Meaghan Lane ’18 Takes Legal Writing Skills to the Next Level

At Villanova Law, students find creative ways to combine their passions with their legal education. Meaghan Lane ’18 coupled her interest in sports management with a spring 2018 externship to propel her into the world of athletics and sports compliance.

Lane, a former writer and editor for Villanova Law’s Sports Law Society blog, took several sports law classes while at Villanova and landed a unique position as a Compliance Extern at University of Pennsylvania Athletics. The externship afforded her the opportunity to experience how compliance systems function at a university with both strong academics and athletics.

Faced with the challenge of interpreting complicated NCAA rules, Lane applied her legal background, in particular her legal writing skills, to engage in creative problem solving. Whether it was summarizing bylaws, or putting together a rules education presentation for coaches, she found that the writing skills honed at Villanova Law allowed her to write for a variety of audiences.

“I applied the skills I learned in my transactional writing class to this position, and also found that many of the concepts we learned in business-focused classes were helpful, despite the nontraditional nature of my externship,” Lane said. “Working in teams and collaborating to develop solutions to problems were skills I used every day in the Compliance Office at Penn.”

In addition, Villanova Law helped her form a foundation of business knowledge important for college athletics. “At the end of the day, college athletics is a business, and compliance, ensuring teams and coaching staff are following the rules, is an important part of its success at both the micro and macro levels,” Lane said.

Lane is now an Associate at Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP’s Philadelphia office. Read more about externship opportunities here, and the Legal Writing program here.