Heather T•••

About

On the record

I am a second-year student at UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law. I would like to gain first-hand experience in a wide range of transactional and business law matters, which is the area in which I am focusing my coursework. I am taking classes in mergers and acquisitions, antitrust, real estate, transactional legal practice, business associations, and trademarks. Additionally, I am a first-generation law student committed to practicing in the Northeast after graduation to be near family. Last summer, I interned at the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic at New Mexico Legal Aid. My goal is to work as a transactional business lawyer, and I wanted to have first-hand experience in tax law. There, I performed legal research using Westlaw on the tax code to determine the next steps for our clients. Additionally, I gained experience interviewing and working with clients to help relieve their tax liabilities as well as communicating with the IRS and the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department. I attended training on topics such as refund issues, tax court, collections, offsets and bankruptcy, dependents, and interest and penalties. I enjoyed learning about tax policy and the inner workings of the IRS and this experience reaffirmed my decision to pursue business law and learn about related transactional topics at UNH. Before attending law school, I was a freelance French translator, where I worked independently and developed skills in research, analysis, proofreading, and Microsoft Office. Organization and time management were key, and I learned to juggle multiple clients with short deadlines. During my translation internships, an intensive peer review process required me to explain and defend my word choices depending on the purpose of the document, often in a legal or engineering context. I honed my research skills to decipher complex processes and find answers to specific questions that directly impacted the accuracy of a translation. In law school, I assessed legal risks and business interests in my antitrust law class and created a multi-step drafting and review process in my legal writing class. My combined academic and work experiences have made me a well-rounded individual with skills in writing and interpersonal communication and collaboration.