The Occidental Petroleum Corporation, also known as Oxy, has recently been in the news for its landmark discovery of oil and gas in a Kern County field.
While the discovery is thought to be the largest find in California in approximately 35 years, second-year UCLA law student Willis White thinks first of the experiences and mentorship that he encountered at the Westwood-based company, rather than the discovery of oil.
Despite being the nation’s fourth largest oil company, Oxy is involved in the UCLA community through an extensive internship program.
For more than 10 years, Oxy, which is located above the UCLA Hammer Museum on Wilshire Boulevard, has worked with the UCLA School of Law to provide students with summer internships at the Westwood corporate headquarters.
“It is typically difficult for a first-year law student to find an internship, so we gear our program to them,” said Heather Skinazi, counsel for Oxy.
She added that the company is in UCLA’s backyard.
The program, which was started by General Counsel Donald de Brier, begins with a multitude of resumes collected by the UCLA School of Law Career Services department.
From those resumes, Oxy conducts two rounds of interviews, the final of which takes place at the Westwood headquarters with de Brier.
Typically, between four and six interns are accepted every year, and for the last five years, all of those interns have been UCLA students.
White spoke highly of his experience with Oxy.
“I would say my experience was very diverse. I got to work on a variety of projects, from writing reports for IRS, to water codes, to bankruptcy codes, to environmental issues,” he said. “I really valued my experience there.”
Katie Strickland, a former Daily Bruin Viewpoint columnist and one of the 2009 Oxy summer interns, said that she was surprised to have an interview with de Brier, the top lawyer in the company.
“I was surprised because he spent a lot of time with me, over an hour, in the interview and seemed very interested in what I had done previously and what I was like as a person. The other interns I worked with said they have had the same experience with him,” Strickland said.
White agreed with Strickland’s experience.
“I spent about an hour and 40 minutes with Donald. We talked about a wide variety of things, and he introduced me to several of the other attorneys in the office,” he said.
Oxy’s internship program has two main focuses: mentorship and hands-on corporate experience.
“First-year law students do not typically get hired by firms. We think that it helps a young lawyer to know what in-house counsel does and what client expectations are before they go to a firm,” said Linda Peterson, associate general counsel.
Interns are given writing projects, perform research and receive assignments that require them to give presentations in front of groups of people ““ a skill that lawyers are often required to use, Peterson added.
“We teach them to combine legal thinking with common sense,” she said.
“Donald gave us group projects and really pushed us to make and present decisions rather than what you thought he wanted to hear,” White said.
Mentorship continues well after the end of the internship, with encouragement to stay in touch and to call on them for any professional or personal advice they may need.
“Mentorship is especially important in this economy. We can give them advice and information on job openings and career moves,” Peterson said.
Peterson said that she and her colleagues believe that it is important to build and maintain relationships with the students who intern for Oxy. Two years ago, Oxy hosted an intern reunion, which was attended by 35 of the 50 people invited. Most of those who did not attend were out of town, according to Peterson.
In addition to the internship program, Oxy also makes donations to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and to research programs at the David Geffen School of Medicine.
“UCLA Medical Sciences appreciates Occidental Petroleum’s philanthropic support over the years. … Their current and previous generosity has allowed us to continue our critical mission of patient care, research and education,” said Roxanne Yamaguchi Moster, a UCLA Medical Sciences spokeswoman.