Alumni Profile: Ellie Faust, L'18

Ellie Faust, L’18, was drawn to the role of in-house counsel during law school – first through an internship with a private equity firm, and then through an academic externship with Capital One. “Those experiences are what really set me on the path of deciding, ‘I want to be in-house,' and made me recognize that this is the path that’s right for me,” said Faust. 

The business partner model of in-house service – working with different internal departments as clients to identify creative solutions – appealed to Faust. “You have the chance to work with and learn from people across different professional backgrounds while also connecting with outside counsel as needed to deep dive on certain issues,” she said. 

To gain entry into a competitive field, Faust decided to pursue an in-house career through a different starting point: compliance. After graduating in 2018 and moving to Boston, she worked as a compliance associate for medical device company Foundation Medicine. “This spurred my interest in health law and made me realize I wanted to continue along that path,” she explained. And it was a perfect segue to the next step in her career: Faust transitioned to her current position as assistant general counsel for the Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (HMFP) in Boston in 2020.

HMFP is the employed physician group for the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, employing about 1,500 providers in 13 different departments. “It was appealing to work with a small team and gain exposure to a variety of subject areas,” said Faust. “Each day, there’s a new field of law to learn about,” from issues on employment to data privacy to IP. “You kind of have to be a jack of all trades.” 

Beyond the variety, Faust appreciates the impact of the job. “You can directly see how your work affects the inner workings of the company which in turn, helps improve the patient experience.”