This guest post was written by Tom Books, Class of 2026.
For those who do not know, externships allow students to work a part-time job off campus for class credit. Possible placements include judges, government agencies, nonprofits, and in-house departments for companies. When planning my schedule for Spring Semester 2L, I decided to apply for a few in-house counsel externships. I had already done a government internship and will be doing transactional work at a firm this summer, so I figured an in-house role would provide a new perspective to legal practice while also preparing me for corporate work at my firm.
I was fortunate enough to receive an offer from Wayfair as an extern in their legal department. Before this semester began, I was unsure about my schedule and workload. On top of my work at Wayfair, I decided to take two complicated doctrinal classes (Evidence & Business Bankruptcy), and was concerned about whether I could handle a job and classes at the same time. As a person who enjoys a routine, I wanted to make sure I would have time to work, keep up with classes, exercise each day, and cook dinner each night. Would I have to answer my work emails on the days I am not in the office? Would I be able to leave the Wayfair office in Back Bay at 12:30 and make it on time to Evidence class at 1:30? What kind of assignments would I receive, and would they be overwhelmingly complex?
Midway through the semester, I’m now wondering why I worried so much. I enjoy working at Wayfair and have learned more about the day-to-day lives of in-house counsel. My manager and the other lawyers in the office have been welcoming and I have a lot of fun at work. My externship is 20 hours/week, and I never have to work on assignments outside my working hours. Although my classes are complicated and demanding, I have only two of them. My externship allows me enough time to keep up to date with my class prep and outlines–I actually have more free time overall compared to a normal semester.
At Wayfair, most of my assignments involve reading, summarizing, and drafting contracts, which better prepares me for transactional work this summer. My externship offers a unique experience for transactional-inclined law students, because unlike classes at BC that focus on contract drafting, I get to work with contracts that have real legal consequences. One of my tasks is to respond to contract review requests from marketing, fintech, and other teams throughout the business. These are among my favorite assignments because I get to see the benefits of my work in real-time, and help Wayfair employees accomplish their goals. For example, last month I helped one of the marketing teams with an Instagram sweepstakes where entrants could win Wayfair products. My task was to help draft the rules for the sweepstakes. I have seen these before on my Instagram feed, but I had no idea there were so many laws about them. After finishing the request, I waited a few days, checked Wayfair’s Instagram account, and the rules I helped draft were linked to the post. It was cool to see the impact of my work!
One thing that surprised me was the degree of specialization within Wayfair’s legal department. Before I started working at Wayfair I was told that in-house lawyers must be generalists who are equipped to answer any legal question thrown their way. While that still may be the case, there are several teams of lawyers that report to Wayfair’s general counsel, including corporate, commercial, litigation, products & retail, employment, real estate, and others. Lawyers will forward legal issues they receive to the team that is best suited to resolve the issue. Another surprise was the networking opportunities that came with working at Wayfair. I guess this should not have been a surprise, but I continue to be caught off guard by the closeness of the Boston legal community! First, I learned that at least two in-house lawyers at Wayfair were once externs themselves, and one even accepted a full-time role right out of law school. Should I ever feel like transitioning from my firm to in-house, I now have connections at a company with an excellent reputation in Boston. Additionally, I learned two lawyers at Wayfair are there to take a year off from their firm to work in-house for a client–they call it a “secondment”–and both of these people work at the firm I will be at this summer. Thanks to Wayfair, I will have two mid-level associate connections I can rely on when I start at my firm.
Working at Wayfair has been challenging at times, but the reward has been immense. I encourage all BC Law students to pursue an externship. Although they will vary in time commitment and difficulty depending on your placement, all my classmates who are doing externships enjoy their experience just as much as I do. They are a great chance to gain practical experience, allow me to focus more on difficult classes, and give me the opportunity to meet interesting people along the way.
Tom Brooks is a second-year student at BC Law. Contact him at brookstd@bc.edu.
BC Law: Impact 