The Office of Graduate Careers, together with Sidley Austin, will host a virtual information session for interested students on Wednesday, September 28th at 10 AM.
International law firm Sidley Austin LLP seeks student volunteers for ad hoc pro bono legal support with their award-winning Emerging Enterprises Pro Bono Program.
Launched by Sidley in 2012, the Emerging Enterprises Pro Bono Program provides free legal support to eligible small and medium-sized enterprises, NGOs and non-profits that have a clear social and environmental impact in developing countries, with a particular interest in supporting enterprises that are led-by or provide opportunities for women, people with disabilities, marginalized groups, and rural communities.
Sidley provides a wide variety of transactional legal assistance to these enterprises to expand operations, lower costs, increase profits, successfully access new markets and become attractive partners for investors. Further information and examples of current pro bono projects can be found on the program website: http://www.sidley.com/en/services/emerging-enterprises-program.
Students will be assigned to a pro bono client team (consisting of a Supervising Sidley Partner/Counsel and one or more Associates) and will be asked to conduct research, prepare documents, etc.
Candidates must have their first degree in law and/or be qualified lawyers. Fluent written and oral English language skills are essential. Proficiency in French, Spanish, Portuguese or other local languages is desirable.
The pro bono internship placement will commence in September 2022 and is expected to last for one academic year. It is estimated that students may complete around –15-40 hours of pro bono work over the academic year, but flexibility is required due to the nature of the projects. We expect that this work will count towards the New York State Bar’s pro bono requirement and suggest that students seeking to complete 50 hours look for additional pro bono opportunities elsewhere.
Application materials
To apply:
- Please send a brief letter of interest and resume to Carolina van der Mensbrugghe (cv2199@nyu.edu) and Phuong Tran (pt58@nyu.edu). Please combine your application materials into one PDF, if possible, and include “Sidley Emerging Enterprises Pro Bono Program Application” in the subject line of your email.
- Applications are due by 12 PM EST Monday, October 10.
Volunteer opportunity with Sidley Austin’s Trade for Development Initiative
International law firm Sidley Austin LLP seeks student volunteers for ad hoc pro bono legal support with their Trade for Development Initiative.
Sidley’s Trade for Development pro bono Initiative, founded in 2018, provides free legal and technical support to least-developed and low-income countries, as well as NGOs. Specifically, the advice focuses how to leverage international trade and investment policy to help countries achieve sustainable development objectives.
Examples of clients and projects include:
- Advising Bhutan on whether to apply to the EU’s Generalized Systems of Preferences (plus) program;
- Advising Guyana in developing regulatory structures available to establish special economic zones;
- Advising Mauritius on how to challenge a provisional safeguard imposed on pasta exports by Madagascar
- Advising the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States on how to build a regional IP directorate and position itself better in the WTO reform discussions in Geneva
Further information can be found on the program website: https://www.sidley.com/en/us/probonolanding/trade-for-development-initiative/.
Candidates must have their first degree in law and/or be qualified lawyers. Students will be assigned to a pro bono client team (consisting of a Supervising Partner or Counsel and one or more associates) and will be asked to conduct research, draft parts of client memorandums, or engage in other ways.
The pro bono internship placement will commence in September 2022 and is expected to last for one academic year. It is estimated that students complete between 15-40 hours of pro bono work over the academic year, depending on the needs of the projects and clients. In the past, pro bono work conducted under this program has counted towards students New York State Bar’s pro bono requirement.
Information session
The Office of Graduate Careers, together with Sidley Austin, will host an information session for interested students on Wednesday, September 28th at 10 AM.
Application materials
To apply:
- Please send your CV, a brief letter of interest, and resume to Carolina van der Mensbrugghe (cv2199@nyu.edu) and Phuong Tran (pt58@nyu.edu). Please combine your application materials into one PDF, if possible, and include “Sidley Trade for Development Initiative Application” in the subject line of your email.
- Applications are due by 12 PM EST Monday, October 10.