Summer Work Profile: Moore turns internship to full-time position

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Regulatory law is a complex field, one with which Penn State Law second-year student Jonathan Moore is very familiar. Prior to coming to Penn State Law, he was the manager of corrective actions/corporate compliance for an aerospace manufacturing company in Kansas. There, he led audit responses against several regulatory governmental agencies, and developed and performed hundreds of training sessions, many of which are still used today. His unique background led him to a summer internship with Prince Law Offices, in Bechtelsville, Pa.

After hearing about the opportunity from another law student who recognized the firm as one with areas of interest to Moore, he immediately reached out to the firm to begin the application process. After two interviews, one phone and one in-person, he became Prince’s only legal intern for the summer. At the start of his program, he was assigned to the Firearms Industry Consulting Group, the firm’s firearms division which deals with Pennsylvania and federal firearms law. But after some time on the job, Moore’s expertise in dealing with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issues became apparent. He was asked to revamp the entire OSHA division of the firm.

“I noticed some of their OSHA publications were outdated, so I updated all of them,” said Moore. “From there, I was able to do mock OSHA audits for businesses.”

While starting from scratch on an entire division of a law firm was certainly a challenge, Moore credits part of his success to his education at Penn State Law. Many of his courses in his first year prepared him for the diverse challenges he faced, particularly Legal Research Tools and Strategies. “You can never emphasize enough how important that is,” said Moore.

Though he is only starting his second year of law school, Moore is still currently working with Prince Law Offices, as the firm’s OSHA consultant. His primary duties include performing initial assessments, mock OSHA audits, and developing OSHA-compliant safety programs. After graduation, Moore has been offered a full-time position with the firm.

“I would say I learned a lot,” he said. “Probably the most important thing is how critical it is to keep a broad focus on different areas of law. You never know when you may learn something useful from an area that you never expected.”