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Is India/South Asia in general an especially competitive region for IHR a la Latin America? I'm interested in direct-service NGOs. I speak Hindi.

I volunteered with an NGO there as an undergrad, but have no IHR experience in law school (or even coursework for that matter).

BlueLotus wrote:Is India/South Asia in general an especially competitive region for IHR a la Latin America? I'm interested in direct-service NGOs. I speak Hindi.

I volunteered with an NGO there as an undergrad, but have no IHR experience in law school (or even coursework for that matter).

Maybe. I doubt its a well-examined region compared to LA or Eastern Europe, for example. Study Nepal I heard there is a communist revolution there.

Are direct-service NGOs less prestige-hungry compared to the impact lit types? I'm merely from a Boston-area T30.

If you want to do international law, you need to check out Case Western. According to their dean they have terrific success getting students jobs in international law, including public interest type jobs like working on war crimes tribunals. Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVeKvYx ... tion=share

FutureSuperLawyer wrote:If you want to do international law, you need to check out Case Western. According to their dean they have terrific success getting students jobs in international law, including public interest type jobs like working on war crimes tribunals. Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVeKvYx ... tion=share

Dude, no, come on.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

FutureSuperLawyer wrote:If you want to do international law, you need to check out Case Western. According to their dean they have terrific success getting students jobs in international law, including public interest type jobs like working on war crimes tribunals. Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVeKvYx ... tion=share

Dude, no, come on.

Are you suggesting the dean and faculty at Case Western are lying? They are pretty clear in the video that Case is the place if you want a job in international law.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

FutureSuperLawyer wrote:If you want to do international law, you need to check out Case Western. According to their dean they have terrific success getting students jobs in international law, including public interest type jobs like working on war crimes tribunals. Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVeKvYx ... tion=share

Dude, no, come on.

FutureSuperLawyer's clearly being sarcastic. /captainobvious.

Well, I am susceptible to wooshing.

worldtraveler, HRW posted a fellowship opportunity on my Symplicity. What kinds of grades/stats in general do you need to be a competitive candidate?

BlueLotus wrote:worldtraveler, HRW posted a fellowship opportunity on my Symplicity. What kinds of grades/stats in general do you need to be a competitive candidate?

Skadden fellowship qualifications

worldtraveler wrote:

BlueLotus wrote:worldtraveler, HRW posted a fellowship opportunity on my Symplicity. What kinds of grades/stats in general do you need to be a competitive candidate?

Skadden fellowship qualifications

Interesting. Wonder why they would post on the Symplicity of a mere T30!

What kinds of stats do you need for a direct services NGO abroad? (i.e. http://www.haqcrc.org/) I have children's rights NGO experience from undergrad.

BlueLotus wrote:

worldtraveler wrote:

BlueLotus wrote:worldtraveler, HRW posted a fellowship opportunity on my Symplicity. What kinds of grades/stats in general do you need to be a competitive candidate?

Skadden fellowship qualifications

Interesting. Wonder why they would post on the Symplicity of a mere T30!

What kinds of stats do you need for a direct services NGO abroad? (i.e. http://www.haqcrc.org/) I have children's rights NGO experience from undergrad.

From that site it looks like the qualification is to be a lawyer in India. Outside of refugee resettlement there are not too many ways for a USA qualified attorney to do direct services work, unless you are an experienced lawyer training other lawyers.

worldtraveler wrote:

BlueLotus wrote:

worldtraveler wrote:

BlueLotus wrote:worldtraveler, HRW posted a fellowship opportunity on my Symplicity. What kinds of grades/stats in general do you need to be a competitive candidate?

Skadden fellowship qualifications

Interesting. Wonder why they would post on the Symplicity of a mere T30!

What kinds of stats do you need for a direct services NGO abroad? (i.e. http://www.haqcrc.org/) I have children's rights NGO experience from undergrad.

From that site it looks like the qualification is to be a lawyer in India. Outside of refugee resettlement there are not too many ways for a USA qualified attorney to do direct services work, unless you are an experienced lawyer training other lawyers.

What kind of stats/experience do you need for refugee resettlement jerbs? I have experience in undergrad working with refugees.

I met a Yale Law grad who clerked for the Supreme Court of India after graduating. What kinds of stats do you need for international clerkships? HYS-caliber?

BlueLotus wrote:I met a Yale Law grad who clerked for the Supreme Court of India after graduating. What kinds of stats do you need for international clerkships? HYS-caliber?

Also interested in this.

WT, I have ties to Colombia and speak Spanish on a native level. Assuming JD, who would hire me?

WT: maybe this has already been covered, but what are your thoughts on Lawyers without Borders?

spleenworship wrote:WT: maybe this has already been covered, but what are your thoughts on Lawyers without Borders?

Interested in this as well. Do they serve their intended communities at all?

Pragmatic Gun wrote:

spleenworship wrote:WT: maybe this has already been covered, but what are your thoughts on Lawyers without Borders?

Interested in this as well. Do they serve their intended communities at all?

Interested in this too.

Do you know of any international law fellowships less prestige-hungry than HRW?

spleenworship wrote:WT: maybe this has already been covered, but what are your thoughts on Lawyers without Borders?

I've worked with a couple of their lawyers on some projects. I wasn't that impressed with their legal skills but they could have been outliers. They do work on some interesting issues and definitely fill a void in terms of providing litigators that can do high-level human rights litigation in international courts.

Also, from what I know of them there are not too many actual career opportunities with them, and they function more as providing an organized system for attorneys in the industrialized world to find ways to volunteer their skills in developing countries. I'm pretty sure they have a rather skeletal staff organizing everything.

They also don't really serve a community. They serve other attorneys in need of training and assistance. It's usually attorneys in-country either in their own practice or at NGOs that reach out to LWB so LWB is not really designing the project. This does vary though and I think LWB might have a couple countries it focuses on where there is more going on.

BlueLotus wrote:
Do you know of any international law fellowships less prestige-hungry than HRW?

There's a whole thread on fellowships in the employment forum. But every single international fellowship is VERY concerned with prestige.

worldtraveler,

any thoughts on russian PI work? i don't have any particular commitments to fields, but i do care about the region and have a decent knowledge of the language. plus, it's a particularly 'hot' place right now. would a commitment to a particular field be a necessary part of shooting for these jobs? or could u just run with a commitment to a place (i.e. not confine yourself to just immigrant rights, for example, but search out all kinds of russian work)? i've no idea if this is something i'll end up doing. i'd just like to get a picture of the options. if u know anything about possibilities for work in russia post law school or know anyone who does i'd love to hear from you. thanks.

foamborn wrote:worldtraveler,

any thoughts on russian PI work? i don't have any particular commitments to fields, but i do care about the region and have a decent knowledge of the language. plus, it's a particularly 'hot' place right now. would a commitment to a particular field be a necessary part of shooting for these jobs? or could u just run with a commitment to a place (i.e. not confine yourself to just immigrant rights, for example, but search out all kinds of russian work)? i've no idea if this is something i'll end up doing. i'd just like to get a picture of the options. if u know anything about possibilities for work in russia post law school or know anyone who does i'd love to hear from you. thanks.

I'd also like to hear on anything related to Russia/the FSU, this is my area of undergrad expertise.

middlebear wrote:

foamborn wrote:worldtraveler,

any thoughts on russian PI work? i don't have any particular commitments to fields, but i do care about the region and have a decent knowledge of the language. plus, it's a particularly 'hot' place right now. would a commitment to a particular field be a necessary part of shooting for these jobs? or could u just run with a commitment to a place (i.e. not confine yourself to just immigrant rights, for example, but search out all kinds of russian work)? i've no idea if this is something i'll end up doing. i'd just like to get a picture of the options. if u know anything about possibilities for work in russia post law school or know anyone who does i'd love to hear from you. thanks.

I'd also like to hear on anything related to Russia/the FSU, this is my area of undergrad expertise.

There's the Alfa fellowship and I periodically see Russia/Eastern Europe analyst jobs with NGOs, mainly in DC. Occasionally there are immigration orgs that want Russian speakers too. In general though there are enough fluent Russian speakers that without fluency, I don't think you'd have much of a shot. For some reason there are a lot of law students at top American law schools who are born in Russia or their parents were, and speak the language.

thanks. i suppose that rules that out. i was hoping to hear there weren't too many russian speakers @ the top.

worldtraveler wrote:There's the Alfa fellowship and I periodically see Russia/Eastern Europe analyst jobs with NGOs, mainly in DC. Occasionally there are immigration orgs that want Russian speakers too. In general though there are enough fluent Russian speakers that without fluency, I don't think you'd have much of a shot. For some reason there are a lot of law students at top American law schools who are born in Russia or their parents were, and speak the language.

Thanks (actually, not terribly surprised by this answer). Would love to go for Alfa in a few years--I'm really planning to do FedGov, not IHR, but you've provided some terrific info in this thread.

Also, to the OP on that question--I don't think it's going to be a particularly receptive place for foreigners of any stripe to come over to do PI work, esp. American lawyers in the near future. I would also think that Russian NGOs aren't going to want to take on foreign lawyers for fear of having the foreign agent label officially slapped on, and opened up to all the trouble that brings.