite: Business Associations. Portland. Information: Professor Steve Bender. Federal Bankruptcy Court Externship Students serve as judicial externs for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Oregon and participate in all aspects of judicial decision-making, including researching and drafting bench memoranda and opinions, and observing oral arguments and chambers conferences. This one-semester externship is supervised by a U.S. Bankruptcy judge in either Eugene or Portland. (All judicial externships require the specific approval of the supervising judge and law school administration) Prerequisites: Bankruptcy, Commercial Law, and (in Eugene) Secured Land Transactions. Pre or co-requisite: Business Bankruptcy. Information: Professor Andrea Coles-Bjerre Office of the United States Trustee Permanent Externship Program This Office of the United States Trustee is a division of the U.S. Department of Justice responsible for overseeing the administration of all bankruptcy cases. The U.S. Trustee ensures that bankruptcy cases proceed without delay, debtors comply with the disclosure requirements of the Bankruptcy Code, assets are distributed according to the Code's priority scheme, plans of reorganization proposed by debtors comply with the Code's requirements for confirmation, and instances of fraud and abuse are identified. Prerequisites: Commercial Law and Bankruptcy. Pre or co-requisite: Business Bankruptcy. Eugene. Information: Professor Andrea Coles-Bjerre Tax Externship Offered occasionally. Students work full- or part-time for eight weeks during the summer with the Internal Revenue Service, Office of District Counsel in Portland. They observe, research and write on tax policy and litigation issues, with projects ranging from innocent spouse and partnership issues to criminal matters. (LAW 704, 3 credits). Prerequisites: Federal Tax (LAW 680). Portland. Information: Professor Nancy Shurtz Tax Moot Court Competition Offered occasionally. In 2005, the UO Law team, coached by tax law professor Nancy Shurtz, made it to the quarterfinals in the National Tax Moot Court Competition held each year at St. Petersburg Beach, Florida. (LAW 707, 1 credit, P/N) Many externships are in Portland. For more information visit the Portland Program. Other externships

"The bankruptcy judicial internship taught me how these issues play out in the real world" - Gabriela Sanchez-Amparan '03, now a bankruptcy lawyer at Hershner Hunter in Eugene.