Summer Internship Opportunities for 1L Student Abroad

When I arrived in Hong Kong in July last year for the Duke Summer Abroad Program at Hong Kong University, I was surprised to find that many Duke students had already finished a summer internship with law firms either in Japan, Korea or China prior to their arrival in Hong Kong. It turned out that the students were helped by their program director to land 4-6 weeks internship before our summer program. I thought to myself how nice it was to earn 6 law units as well as an internship abroad, all in one summer.  I wanted to do that too, but it was already late into the summer, and I was afraid that I would not be able to do it. What were my chances?

After a bit of networking, I got a few words of advice from the program director that it is easier to find a summer internship in either Japan or Korea than in Hong Kong and China at such a late moment, especially for a US student who does not know the local language. I followed his advice and, without any real hope, sent out my resume and cover letters to five Korean law firms in the very last week of our program in late July.  I didn’t think that I would be successful but told myself that I would apply anyway just so I wouldn’t regret not doing it.  To my surprise, I was offered an internship with a mid-size international law firm in Seoul, South Korea within just a few days! Sometimes it is rewarding to maintain a “just do it” attitude.

Many of you are probably working hard to search for a summer job at the moment.  I hope that some of you are considering working abroad, especially those of you who are interested in international law. I found it immensely enriching and eye-opening to live and work in a new place as well as to learn about the similarities and differences that exist between the United States and foreign countries. My last minute job search convinced me that there are more opportunities to intern abroad than one may think. For this reason, I thought I should share some tips and resources with you.

1. Prepare your resume and cover letters as early as you can and apply early. Hastings career center has a great database that will help you to locate alums working in your preferred region. You can contact them for advice and recommendation. Many alums will even help you find local jobs if they are available. It was this linkage that most of the Duke students found their summer internships with very prominent US law firms in Japan and China.

2. I used HG.org and Martindale to search for the firms by region and by practice areas. While doing your search, don’t limit yourself; apply to as many firms as you can. However, you should prioritize your options into region, country and area of practice ahead of time in case you receive a few different offers at once. Even in late July, I received two offers and was ready to negotiate for my best one. Strategize your game!

3. It is best to have a rough idea of the area of law that you are particularly interested in. While negotiating with my law firm, I was asked what field and region I wanted to work in. Later, the firm nicely arranged me to work with the chief attorney who was in charge of the firm’s South East Asian practice. The experience was beyond fruitful and instructive.

4. Be prepared to ask for any accommodation that you may need while being in a foreign country. Some law firms do have a specific program for summer associates, but most firms don’t, which means they may not be entirely familiar with your personal needs. I asked my firm to help me with finding accommodation that is close by the office. The company ended up offering me a small residence only 10 minutes by subway from the main office located in the center of Seoul’s financial district. Later on, they further paid for all utilities, transportation, lunch and even dinners whenever I stayed at work late. There were also a welcome lunch and departing dinner (with karaoke) at the end of my internship, but that was another story of building professional work relationship with your employer. I was told that some Korean and Japanese firms even pay stipends for your stay if they cannot offer you working salaries.

5.  Knowing local language is preferred but is not required. Although there is an obvious advantage to speaking the language, it is important to keep this in perspective. Before my internship, I had never been to South Korea and don’t know any Korean. Yet, I did not have any language problems during my internship. If you are in a similar situation, I suggest looking for law firms that have strong international practices, which will almost guarantee you some learning experience and professional interactions.

6. Be prepared, be patient and be open-minded when you are in a new country. Everything will sort itself out gradually. Did I say that you will have a blast? If you trust the journey, it will show you the land where your imagination often fails to reach.

Sail your boat, have fun and best of luck!

Comments

[Sean T]

- Do you have any recommendations on how a law student can get a summer job in Korea?

- Are there better approaches to contacting firms aside from simply applying out of the blue?

- Are there any firms/companies you can recommend for summer positions?

[Christine Ngo]

Hi Sean,

In general, it's quite easy to apply for an internship in South Korea since they're very fond of US law students and often found us helpful. I mentioned two methods in the blog entry because I know they both work. One is to utilize your alumni network. With this, you need to find out who are the alums that are currently working or having connections with South Korea and ask the alums for referrals (in a nice way, of course). The second option is to send out cold letters. For this approach, if you haven't seen it working, you probably haven't tried hard enough. I recently found a summer internship with a Swiss law firm in Geneva this summer through this route.

However, to answer your question, there is one more option that was recommended by my career counselor, which I have never tried. But I was told that it worked in the past for the counselor himself years ago. It is to call the firm directly. Here were the instructions.

1. Pick up the name of a partner who works on legal field that you're interested in and give him or her a call. The advice was to call at the hours that you're almost certain that he or she won't be there to pick up the call so that you can simply leave a voice message.
2. In the message introduce yourself, your school and inquire about the possibility to intern for the firm. You also should mention that you will send a resume and cover letter by email to follow up on your inquiry.
3. Sometimes you will have to go through the receptionist or a generic phone number before they could connect you. Do insist to leave a message for the partner by all means.
4. After the voice message, email him or her your resume and cover letter and ask to follow up by another phone call within a week. This will induce a response from the firm within the time frame if they can't offer you an internship.
5. Follow up if you don't hear from them and reaffirm your interest.

Like I said, I was told that this approach is much more personal since they could hear your voice and may call you back for a phone interview. I have never tried this approach since cold letters have been working for me, but it seems worth trying especially with those firms that you have special interest.

I do have a list of the Korean firms that I approached last year. I will send it you separately.

Best of luck!

Christine

[Kay]

you said you found your internship in late july. how long did it last?

[Christine Ngo]

Hi Kay,

It was a one month internship.

Best,

Christine

[Christine McBain]

Hi Christine,

I'm a Canadian law student, attending Dalhousie Law School in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I just completed my first year of study, and am very interested in gaining international experience.

Would it be possible for you to direct me to the names of firms in South Korea that are receptive to North American students? Also, do you have any tips for things to include in a cover letter, or, more generally, on how to approach the firms with the idea of an internship?

Thanks for your input.

[David]

Hello Christine,

I am also a Canadian first year Law student but at the University of Victoria. I sent out quite a few cold letters to big firms in Korea nevertheless have not received any interested replies.

I was wondering if it is possible for you to send me the list of firms that you approached so I can expand my search for a summer internship.

Thanks,

David

[personal injury lawyer dude]

South Korea sounds like an awesome place to go. At least that's what I would have said like a year ago. Now with all of this intimidation coming from the north and the rockets flying, it may be a good idea to look for an internship somewhere else. You know, a place where communist dictators aren't shooting rockets at you.

[summer jobs abroad]

Gaining international experience on any aspects is really great. I would love to have that too. Since then I was interested in traveling around the world. I want to save to reach that vision. Smart post. Thanks for sharing some thoughts.

[Jack Kingsley, DUI attorney.]

@Christine: I can't give you the names of the firms in South Korea, but generally things you want to include in a cover letter is both A) the amount of research you've done into the subject and B) your own personal experiences. People always like people they can relate to, even when it comes to businesses.

[Lee]

Hi Christine,

I'm an Australian law student and googled internship at a korean law firm and it directed me to your site. I have the same request as the writer above me, and I was wondering whether it might be at all possible for you to direct me to a list of firms in South Korea, possibly including the one where you were offered the internship?

I'm not really all that familiar with the Korean firms, although I have some idea. So any input from you would be really helpful!

Thanks,

Lee

[Gary Neal]

Cool post! I want to be involved in Utah corporate law someday, and I've been considering doing a study abroad in China. Do you still have access to those contacts in Japan?

[Lina Diaz]

Hi Christine,

I'm a Chilean attorney attending the ILSP LL.M program at American University Washington College of Law. I'm very interested in getting a summer internship in South Korea so while I was looking on internet I found this site. I would really appreciate if you can help me by giving me some names of firms there or any other tip that you think is important.
Thank you in advance.