On October 1st, the MSL hosted the fourth annual fall edition Industry Associates Night. Offered twice a year, Industry Associates Night is the MSL program’s premier professional development and networking event. Both the fall and spring events feature professionals working in a variety of industries relevant to MSL study; the fall event features MSL alumni exclusively while the spring event includes professionals who are interested in speaking with and/or hiring MSL alumni, though they are not MSL alumni themselves. Both the fall and spring events are the capstone of each semester’s series of professional development events.
If you are a reader of this blog, you recently have seen a description of our fall semester career-related events. Career programming begins on Day 1 and continues throughout the fall and spring semesters. We encourage all MSL students to engage in as many co-curricular career development sessions as possible, so that they can develop the full panoply of skills needed for professional success. The fall Industry Associates Night offers students the opportunity to put their developing skills into practice and engage with MSL alumni who are working in industries of special interest to MSL students and alumni.
This year’s fall Industry Associates Night was a hybrid event: some of the alumni panelists attended in person and some attended remotely; students could join through either format.
Check out this list of impressive MSL alumni panelists:
- Isabela Bagi (MSL ’20) – Analyst, ILA Capital
- John Cronin (MSL ’21) – Junior Patent Examiner, United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
- Ross Grant (MSL ’18) – Account Executive, Axiom
- Joanna Kim (MSL ’21) – Digital Product Analyst, Morgan Lewis
- Christian Lee (MSL ’18) – Commercial Operations Analyst, Tempus
- Tushar Nuwal (MSL ’19) – Vice President, Global BD&L, Strategy & Alliance Management, US, Canada & LATAM, Polypid
- Winisha Smith (MSL ’20) – Portfolio Analyst, Collab Capital
One wonderful thing about the fall Industry Associates event is that the panelists really understand MSL students (having been there themselves at one point) and they have a special interest in the success of MSL students; they are exceedingly generous with their advice on many topics, including how to tie the MSL to desired professional outcomes, choosing MSL courses that are relevant in different professions, leveraging the MSL network, and using MSL skills and knowledge in their daily work.
Here are a few little tidbits from the panel discussion:
From Joanna Kim (MSL ’21): “Don’t be afraid to reach out for informational interviews. You’d be surprised how generous people are with their time.”
And from Christian Lee (MSL ’18) in reflecting on his own career journey: “Don’t limit yourself because of your background and experience. Studying chemistry for years doesn’t mean you can’t, or shouldn’t, pursue something new – like privacy law, or entrepreneurship.”
After a fantastic panel discussion moderated by Evan Goldberg, the group split up into two separate networking sessions – one for the online participants over Zoom and one for those attending in-person. The in-person reception took place in the law school’s not-so-well-lit courtyard (see picture), with very cooperative weather and plentiful food and drinks. We were thrilled to be joined in the courtyard by a few additional MSL alumni, including Eric DeChant, Anchisa Pipatpinyopong, Daniel Kinstedt, Peter Chan, and Alyse Alston.
For a look back at previous Industry Associates Night events, check out our MSL360 blog recaps here.
