Law at the heart of business: Inside a 2L’s Nestlé internship
With dedicated mentorship and hands-on transactional experience, one law student found her legal path at one of the world's largest companies.
When Heather O’Brien clicked into her Zoom interview for a legal internship with Nestlé last spring, she was nervous. But thanks to the support she got from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, she was also ready.
The Career Development Office prepared O’Brien with resources, materials and tips—even suggestions for a quiet spot on campus where she sat for that very interview. Professor Lavell Payne-Brown, who O’Brien had for “Legal Writing, Leadership, Experiential Education, Advocacy and Professionalism,” went even further, sitting with her for a virtual mock interview beforehand.
“She gave me incredibly thoughtful, personalized feedback that I still think about. I walked into that interview feeling prepared and genuinely like myself,” said O’Brien, whose focus is business law. “It’s a reminder that the support systems at this school are real, and you should absolutely use them.”
With that support, O’Brien aced the interview. A few months later, she began her internship as a 1L legal scholar at Nestlé’s Arlington, Virginia, location. She quickly learned that working at a global giant was like stepping into a well-oiled, interconnected machine: Each department has a role to play that feeds into another area—with each critical to the company’s overall wellbeing.
But the legal department, as O’Brien saw it, was at the heart of everything.
“The legal department has to seamlessly work across every area of the business,” she explained, “not only within Nestlé USA, where I was placed, but alongside the many other businesses and brands that make up the broader Nestlé enterprise.”
And the most successful attorneys weave themselves into the work, thinking of themselves not just as legal advisors, but as business partners.
Throughout the summer, O’Brien trained her legal lens on departments including marketing, IP, food law and operations, struck by the easy collaboration across teams. She worked alongside other law interns and met with high-level employees in Nestlé USA’s C-suite, forming relationships that she’d carry with her long after she returned to campus.
“Being in a room with people who have built such extraordinary careers across such different paths was genuinely inspiring,” said O’Brien. “I found those conversations to be among the most valuable of the entire summer.”
She was gratified to hone the skill that drew her to the legal field in the first place: anticipating worst-case scenarios before they come to fruition, and providing guidance to clients on how to prevent or mitigate them. In-house counsel, she learned, has an advantage over outside counsel.
“You know your client intimately,” she explained, “and that deep familiarity allows you to adapt faster and more precisely than almost anyone advising from the outside.”
O’Brien spent much of her time shadowing transactional law attorneys, sitting in on client meetings and discussing risk assessments for partnership terms with outside businesses. She closely observed the way Nestlé attorneys worked with outside counsel.
“What impressed me was how deliberately and strategically they approached that relationship,” she recalled. “They always put their strongest foot forward, which really highlighted how well they understand when and how to outsource effectively.”
The project she liked most, however, was drafting a contract amendment. She compared multiple versions, reconciled changes and produced a clean draft. It required careful attention to detail, but it was precisely the type of project she had hoped to do.
“It was genuinely demanding work,” she said, “and I loved every minute of it.”
Ultimately, the internship provided confirmation to O’Brien that transactional law is exactly where she hopes to land one day—perhaps in mergers and acquisitions or contracts and negotiations.
“A career in law is a long game,” said O’Brien, who is just beginning her second year at CWRU School of Law. “The most successful people I met [this summer] stayed grounded in who they are, even when their paths shifted and evolved. That’s the kind of professional I want to grow into.”
