We at the University of Georgia School of Law Dean Rusk International Law Center are pleased to welcome a new Visiting Research Scholar: Johan Van den Cruijce (LL.M. ’94), Managing Director, Atlas Services Belgium (Orange group) in Brussels, Belgium. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Vlerick Business School (Belgium) and holds dual Ph.D.s in Applied Economics from the KU Leuven and Ghent University. His work focuses on the intersection of law, economics, and corporate finance—especially on how control rights and marketability restrictions affect the valuation of privately held firms.
Dr. Van den Cruijce brings over 25 years of international executive experience in governance, finance and law. He serves as Managing Director at Atlas Services Belgium (Orange group), where he is responsible for the global network of holding companies across Europe and the United States. His work includes M&A, corporate restructuring, treasury and tax strategy, and legal oversight of listed and unlisted entities. He also holds executive and non-executive directorships in Orange group companies in several countries (including Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, the U.K. and the U.S.).
Dr. Van den Cruijce has presented at leading international conferences and his academic research has been published in reputable peer reviewed journals. His recent work explores valuation discounts in illiquid markets, the legal-economic role of control in private firms, and the implications of corporate structure on firm value.
He is an alumnus of the University of Georgia School of Law and also holds an MBA degree from the KU Leuven and a law degree from the University of Antwerp. He has completed executive education programs at, amongst others, INSEAD, IESE Business School, London Business School, and Vlerick Business School.
Dr. Van den Cruijce is sponsored as a Visiting Research Scholar by Georgia Law Professor Christopher Bruner, Stembler Family Distinguished Professor in Business Law & Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center.
Today, we welcome a guest post by Daniel “Tripp” Vaughn, a member of the University of Georgia School of Law class of 2025. Vaughn participated in a semester-long international externship in spring 2025. The semester-long externships overseas initiative is an extension of the Center’s existing Global Externships Overseas and is offered jointly between the Center and the law school’s Clinical and Experiential Program. Vaughn’s post describes his experience as a legal extern with Van Bael & Bellis, a law firm working on EU and national competition law, EU trade and customs law, regulatory law, as well as Belgian business law. Vaughn was based in Brussels, Belgium, where he worked under Georgia Law alumnus Porter Elliott (J.D. ’96).This was Vaughn’s third Global Externship Overseas during his time at Georgia Law. He is now living in Leuven, Belgium, where he is pursuing a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree at KU Leuven.
Last spring, I spent my final semester of law school working as a legal extern at Van Bael & Bellis (VBB), a Belgian law firm consisting of three offices in London, Brussels, and Geneva. VBB specializes in European and international legal work across three main categories: trade, antitrust, and corporate regulatory compliance. The firm’s composition truly represents its international focus, employing attorneys from more than 20 different countries. Just my office alone was shared with interns from Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, Germany, and Spain.
This international diversity, strongly reminiscent of the city of Brussels itself, created a uniquely open-minded and welcoming atmosphere at the firm. Every day, whether through work projects or casual conversations, I learned more about countries and legal systems all across the world. The sheer breadth of nationalities, experiences, and perspectives held by VBB’s attorneys ensured that everyone in the office was still expanding their understanding of business and law. In this context, it was clear throughout the firm that questions were not only expected but also encouraged. As an extern, this atmosphere afforded me an incredible opportunity to add to my knowledge and experience before graduating law school.
This open mentality compounded the impact from my involvement in VBB’s extremely varied legal work, spanning from sanctions compliance and antidumping investigations to client alerts on upcoming legislation and updating internal materials on EU antitrust laws. I gained firsthand experience working on US-EU and EU-China trade disputes, including assessing tariffs and determining the correct classifications for products. When the EU proposed new legislation, I researched its impacts and together with expert attorneys wrote alerts for specifically affected clients as well as general takeaways. As part of my externship I also assisted many other tasks as well, including me in projects in over 20 different countries with different legal systems and approaches to corporate law.
However, of these many fascinating projects I had the opportunity to work on during my externship, sanctions compliance proved to be the most impactful and enduring. This work included researching involved parties of proposed transactions to ensure that the actions contemplated would pose minimal compliance risks from a sanctions perspective. While simple in concept, sanctioned parties would often go to great lengths to disguise their presence in transactions through strings of shell companies across the globe and the suppression of any information related to their ownership. Further complications often arose from the differences between UK, US, and EU sanction regimes, including the scope of sanctions, the jurisdiction of corresponding regulatory agencies, and the applicable penalties for noncompliance.
Despite these challenges, I began to increasingly enjoy the research and analysis required. Tracking down the ownership and control of various companies, which is often not openly disclosed information, consisted of sifting through media articles, social media posts, NGO reports, and other publicly accessible data such as ship transponders and locations. This process often felt like solving a particularly difficult puzzle, piecing together various clues to get a clearer picture of the involved parties and sanctions risks. Due to the lack of available information, many times the ownership or control of involved parties could not be definitively determined. However, it was incredibly satisfying when hours or days of research and seemingly unrelated shreds of information finally came together and yielded important conclusions.
I am extremely grateful for the experiences and opportunities given to me by Van Bael & Bellis. My time with the many talented attorneys at the firm opened my eyes to fields and career opportunities in international law that I never would have believed existed. As I am currently returning to Belgium for my Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree at KU Leuven, I am confident that my time with VBB will prove invaluable to me.
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Applications are open for spring 2026 semester-long Global Externships Overseas (GEOs). All current 2Ls and 3Ls are invited to submit an application by September 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
University of Georgia School of Law 2L Madison L. Graham was featured in National Juristregarding her experience studying abroad. During her 1L summer in 2023, Graham participated in both the Global Governance Summer School and the Global Externships Overseas initiative, administered by the Dean Rusk International Law Center. She reflects on her experiences in the National Jurist article titled “Studying Abroad Can Be Life Changing” written by Trevor Mason and published in the magazine’s Winter 2024 edition.
Graham discusses the impact of participating in international opportunities as a law student. Graham began her summer with the Global Governance Summer School, a 10-day study abroad presented through a partnership between Georgia Law and KU Leuven’s Centre for Global Governance Studies through which students study in Belgium and the Netherlands:
“As someone already interested in international law, it was really special to see other people who didn’t think that they were interested in it start to challenge their own perspectives, start to realize how ‘international’ law pervades domestic practice, and the scope of international opportunities that exist in the American legal context.
Also, I think it is really important for American law students to recognize and remember that there is an entire world out there handling the same legal challenges we are, and often in a different way.
To have the opportunity to learn from specialists in the field, and step into the courts and government offices of the legal systems we spend semesters learning about, was an incredible opportunity. Getting to do all of that and make new friends along the way was an experience I could not be more thankful for.
The opportunities it provides from an educational and professional perspective are unlike ones I have seen at any other law school, and something every student should consider doing.”
Upon completion of Global Governance Summer School, Graham started a legal externship placement at Van Bael & Bellis through the Global Externships Overseas initiative. Georgia Law alumni David Hull (J.D., ’83) and Porter Elliott (J.D., ’96) facilitate placements and supervise law students at this Brussels-based firm. Van Bael & Bellis specializes in domestic Belgian law matters, mergers and acquisitions, and focuses heavily on EU competition law, EU data privacy, and international trade law. Graham’s summer work focused on the latter three categories, assisting senior associates and partners prepare client memos, regulatory updates, research new EU and US legislation, and proofreading legal documents as a native-English speaker.
“Being challenged to understand a new law-making process helped me not only adapt my research skills to be able to learn what I need to about a ‘foreign’ legal framework, but also better understand effects on US legislative process and domestic policy, generally. Further, I was fortunate to be in a firm with lawyers from 20 different countries, so I was constantly being exposed to different ideas, cultural norms, problem-solving approaches, and even legal backgrounds (given those people that were coming from Civil Law-based countries).
My GEO helped me solidify and reaffirm my aspirations about possibly working abroad if I get the opportunity, and hopefully working in a public sector position. Further, though, it helped me improve my skills researching laws and regulations from other countries and legislative systems, which will benefit me no matter what international-law-focused position I could possibly end up in.
This experience also built my confidence in being able to move to a new place, make new friends, and succeed in a new professional environment. That is a big step for a lot of people post-grad, so having a trial period in an exceptionally new environment is a great trial experience and confidence booster. I also think that anytime you can work around people with that many different personal, cultural, and educational experiences will humble you in the very best way, by forcing you to challenge your preconceived notions about the world. I have always appreciated that challenge, but it’s so easy to forget. This summer was a great reminder and time of reflection for me, and one I think every law student needs.”
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To learn more about international opportunities at the University of Georgia School of Law, visit our website here.
Applications are now open for the summer 2024 Global Governance Summer School, jointly presented by the University of Georgia School of Law’s Dean Rusk International Law Center and KU Leuven’s Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies. Each summer, this short-term study abroad takes UGA Law students to Belgium and the Netherlands to explore global governance: the interaction of state, regional, and international legal regimes, plus individuals, corporations, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, networks, and other non-state actors.
In summer 2023, the first summer GGSS ran since 2019, 17 students traveled to Europe for a week of lectures with KU Leuven professors. The first week of this for-credit course also included professional development briefings in Brussels at the European Parliament, where students were able to watch the final vote of the session cast, and a private law firm specializing in EU competition law. The programming then shifted to The Hague, Netherlands, where students received briefings at the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, and Leiden University.
The students in attendance had a variety of professional and academic motivations for participating in GGSS. For some, the professional connections, international experience, and expanded academic network will continue to benefit them as they pursue employment internationally. Erin Nalley, a current 2L who aims to work in international environmental law, stated how important the experiences of GGSS are for someone interested in an international career:
“The cultural, academic, and international experiences on this program were priceless and once in a lifetime. I made new friendships and professional connections on this trip that I most likely would not have made without GGSS.”
For others focusing their professional pursuits domestically, GGSS served as a unique professional development opportunity that will set them apart in their job search. Megan Jones, a current 2L interested in a business law career, reflected on the value of the knowledge she gained through her participation in GGSS:
“GGSS was a great opportunity for someone who sees themselves practicing domestically early in their legal career but still has an interest or desire to incorporate international aspects into their professional future. They say the best way to learn something is to immerse yourself in it, and that is exactly what GGSS is: an immersive experience that introduces you to the wide array of global opportunities the legal field has to offer.“
In addition to the UGA Law students, several graduate students at UGA in the law school’s Graduate Certificate in International Law participated in GGSS. Jasmine Underwood-Starling, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology, noted that the benefits of GGSS are truly interdisciplinary:
“For any student interested in international, foreign, and comparative law, the GGSS is definitely worthwhile. The ability to go from classroom learning to then seeing the knowledge and practices in action the very next day is an invaluable experience. The program was truly inspiring.”
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Applications for the summer 2024 Global Governance Summer School are now open. Current 1Ls, 2Ls, and graduate students are encouraged to apply. This 12-day, 3-credit summer school will explore global governance through the lens of comparative administrative law led by Kent Barnett, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs & J. Alton Hosch Professor of Law. GGSS will take place from May 20 – June 1, 2024. Students are encouraged to reference this instructional video for step-by-step information regarding how to create and successfully complete an application for GGSS in UGA’s Study Away Portal by the March 1 deadline. For more information, please plan to attend the Center’s International Opportunities Information Session on Tuesday, February 13 at 12pm, or email: ruskintlaw@uga.edu
exchange of notes 