About the Collaborative

The Law in Technology Diversity Collaborative was launched in 2018 by Patricia Svilik and David Pilson as an outgrowth of eBay's legal internship program.  Inspired by a desire to bring this enriching experience to more law students and to develop heartfelt mentoring and expanded networks to support these students in the legal profession, the LiTD Collaborative was formed.  The LiTD Collaborative is a cross-company legal internship program among 26 leading technology companies in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Boston.  We provide a vibrant ten-week summer experience for approximately 45 underrepresented minorities, women, and other first-year law students with a commitment to diversity – with each tech company hosting the student(s) for five weeks and a partner law firm hosting the student(s) for an additional five weeks.

The program incorporates the following elements:
  1. Exposure to legal issues facing the tech company;
  2. Opportunity to work on legal projects supervised by in-house and outside counsel, experiencing firsthand the difference in how legal advice is crafted between both legal environments; and
  3. Cultivation of meaningful networking opportunities, both vertically with attorneys in the various legal departments and firms involved, and horizontally with legal interns at the other companies in the Collaborative. 

We view this program as an opportunity to introduce high-potential law students to rare in-house technology company experience and also create a pipeline for companies and firms to cultivate diverse talent.  For our inaugural summer program in 2019, seven tech companies and 12 law firms participated to provide internships to 16 exceptional law students. They were eBay -- whose legal internship program served as the inspiration for the LiTD Collaborative -- Facebook, HPE, LendingClub, Symantec (now NortonLifeLock), Turo, and Uber.  The law firms were Baker McKenzie; Boies Schiller Flexner; Cooley; Covington & Burling; Fenwick & West; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Hogan Lovells; Mayer Brown; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; Morrison Foerster; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; and Perkins Coie.    

In 2020, we more than doubled our list of participating tech companies to 15, including eBay, GoPro, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP, Intel, Intuit, LendingClub, Lyft, NortonLifeLock, Segment, Snap, Thumbtack, Turo, Uber Technologies, Inc., and Zynga.  Together, we partnered with 18 top-tier law firms to provide this awesome opportunity to 25 law students!  

This year, for the  2021 summer, we have grown to 26 tech companies hosting a class of nearly 45 law students! 

Working together, we are a cross-company team of heartfelt attorneys and legal professionals passionately collaborating to give these exceptional students the work experience, resume credentials, mentoring, networks, and confidence to succeed.  Join us!


Benefits of the Program

Working together as a collaborative unlocks added value to both the students and attorneys in the program. 

Impact for Students

Participating students benefit from both a "horizontal" social network similar to a law firm's summer associate class as well as a “vertical network” of mentors and contacts, as they get to meet attorneys from the other tech companies and firms involved. 

Impact for Companies

​Legal teams can take advantage of economies of scale and distribute the substantial workload that goes into recruiting, interviewing, and planning intern events. Incidentally, we expand our own networks as well.
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Impact for Law Firms

By bringing exceptional students from a wider array of law schools with a high diversity index (including those that high-profile law firms may not typically target), we open the door for others to follow.  Not only do those students have the opportunity to prove themselves and get an offer to return, but the firms may consider targeting those law schools in the coming years. 
© 2018-2021 Law in Technology Diversity Collaborative
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