Model Intellectual Property Internship Programs: Internship Programs within the Scope of Employment Law

• Author: Barbara Kolsun
• Profession: Stuart Weitzman Holdings, LLC
• Pages: 251-261

C14 09/02/2011 14:4:24 Page 251

CHAPTER 14

Model Intellectual Property

Internship Programs

Internship Programs within the Scope

of Employment Law

Barbara Kolsun

Stuart Weitzman Holdings, LLC

Legal internship programs exist to help train lawyers-to-be in the subjects relevant

to their company’sfield of business. For example, fashion companies, whose work

is largely comprised of intellectual property (IP) matters, have slowly appreciated the

value of these programs to train future lawyers about fashion-specific areas, such as

counterfeiting. When I started the internship program at Kate Spade, a fashion com-

pany specializing in luxury handbags, to help the company deal with the enormous

number of counterfeit handbags for sale on the Internet, few fashion companies used

interns. Fashion companies often have small legal departments, and interns may per-

form many projectswhile learning the workings of the industry. The press has recently

addressed the labor issues specifically related to unpaid legal internships that have

proliferated in the downward economy. However, as long as companies give interns

challenging work that utilizes and develops their legal skills and have programs that

are academicallyoriented, the company most likely will notface any labor issues.

In this chapter, we discuss the issues that surround hiring legal interns, includ-

ing: the benefits and drawbacks, employment law issues, where to find interns, how

to utilize interns, how to maintain relationships with interns, and how to develop an

intern program at your company.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Using Legal IP Interns

There are numerous benefits to hiring a legal IP intern, but, simultaneously, there are

drawbacks as well. It is important to be aware of both the benefits and drawbacks in

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