Attorney Spotlight: Shawn Foust

Shawn Foust, a Class of 2007 graduate from the University of Virginia, summered with the firm in 2006, returned a year later to join our Business Trial practice group and ultimately became a game consultant. When asked to discuss his early experience at the firm, he wrote the following back in 2009: 

When you first arrive at Sheppard Mullin, you will hear a presentation. This presentation will talk about all of the wonderful opportunities you will have at the firm to grow your career.  Resources!  Mentoring! Challenging work!  All that will be required of you is that you be proactive about taking advantage of these opportunities.  It will sound good...perhaps TOO good.  I imagine you will be skeptical.  I was too.

Let me share with you how the firm brought me around.

I'll start with the basics.  I am a business trial associate in our Century City office with special emphasis on the entertainment industry.  I have written substantive motions and argued them in court.  I have defended depositions.  I have drafted contracts.  I have handled discovery disputes.  I know who the client is and I have spoken to him/her.  I am not the only junior associate in my office who has had these opportunities.  The cases I work on are typically leanly staffed and I am given a great deal of responsibility as a result.  I enjoy the blend of work I have been given and the challenges that come with it.  I think this alone makes Sheppard Mullin an interesting place to work, but the distinguishing characteristic is the career support.

Half-way through my first year at the firm, I saw the opportunity to combine a personal interest of mine -- video games -- with the firm's legal practice by creating a team dedicated to the video game industry.  I approached the leadership of the firm fully expecting the immediate rejection of any idea that could conceivably allow me to play video games in my office.  Instead, I was told to draft up a business plan and give the firm a reason to put resources into a team.  Fast forward six months.  I lead a highly collaborative team that was announced to great press and is now building upon the firm's experience in the space.  I have participated in pitches for video game clients, taken people in the industry I greatly admire to lunch, presented at video game conferences, and received everything I could conceivably want in terms of support.

Perhaps the most rewarding part of the process is the people I have met.  Through the team, I have spoken with partners from every group in the firm and in every office.  Without fail they have been generous with their time and more than willing to support the team.  They have participated in brainstorm sessions discussing theoretical issues in video game law.  They have put me in touch with their personal contacts.  They have explained how tax, antitrust, government contracts, employment, and just about every other specialty in law intersects with the video game space.  When I have managed to bring in my own clients, they have offered to advise me and help me grow the relationship.  It is mentoring in the true sense of the word (as opposed to the little known and greatly feared false sense of the word).

Not a bad way to spend the first year.  I highly recommend you try it.