Morgan, Lewis & Bockius |

Were You A College Athlete?

I was on the track and field team at the University of Southern California (USC) and competed in the 400-meter dash and the triple jump. Competing as a Division I athlete allowed me to push myself to new limits, make lifelong friends, and create a really fantastic college experience. Competing at such a high level also exposed me to the legal and business side of professional athletics, which solidified that I wanted to work in this space.

How Did You First Start Working With Professional Sports Organizations?

As a senior in college, my first job in sports was a marketing and sponsorship internship for the LA Clippers. We were responsible for all of the in-arena entertainment that dealt with the team’s sponsors, and we also worked in the front office tracking sponsorship data, learning the back end of the operation, and even pitching ideas. It was a really great first exposure to the business side of sports. After the Clippers, I worked at the NFL Players Association, NFL, and MLB Players Association.

What Was The Biggest Similarity In The Way Professional Sports Entities Operate?

The biggest constant that I learned through working at these players associations and at the NFL was that no matter how high profile they are, professional athletes are still employees at work, and labour and employment law is of paramount importance in these spaces. Without strong advocates on both sides of the sports labour space, we wouldn’t have the leagues and teams that we all love today, and it’s an honour to be able to play a role in that.

What Was Your Favourite Experience During That Time Of Your Career?

It’s hard to choose just one! During my gap year, my role as the executive intern at the NFL Players Association solidified my decision to attend law school and exposed me to the many facets of labour and employment law that drew me to this field. I was able to work on such high-level matters, like the then-breaking CTE [chronic traumatic encephalopathy] work, at such a young age.

Did You Always Plan To Become A Lawyer?

Deep down I did. I started working at a small firm when I was 14 and worked there on and off throughout high school and college. That experience showed me that becoming a lawyer was a possibility. The firm was founded and run by a Black woman, and I had never seen someone who looked like me run their own firm before. I knew I wanted to work in sports, however, and I also went to a science-focused high school, so I started college thinking that I would become an orthopaedic surgeon. After about three years of fighting it, I decided to switch paths and pivot toward law school. I kept my human biology major but added minors in sports media studies and business law to get more exposure, and it ended up preparing me well for the career I have now.

What Lessons That You’ve Learned From Sports Apply To How You Work As A Lawyer?

The list is truly endless. I’ve always been a hard worker, but the work ethic you develop as a college athlete is truly unmatched. The drive to push yourself further as an athlete allows you to unlock a new level within yourself. So even if it feels like you’ve already spent all of your energy, whether digging deep to sprint up a sand dune at 5 AM or find the answer to a complex question, you know there is always a little more you can give.

My work ethic and my natural tendency to put others ahead of myself in the pursuit of achieving a team goal pair well in such a collaborative group like the Labor Management Relations practice at Morgan Lewis. Competing in a sport like track and field, which has a huge individual component, taught me to continually strive to outdo myself, allowing me to become a better and more efficient advocate and colleague.

She still maintains ties to her education life, counting universities among the firm’s clients she serves and keeping up with former students as they embark on their own journeys into adulthood. Rachel shares with us her path to becoming a lawyer and lessons she brought with her from the classroom to the legal profession.

How Did You Decide To Join Teach For America?

In college, I majored in history and absolutely loved it. I did a history honours thesis program and while deciding if I wanted to go the Ph.D. route or something else, a professor told me that he thought I would be better off being a high school history teacher than going the Ph.D. route.

In high school and college, I had a part time job teaching Sunday school at a local synagogue and so I really liked teaching. I was a camp counsellor. There are a lot of people in my family who are in the teaching field and Teach For America recruits very heavily from Penn’s campus, so it kind of all converged onto that.

What Were The Most Rewarding Aspects Of Your Teaching Career And What Were Some Of The Hurdles To Leaving That Career?

The most rewarding thing also made it the hardest to leave, which were the relationships that I built with the people, particularly the students and the families. Anybody who is a teacher knows it is a service profession where you are completely giving of yourself—your heart, mind, and soul 24/7 to the kids. I was teaching high school, so I was helping students get ready for college. It’s such a transformational point of life that you can really help them shape themselves and think about “What path do I want to be on? What do I want to do? What do I want to be?”

How Did You Decide On The Field Of Law That You Are Currently Practicing?

It was definitely the people. I have a good friend who is an employee benefits lawyer and she was a big mentor of mine through the whole process of deciding that I wanted to make this career switch. I had never heard of employee benefits law and she sort of looped me in.

The summer I started law school I had a research job for a professor at Penn Law School and he had a former student who was an employee benefits lawyer at Morgan Lewis at the time. She was amazing and she introduced me to everybody in the group. I didn’t fully understand what they did at the time, but thought they were great and smart, and I wanted to work with them.

What I find rewarding and satisfying about this area is that it’s always changing. A new regulation will come out and nobody knows what it means, nobody knows how to follow it and we’ll be the first to read it. For example, when the new ESG rule came out last year, nobody knew what it meant or how it applied, and so clients were coming to us for a first look, and that was so cool that they would put their trust in us and what we would say mattered.

More recently with SECURE 2.0, our Plan Sponsor Task Force was all over being the first people to figure out about what it means. That’s a very exciting, interesting part of our practice. It feels like we’re helping to shape thought leadership that’s out there in the world that other lawyers and companies are following.

What Were Some Of Things You Pulled From Your Time In Schools Into Your Current Career?

I think there are a lot of overlapping lessons from teaching to law. One is they are both service professions. I think not everybody realizes that about law, especially when you are coming from law school and been in the books. But we are here to serve our clients when they have an opportunity or a challenge that they need help fixing. That’s just like teaching—where I am serving the kids and serving the parents. Those were my clients. The idea of client service and what is doing best for the client. As a teacher it’s not about what is best for you, it’s about what is best for the kid. And the same in our profession, it’s about what is best for the client.

Two is public speaking and explanation skills, the ability to take something super complex and break it into bite sized chunks that someone who doesn’t know a lot about the topic can understand. Obviously, it’s a different topic I’m teaching about now, but I do really think about lawyers teaching our clients about the law and how the law applies to them in a way that makes it sticky and engaging.

Then after getting up in front of a room of 11th graders, you aren’t going to fear anything in life!

What Piece Of Advice Looking Back Would Lawyer Rachel Give Teacher Rachel?

Lawyer Rachel would say to teacher Rachel, "Don’t change anything about your past.” People ask me all the time, “Do you regret teaching for six years?” I don’t regret one bit. I learned so much. I built great relationships with people. I had my mind expanded in all sorts of different ways that I never could have imagined. I enjoyed it. I learned a lot and I wouldn’t take back that time for one second.

Also, it wasn’t my intended path. I didn’t go into teaching thinking, “I’m going to use this to get into law school,” and I’m really glad I didn’t because it would have sort of cheapened the whole experience I had with teaching. It wasn’t a stepping stone. I went into it with the intention that I was going to stay, and I was going to be a teacher for life and in the end I didn’t. But I wouldn’t have stayed one fewer year or gone straight through. I was passionate about it then, but that passion changed and shifted, and I shifted along with it, but I got so much from the experience.

What Does Back To School Prep Look Like For You Now?

I have a 7-year-old going into second grade and a 3-and-a-half-year-old who’s going to preschool. I try to keep summers light and fun and try to hang onto that summer vacation feeling when they’re home more and we get more quality time as a family. School will pick up, extracurriculars, and sports will be upon us soon enough.

09:00 am: I arrive at my desk and check the emails that I have received overnight. The IP team works at a fast pace with new matters almost every day so no day or even hour looks the same! I flag the most important tasks for the day – often this is dictated by hard deadlines we have for any filings or submissions.

9:30 am: I call the UK Intellectual Property Office on behalf of an associate to check the status of a couple of trademark applications for a client.

10.00 am: I have my bi-weekly catch up with the Partner, Nick. We touch base on matters I am working on and identify areas I can get more involved in. It is also a great time to chat about careers and get some insightful advice!

10.30 am: My supervisor Martin has asked me to help with preparing clearance advice and a search report summary for a potential trade mark that one of our clients, a global tech company, wants to use. Carrying out searches for potential trade marks is an important stage in the life cycle of an intellectual property right.

1.00 pm: I finalise the search report for the proposed trade mark and send the draft to my supervisor for review. I grab lunch with the other trainees in the office and then go for a walk by the river.

2.00 pm: I have received emails over lunch from local counsel in Europe on a couple of trade mark infringement matters. The associate leading the matter asks me to review the advice and draft reporting emails for the client, updating them and providing recommendations on how to proceed next.

2:30 pm: I dial into a call with an external IP barrister who is helping us on a pro bono matter, which has an upcoming hearing at the UK Intellectual Property Office. I take notes during the call and draft an update to send to the client.

3.00 pm: I work on preparing an updated action list and matter plan for one of our clients, a leading Formula 1 team. Once completed, I send across to the relevant associates for their input.

3.30 pm: I have a catch-up call with an associate based in the Paris office. I am helping to draft submissions called Observations in an EU trade mark opposition at the EU Intellectual Property Office. She gives me background on the matter and we discuss strategy. I find it helpful to bounce ideas and questions before I start research and drafting.

4.00 pm: I have an afternoon tea break with some of my IP colleagues – it is great to be able to catch up in person now that we are back in the office.

4.15 pm: I review my notes from the call and begin work on drafting the Observations. I use different specialist IP platforms to research trade mark case law and review various documents to collate the necessary facts for the draft.

7.00 pm : I prepare my to do-list for the next day and make a note of any upcoming deadlines in my calendar before logging off for the day.