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Faculty of Law Publicizes Enterprise Law Fellows in 2021

Nine students from the University of Mississippi School of Law have been selected to participate in the 2021 Business Law Fellowship program. They are (top left to right): Carter Babaz, Chandler Coleman, Le’Ronda Gates, Daniel Ginn, Zach Ishee, Teresa Jones, Tanya McGill, Margaret Pitts, and Garner Vance. Submitted photos

OXFORD, miss. – The University of Mississippi School of Law has selected nine students to participate in the 2021 Business Law Fellowship program.

This year’s business lawyers are Carter Babaz, Chandler Coleman, Le’Ronda Gates, Daniel Ginn, Zach Ishee, Teresa Jones, Tanya McGill, Margaret Pitts, and Garner Vance.

The program offers freshman law students interested in business and corporate law the opportunity to spend the summer in general counsels and other departments of some of the country’s leading corporations.

“We are incredibly proud of our unique Business Law Fellowship program,” said Susan Duncan, dean of the faculty. “Typically, it takes years of legal practice before someone is able to gain business experience.

“We are grateful to our corporate partners for extending this opportunity of invaluable experience to some of our top students. This is just another way in which we at UM law try to give our graduates a practice-oriented professional orientation. “

Past company participants have included FedEx, C Spire, International Paper, and Entergy Mississippi.

“I chose the Business Law Fellowship because I wanted the opportunity to gain experience in the day-to-day business and responsibilities of in-house attorneys at a large company,” said Jones.

“As a scholarship holder, the BLF gave me the opportunity to learn directly from leading management consultants and to work for both a top company in the state and a Fortune 500 company.”

The students were selected from a competitive interview and essay process. In addition to a summer stint at a large company, business lawyers also take advanced business courses, including corporations, mergers and acquisitions; Writing in business law; and accounting for lawyers.

“The scholarship provides a unique opportunity to learn directly from professionals in the corporate law field,” said Pitts. “It also gives me the opportunity to incorporate my business management background into my legal training.

“The BLF made both of these experiences possible for me because I worked internally at C Spire this summer.”

The scholarship began in 2019 and is part of the faculty’s business law program within the Business Law Institute. National Jurist consistently recognizes the school as one of the best institutions in the country for business law.

Carter Babazi, of Atlanta, graduated from the University of Georgia with a bachelor’s degree in finance and international business in 2019. She worked for a year at Deloitte as a financial advisor on engagements before starting her law degree in fall 2020. This summer, Babaz will be working at Nelson Mullins in Atlanta.

Chandler Coleman, a native of Pontotoc, attended Millsaps College for his undergraduate degree in business administration. He graduated from UM Patterson School of Accountancy with a Masters degree in Taxes and Data Analysis. He will be working at Maynard Cooper and Gale in Huntsville, Alabama this summer.

Le’Ronda gates, from Atlanta, holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Alabama State University and a master’s degree in public administration from Strayer University. Prior to her law degree, she worked at the Southern Poverty Law Center, the law firms of Elizabeth Winfield, Athenahealth Inc., State Farm Property and Casualty Insurance, and Farmers Insurance, specializing in life and commercial insurance and advising families and small businesses.

As a Harriet Tubman PTO Aftercare Fellow, her primary focus was developing after-school programs promoting STEAM programs – science, technology, engineering, arts and math – for minority students. Gates is working for FedEx Express this summer.

Daniel Ginn is from Weatherford, Texas. He graduated from Texas A&M University with a bachelor’s degree in history. Prior to law school, he worked for the Tri-County Electric Cooperative in Fort Worth, Texas. This summer he will be working for Entergy Mississippi.

Zach Ishee, from Odessa, Florida, holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in agricultural economics from Mississippi State University. During his Bachelor and Masters summers, he worked at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington, DC. This summer he works for FedEx Freight.

Teresa Jones is from Sharkey County and holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Ole Miss. Before attending the School of Law, she worked in the White House, the US Senate, the US House of Representatives, and for several state and national campaigns.

Her interest in commercial and corporate law stems from her position at a minority company in Columbus, where she assisted the CEO with business development and contract proposals. This summer, Jones will be working at Butler Snow and International Paper.

Tanya McGill, from Atlanta, graduated from the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. Prior to attending the School of Law, McGill worked as an internal counsel intern for Golden State Foods in Irvine, California.

This summer she will work at Butler Snow in Nashville for the first half of the summer and at Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer PA in Atlanta for the second half.

Margaret Pitts, a native of Waynesboro, received a bachelor’s degree in English from Mississippi State University in 2016. Before studying law, she worked for Ballew Wealth Management, a private wealth management company in Jackson. While working, she completed her Masters in Business Administration at Millsaps College. Pitts will be spending the summer working for C Spire.

Garner Vance is a native of Grenada and completed his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at Ole Miss in 2017. Before studying law, he worked for Resolute Forest Products as a process engineer for three years. Vance will join Yates Construction in Jackson and Birmingham, Alabama and Gilpin Givhan in Montgomery, Alabama this summer.

Further information on the School of Law can be found at https://law.olemiss.edu.

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