Summer Experiences: Abby Leeds, ’25, Levy Restaurants (Chicago)
Abby Leeds, ’25 is spending her summer as a legal intern for Levy Restaurants, a Chicago-based company specializing in providing food and beverage to major entertainment and sports venues. She says that the experience has given her insight into what being in-house counsel is like.
How did you connect with this summer opportunity?
I had worked as a Levy intern during undergrad and reached out during my 1L job search to ask them to be a reference for my applications. Instead, they asked me to come back and spend my 1L summer interning in their legal department!
How does your experience connect with what you currently envision doing with your law degree?
I am going into transactional law and this internship is helping me get experience negotiating, drafting, and amending contracts, as well as practice conducting legal research for transactional matters (which is much different than the case research we learned in LRW). This internship also exposes me to what going in-house later in my career could look like, and I look forward to comparing this experience with next summer when I work at a firm.
Please describe a “typical” day at work.
There really is no “typical” day because every day is so different, depending on the statuses of the ongoing deals or litigations. We often draft and amend various legal documents such as catering agreements, licensing agreements, service contracts, subcontractor agreements, and management contracts. We also meet with other departments of the company (mostly the sales team and the risk management team), our partner companies, and the operations teams of our locations to ensure our employees’ compliance with the existing management contracts. Interns also manage the background checks for vendors which includes researching the vendors’ finances, civil and criminal histories, state registrations/licenses, and UCC filings.
What is something you learned or experienced that was surprising or particularly compelling during this summer position?
Working in-house, especially at a large company like Levy that has such a leanly staffed legal team, I am surprised at the discretion and responsibility I am afforded as an intern. I am given similar if not the same work as the corporate counsel, which has really developed my abilities and confidence in legal drafting and researching.
What are a couple of your key takeaways from the experience so far?
The internship has given me perspective of what being an in-house lawyer really looks like from the inside, which is uncommon to get as a law student. I’ve also learned how intertwined legal is with every aspect of the company, and how a comprehensive understanding of how the business functions is extremely useful if not necessary for this kind of work.
What advice would you offer another law student contemplating working in a similar position next summer?
I would advise any law student interested in one day going in-house to try and get an in-house internship 1L summer, because 2L summer you’re likely to go to a firm and work at a firm post-grad, so 1L summer is really the opportunity to test out in-house work to see if it’s something you want to do. In the actual internship, I would just advise to be ready to learn everything on the job and ask questions!
How are you spending your free time this summer?
Chicago really comes alive in the summer, so if you have the opportunity, I recommend staying in Chicago for at least one summer while you’re here. In my free time I have been going to concerts, spending time at the lake, trying new restaurants, traveling, and just enjoying a break from school!
What are you most looking forward to in returning to UChicago Law this fall?
I’m most looking forward to reuniting with all my friends I made in 1L that are scattered around the world this summer. And of course, Peaches coffee.