In 2022 the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Program at NYU Law (EVC) funded summer internships for Ben Titlebaum ’24 and Talya Whyte ’24 to work at start-ups led by NYU Law alumni. The EVC, which was founded in 2018 as the NYU Law Venture Fund, not only provides summer internship funding but also offers summer grants to students in the early stages of developing a business concept, and equity investments to students or alumni seeking seed-stage funding.
Titlebaum interned in New York at TechGC, an invitation-only community platform for in-house lawyers at technology companies and venture capital firms. The company was co-founded by Gregory Raiten ’08. Titlebaum worked closely with TechGC’s content team to produce presentations, panels, and fireside chats for platform members on topics ranging from IPOs to employment and privacy law. Titlebaum also worked with the company’s product team on ways to better utilize TechGC’s internal data.
“I was able to leverage my experience there to meet many GCs and firm attorneys at many companies and firms and create a useful network in the industry,” says Titlebaum, who worked for an IP docketing software company before matriculating at NYU Law. “This experience was the ideal introduction to the professional legal field.”
At Octant, a synthetic biology startup in California co-founded by Ramsey Homsany ’00, Whyte worked as an operations intern. She led a Small Business Innovation Research grant renewal project, collaborating with a scientist experienced in grant writing. Whyte also focused on recruitment for the company, which was prioritizing growth after receiving its Series B funding, and worked on legal matters related to employment law, immigration law, contract law, and patent law.
Whyte, who has a science background and is interested in technology law, says that she found great value in her internship. “Octant was still small enough for me to get substantive experience, and I know the work I was doing was immediately important to the success of the company,” she says. “I also was able to build my network with accomplished attorneys, scientists, and managers who have widened my perspective on potential career paths with a legal degree.”
Posted December 13, 2022