Christopher Frey, a 3L law student, has leveraged his background in business administration and finance to excel in various legal roles, from internships at Quest Diagnostics and Norton Rose Fulbright to serving on the Seton Hall Law Review. His experience spans litigation, internal investigations, and Moot Court, shaping his passion for the legal field.
How did your experience working at Norton Rose Fulbright during your 2L summer shape your career interests and goals in the legal field?
I told NRF that I was interested in litigation, and they let me work on a variety of projects in that field. One area that was really interesting was internal investigations, where the firm serves as independent counsel to clients dealing with whistleblower claims. I sat in on some deposition-style interviews and reviewed documents to help the attorneys prepare for them. I’m hoping to work on similar cases in the future!
Can you describe your role and contributions as an Associate Editor for the Seton Hall Law Review, and any significant articles or projects you worked on?
As an Associate Editor, I reviewed a variety of student- and professor-written work for proper Bluebooking, attributions, style, and grammar. It’s been great to learn from the authors about so many different topics, and after a short time, you become very familiar with the basic rules for citations without having to constantly reference a Bluebook. I’ve also been fortunate enough to have my Comment selected for publication. The process of fine-tuning it over the course of the last year and a half has been challenging but extremely rewarding, and I’m grateful to everyone who has helped me!
What skills or insights did you gain from participating in the 2023 Ronald J. Riccio First-Year Moot Court Competition, and how has this experience influenced your legal studies?
Moot Court has been my favorite experience of law school without question. I was nervous to try it and unsure about whether I’d enjoy oral argument, but the best part about it is the team and coaches who are so willing to help you improve. The level of instant feedback you receive is extremely valuable and somewhat rare in my experience, so I definitely recommend it whether you’re thinking about litigation or not. You’ll come out a much more confident public speaker, I promise!
How did your time at Quest Diagnostics’ Legal Department during your 1L summer internship prepare you for your role at Norton Rose Fulbright?
Quest runs a phenomenal summer internship. They structure it like a summer associateship, where you have work coordinators to help facilitate projects and check in on how the summer is going. The individual attorneys were eager to connect with us one-on-one to debrief the project, answer questions, and provide feedback. We also had plenty of lunches and coffee trips to chat with attorneys from every department (litigation, employment law, M&A, etc.). It was great!
Can you discuss a particularly challenging project or case you worked on during your summer at Norton Rose Fulbright and how you addressed it?
One of my first projects was to verify what pre-judgment attachment remedies were available in New York vs. Connecticut, and under what conditions the remedies would be available to our client. I knew nothing about this area of law, so I made sure to make the most of my time with the partner during the debrief to ask for background and get a sense of what kind of work product he was looking for. I also checked in after I had made some progress to make sure I was on the right track, which the partner definitely appreciated!
What were some key takeaways from your work creating a 50-state survey on restrictive covenants at Quest Diagnostics, and how did it impact the company’s strategy?
Given the scope of the project, my co-intern and I split the states 25-25. One key takeaway that comes to mind is, when doing a group project like this, get on the same page early about things like formatting and style, and then confirm after completing some of the work that it meets the assigning attorney’s expectations. With a high-level survey like this, focus on the key takeaways, and be sure to bold the important points. Quoting case language is also helpful, so the assigning attorney knows the information came directly from a case (as opposed to being your own spin on it). The company used our survey to inform future Asset Purchase Agreements and to better understand whether their existing strategies were too safe or risky.
How did your background in business administration and finance influence your approach to legal issues at Quest Diagnostics and Norton Rose Fulbright?
In my pre-law school career, I often needed to break down boring finance/accounting information for high-level decision makers, like department heads or branch managers. Based on that experience, when I approach legal issues, I consider my job to make the issue as digestible and easy to take in as possible. This means making emails look clean and well-formatted, saving extra information for attachments, and trying to think from the perspective of who will be reading the information and why they need it. If you’re ever unsure, you can always ask!
Can you share insights on the collaboration between different legal teams (litigation, mergers and acquisitions, employment, etc.) at Quest Diagnostics and how it enriched your legal understanding?
There was a lot of great collaboration between the different teams at Quest. Specifically, Quest holds a “legal symposium” once a month, where the teams share the major projects they are working on. The attorneys are also members of different committees designed to help everyone improve (e.g., presentations, AI, negotiation), and those committees would present during the symposium as well. The symposiums taught me that collaboration is an asset not only for everyone’s performance but also for the team’s overall morale.
How has your experience on the Interscholastic Moot Court Board complemented your other academic and professional experiences in law school?
Moot Court has taught me how to speak more concisely (eliminate filler words and “throat-clearing phrases”), answer questions directly (with a “yes,” “no,” or “it depends”) before moving on to an explanation, and condense a complicated argument into the most important points. Fielding questions from the judges has also taught me to think fast under pressure, which is invaluable in all kinds of academic and professional settings.
What inspired you to transition from a business management role at Enterprise Holdings to pursuing a legal career, and how have your previous experiences in business management influenced your legal perspective?
I really enjoyed my career with Enterprise and had an excellent supervisor and team, so the decision to leave was difficult. But I reached a point where I realized I did not want my boss’s job, and that even though finance/accounting was a practical field, it was not something I was ever fired up about. I had always been interested in law, and with some encouragement and pushing from my friends and family, I decided it wasn’t too late to make a change. I can’t imagine how different things would be right now, even after just a few years—law school has given me some of the best experiences of my life. I think having worked in business management has helped me think practically about how certain things work on the ground (as opposed to in theory). My prior career and mentors also gave me professional skills for which I am incredibly grateful.
