Last week, the University of Georgia School of Law’s Dean Rusk International Law Center participated in a dinner reception celebrating global education and the philanthropic generosity of the Halle Foundation, supporting American-German educational exchange. This event was jointly sponsored by the University of Georgia’s Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies and the Office of Global Engagement.
The mission of The Halle Foundation is to promote understanding, knowledge, and friendship between the people of Germany, as seen in its European context, and those of the United States. In furtherance of this mission, the Foundation supports, primarily through grantmaking, initiatives and activities with a preference to organizations and institutions operating within, or with some discernable connection to, the state of Georgia. UGA has several international mobility initiatives, including Georgia Law’s semester-long Global Externships Overseas (GEO) initiative, that are beneficiaries of the Halle Foundation.
The evening program began with welcoming remarks by Dr. Eike Jordan, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Halle Foundation and Dr. Martin Kagel, Associate Provost for Global Engagement, UGA Office of Global Engagement. Then, faculty and administrators at UGA who oversee initiatives benefitting from the Halle Foundation’s support spoke about the impact that their grants have on students. Speakers included: Dr. Jan Uelzmann, Co-Director of Film, Art, and Cultural History in Berlin program; Dr. Heide Crawford, Co-Coordinator of ENGR-GRMN Dual Degree Program, Director of the Freiburg Study Abroad program; and Sarah Quinn, Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center.
Then, UGA students shared reflections about what their time abroad in Germany meant to them academically, professionally, and personally. Georgia Law student Pace Cassell (J.D. ’26) spoke about her experience as a legal extern at Baker Tilly in Hamburg, Germany during the spring 2025 semester through the semester-long GEO initiative, jointly administered by the Center and the DC Semester in Practice. Cassell is the recipient of a grant from the Halle Foundation, awarded to the law school in summer 2024 to support six students over three years participate in semester-long externships in Germany.
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Applications are open for fall 2027 semester-long Global Externships Overseas (GEOs). All current 1Ls and 2Ls are invited to submit an application by February 15. For more information and the application, please email: ruskintlaw@uga.edu
Global Externships Overseas (GEO), 4-12 week placements for rising second- and third-year law students in private-sector and public-sector law placements around the world.
Global Governance Summer School
This year’s Global Governance Summer School will focus on comparative administrative law. It is set to begin this month, when students will travel to Belgium for a week of lectures led by Georgia Law Associate Dean for Academic Affairs & J. Alton Hosch Professor of Law Kent Barnett, as well as professors from partner university KU Leuven. The first week of this for-credit course also will include professional development briefings at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union, private law firms, and NGOs.
Then, programming shifts to The Hague, Netherlands, where Barnett will lead briefings at the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, and the U.S. Embassy in The Hague. Center director Sarah Quinn and Global Practice Preparation Assistant Catrina Martin will provide logistical assistance during the program.
Our Center’s Global Externship Overseas initiative places Georgia Law students in externships lasting between four and twelve weeks. It thus offers students the opportunity to gain practical work experience in a variety of legal settings worldwide. This summer, three students have opted to combine the GEO opportunity with participation in GGSS: Emily Munger, Karlie “Kara” Reed, and Benjamin Privitera.
This summer, sixteen Georgia Law students are set to pursue Global Externships Overseas, in practice areas such as privacy and technology law, intellectual property law, cultural heritage and historic preservation, environmental law, international arbitration, corporate law, and human rights law.
This year’s GEO class includes these private-sector placements:
Andrew Miller (rising 3L) – Weickmann & Weickmann; Munich, Germany
Today, we welcome a guest post by Andrew Arrington, a member of the Georgia Law class of 2024. Through the Global Externships Overseas (GEO) initiative, Andrew was able to extern with Sorainen, an international business law firm based in Tallinn, Estonia.
I vividly remember my first day at Sorainen, tidying my hair anxiously in the reflection of the gold elevator. It was not only the first day of my 1L summer job, but it was my first time working abroad, and I did not know what to expect. I was relieved that my apartment was only a five-minute walk from my office, but I still got there so early that I ordered breakfast and coffee in a quiet, ultramodern café next door.
As the elevator counted down to the lobby floor, I mumbled the phrase, “Tere. Mina olen Andrew,” to myself over and over, unsure if my pronunciation was even intelligible. With a ding, I was warmly greeted by the woman at the front desk. I watched my soon-to-be coworkers passing by my conference room, putting up their coats and bags in the cloakroom next door, while I waited for my boss to arrive. My anxiety finally melted when Katriina, who interviewed me months earlier, saw me sitting in the office and burst in to give me a hug. It was then I knew I was in for a special summer.
The Global Externship Overseas initiative was a moonshot for me. What I originally imagined as a substitute for not studying abroad in undergrad turned out to be the best career decision I made during law school because of the depth of legal work and client interaction I had over the span of two short months. Through the tireless work of staff at the Dean Rusk International Law Center, including Sarah Quinn and Catrina Martin, my description of a hypothetical dream placement working on data privacy in Europe, possibly in Estonia, became a reality. This request was the result of being a first-generation law student who had just graduated from Georgia Tech; at this point, I was really only familiar with the field of data privacy law after taking a class with Professor Swire and Dr. Anton at my undergraduate institution. I had my sights set on Estonia because I was familiar with the country’s leadership in technology innovation and entrepreneurship in Europe.
I was proudly the first American intern in a couple of decades at Sorainen. During my summer there, I gained contracting skills, including with software as a service (SaaS) contracts, data protection agreements, and other standard GDPR privacy agreements. I was also able to research national security implications, genetic material requirements, and the brand new EU sanctions on Russia. I wrote memos on the effects of the then-nascent Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act. When my time in the office came to a close, I was asked if I would like to work for a client full-time as the designated trainee to a general counsel for Pactum while I worked remotely from my home in the US. This was another great experience of implementing GDPR requirements through vetting vendors and researching the impact of US state privacy laws on a dual US-EU business.
By the end of my summer at Sorainen, I had colleagues who not only translated meetings in English for me, but also translated our nights out at the local museum. These are colleagues I am still in touch with and exchange Christmas cards with two years later.
Because of my decision to pursue a GEO, I fell in love with a place I would have never visited otherwise. I became a local at the bakery around the corner ordering rhubarb pastries in Estonian. I knew I reached local status when a new clerk working asked me a question about change in Estonian. I ate pine needle ice cream on walks by myself after work along cobblestone streets, and I was driven out of the city to Viru Bog by my fellow summer interns to visit one of the most beautiful natural parks I have ever been to. I had coworkers go out of their way to give me visits of their hometown during the weekends, and I also had an unforgettable office outing playing cards on the rooftop under the midnight sun.
I cannot recommend enough to my fellow students the professional value of not only being able to work in a legal environment abroad but also the memories that Georgia Law and the Center made possible through the GEO program. This opportunity increased my contract drafting and editing abilities tremendously, provided opportunities to interact directly with clients, and exposed me to data privacy and compliance work. Now every time I interview, it is the topic that people most want to talk about, and I not only have a wealth of legal experiences to draw upon but also a reminder of the summer of a lifetime.
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Applications are now open for summer 2024 Global Externships Overseas (GEO). This initiative places University of Georgia School of Law students in four-to-twelve week international placements each summer, where they gain substantive, hands-on experience in diverse areas of legal practice. Over the last fifteen years, more than 200 Georgia Law students have completed a GEO in law firms, government agencies, corporate legal departments, intergovernmental organizations, and nongovernmental organizations around the world.
Current 1Ls and 2Ls are encouraged to apply for summer GEOs. All applicants should reference this instructional video for step-by-step information regarding how to create and successfully complete an application for GEOs in UGA’s Study Away Portal by the March 1 deadline. For more information, email: ruskintlaw@uga.edu
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