As published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Bucking employment trends, recent graduates of The John Marshall Law School’s LLM program in tax and employee benefits continue to be in demand at law firms and corporate legal departments.
The Center for Tax Law & Employee Benefits at John Marshall offers the only graduate employee benefits program in the country, and at a recent “Careers in Employee Benefits” panel discussion on campus, many of the law school’s graduates spoke about how the program propelled them along their career path. The panelists were Malaika Caldwell (’12), Anne Schmidt(’13) and Teresa Blomquist (’01).
Caldwell, an associate in Ice Miller’s employee benefits group, told the audience about the advantages of specializing in employee benefits. “Going into employee benefits has been a phenomenal decision,” she said. “Having an advanced degree in this area of the law has become invaluable to me. I landed a great job almost immediately and still have head hunters calling me constantly thanks to my employee benefits background.”
Caldwell’s legal skills were in such demand that she secured a job in the field before graduating. With the help of the Center Director, Kathryn J. Kennedy, at John Marshall, she was hired as a student investigator for the U. S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefit Security Administration and still relies on the experience she gained in governmental compliance. Anne Schmidt uses her employee benefits background in the context of resolving divorces by high-end couples and Teresa Blomquist uses her employee benefits background in the Taft-Hartley context for union employees.
Other graduates of the John Marshall’s tax and employee benefits program are now working at corporate legal departments including Walmart, Dow Chemical, Sherwin-Williams Co., Starbucks, Whirlpool and Groupon.
John Marshall offers practicing attorneys LLM degrees in seven areas: employee benefits, estate planning, information technology & privacy, intellectual property (IP), international business & trade, real estate and tax. John Marshall also provides the option to earn LLM degrees in employee benefits, estate planning and IP law online.
