Berkeley Law’s Away Field Placement Program grants J.D. students academic credit for legal work performed for a non-profit or government agency outside the Bay Area. The Robbins Collection provides financial support for students working in a country, region, or city outside the U.S. that is characterized by civil or religious law traditions and institutions.
In 2017, the Robbins Collection supported the placements of Ariana Shaffer, Eileen Sherman, and Nam Phan. Read about their experiences in our Q&A below.
Ariana Shaffer, JD ’18
Initiative for Corporate Legal Sustainability
Santiago, Chile
Why this agency? “The Initiative for Corporate Legal Sustainability in Santiago is a non-profit started by Berkeley Law alum, Juan Ibanez. Juan felt that corporate responsibility and sustainability issues are only talked about at the C-suite level, or within a certain department of a company, and general counsel are usually left out of those conversations. But, it’s really important that [general counsel] have a role in those conversations because they are uniquely suited to talk about sustainability and risk in the company, they understand what that means for a company in the short term and long term. I felt this was something that could be relevant to my work in the US and that I could [use] my skills and leadership going forward to advise clients.”
A typical work day: “Day to day, it was a lot of meetings with general counsel. I [spent] half the day researching corporate sustainability, looking at different case studies and best practices, and then the other half going to meetings, or going to conferences or doing little things here and there. Juan started the initiative in March 2017, so a lot of what he was still doing was getting the word out. We met with a lot of general counsel to explain what the initiative is, why it’s important, and why their companies should sign on. I got to meet with the general counsel of Walmart in Chile and Nestle, really great companies that wanted to be a part of this initiative.”
What opportunities did you have to build your network? “Juan, my boss, is a great mentor. He was great at networking and helping us find connections. I was there with one other law student, but she was more interested in international law and I was more on the corporate side. So my mentorship was more geared toward general counsel and hers was more international based. I think that goal for both of us was fulfilled of having meaningful relationships and mentorships with people in the field.”
Did your placement correlate with a civil law system? “Chile is a civil law country and with the specific international issues we dealt with, like indigenous rights, worker’s rights, and mining rights, I really saw the interplay of the civil law system. It was great to be in a civil law country and to compare it to my experience in the US.”
What is something you took away from your field placement that you never would have gotten from a typical classroom? “It’s so important that as lawyers we have diverse experiences, especially now with the way the world is interconnected. Our clients are global, and more and more clients expect attorneys to be diverse, and have a well-rounded perspective. The chance to go abroad and really see first-hand what clients are dealing with was beneficial in a way that I could definitely not have done in a business class at Berkeley, [especially since] general counsels will be clients of mine at Cooley. I think first-hand experience is always the best experience.”
What will you be doing after graduation? “I came into law school decided that I wanted to do corporate law. I’ll be going to Cooley LLP in San Francisco doing mostly start-up work, venture capital, and general corporate.”
Eileen Sherman, J.D. ‘ 18
Legal Resources Centre
Cape Town, South Africa
Why this agency? “I chose the LRC because I wanted experience in refugee law and I figured the largest public interest, human rights NGO in the country was a good place to start! I learned of the internship from a former Berkeley Law student who had a fantastic experience with her attorney-mentor.”
A typical work day: “The LRC functions as a walk-in clinic. Most days, I would complete intake statements for asylum seekers who needed timely help and I would help my supervisor with long-term cases by writing briefs on constitutional issues affecting refugees.”
Did your placement correlate with a civil law system? “South Africa is characterized by civil law traditions and institutions, and I learned how those traditions intersected with the religious legal traditions of other African countries. South Africa is one of the largest recipients of asylum-seekers in the world and has a complex system of law with a fairly new constitution, making the practice challenging and incredibly interesting.”
Advice to current J.D. students: “An Away Field Placement is the best practical legal experience you can get while also reaping all the benefits of living in a new and unfamiliar place.”
Nam Phan, J.D. ’18
GonGam Human Rights Law Foundation
Seoul, South Korea
Why this agency? GonGam is not a government agency but they do a lot of public interest law in South Korea. They started out as as a public interest foundation and they branched out to become a public interest law office. GonGam was actually the first non-profit law office in South Korea. I’m actually not Korean, I’m Vietnamese but I’m very interested in Korean culture and I worked in Korea during my 1L summer. I worked for the largest Korean law firm, Kim & Chang. During my 2L at Berkeley, I did my comparative law research paper on Vietnamese and Korean constitutional law. I thought it would be a good opportunity to go back to Korea during my 3L to work and study their legal culture. I was referred to GonGam by one of our counselors and several Korean lawyers whom I knew from when they were doing their LLM at Berkeley.
A typical work day: Most of my work at GonGam was legal researching. Occasionally, I’d receive translation projects, even though my Korean wasn’t very good. I also translated some of their materials from Korean to Vietnamese so that in the future, if they work with Vietnamese clients, they’ll have materials to show. I would help them prepare for events. For example, I tabled in a main square in Seoul passing out fliers to people about the law we were petitioning for.
How were you able to contribute to the organization? While I was in Korea, I also worked with the Vietnamese immigrant community. In Korea, there are a lot of Vietnamese and southeast Asian immigrants. Usually, they come to Korea as migrant workers and there is a large number of foreign bribes. They face a lot of discrimination in South Korea, so I worked with those Vietnamese immigrants. It was unofficial GonGam work. GonGam didn’t have any work with Vietnamese immigrants before, so when I was there I helped them network and connect them with other Vietnamese communities.
Did your placement correlate with a civil law system? I got to learn about the [Korean] legal system and the litigation procedure in south Korea. I think the main ideologies are very similar [but] civil law countries have different approaches to precedent and how to interpret the law. I had a really interesting case at GonGam. There was a foreign worker and he was physically abused by his employer. He was trying to bring his case to court but the employer said if he waived all of his legal rights, the employer will allow the worker to transfer to another location where he can continue to work rather than being deported. It was like a contract between employer and employee. But, that kind of contract wouldn’t be enforceable in the US because it is unconscionable to ask a worker to waive their legal rights for both the civil and criminal case. When I heard about the case I wanted to say, “this won’t work,” but then a Korean lawyer explained that the employment law in Korea is pro-employer and that kind of bargain is allowable.
In June, you are going to present a research paper at Seoul National University. How did your work in Korea affect this paper? When I came back to Berkeley, I approached the paper with a very different perspective than before. Before my field placement, I was using secondary research from law review articles and databases. After returning from Seoul, I reviewed and compared primary research on the constitutions of Vietnam and Korean—the actual texts. I can read the Vietnamese version without translation, but for the Korean one, I used both the English and Korean translations. It was a very enjoyable experience because you’re covering things that a lot of people in the secondary sources didn’t pay attention to.
What is something you took away from your field placement that you never would have gotten from a typical classroom? I got a lot of interaction and learned about law from a more practical perspective. Especially for public interest law, people have to do a lot of advocacy on top of the legal work, so I that was a good thing I got out of the program instead of being in school.
Post-graduation plans: I got a job offer at a New York law firm (Milbank, Tweed, Hadley, & McCloy LLP) for corporate and finance law.