Careers in International Law


must also seek to reinforce the power of those developing norms and institutions, rather than aiding and abetting in non-transparent or illegal ways to accomplish transactions. In fact, lawyers can do both, because the bargains that truly last are the ones that take law and legal institutions seriously, and not those built on alleged personal connections or under the table payments and the like.


Any final words of advice regarding what students should consider pursuing in order to make them a good fit for practicing private international law?


To repeat, I think that linguistic facility is very im- portant, as is the knowledge of how the rest of the world works, often gained by the experience of living in different parts of the world. Second, as I counsel my students, I think law school is the time to engage not only with traditional law


school topics but also to challenge yourself with wildly unusual areas that will help expand your mind and your ability to encounter systems radi- cally different from your own. Third, maintain a posture to the world and the law which allows you to keep a very open mind. Lastly, understand upon graduation from law school you don’t know much, and that even after 20 years of practice you still won’t know much. The whole game is about encountering new problems, keeping an open mind, exercising humility about how little you know about your own legal system much less a foreign legal system. Above all, be very ambitious about gaining a deep, nuanced, under- standing of how other national legal and regula- tory systems really work. That takes significant personal investment, and work, but it will pay off handsomely.


Thank you very much for your time. .


ILSA Quarterly » volume 20 » issue 2 » December 2011


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