“This fellowship opportunity was a beacon of hope as my summer plans had been disrupted by the circumstances imposed by COVID-19” said Angel Li, who completed her fellowship with the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment in New York.
Under the Common Law Section’s Summer Student Support Initiative (SSSI), Hyman Soloway Chair Professor Tony VanDuzer set up student summer fellowships with Gowlings WLG, Conlin Bedard, Professor Surya Deva at City University of Hong Kong, the International Institute on Sustainable Development, the Trade Law Bureau at Global Affairs (2 fellowships), and the Columbia Center for Sustainable Investment (2 fellowships).
The purpose of these fellowships was to support students in obtaining valuable exposure to working in the fields of business law and international trade and investment law through practical legal experience. Though the positions were entirely remote, students advanced their legal research, memorandum writing and other skills through a variety of projects. Many learned invaluable transferrable skills and attended meetings and training sessions organized by government officials and others. The fellowships also helped to establish mentorship relationships with leading experts working in the field.
“This has been an incredibly rewarding experience and I feel so honoured to have received this fellowship. During this fellowship, I was able to meet such incredible people and had the chance to work on many exciting projects” said Tiffany Lee, who completed her fellowship at the International Institute for Sustainable Development under the supervision of Howard Mann.
Fellowship supervisors and their organizations also reported their satisfaction with the work of the Fellows.
Brooke Guven, from the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, commented that “the program overall was of extremely high value to us…. As such, the funding that you made available, and the high quality of Agata and Angel’s work, enabled us to advance [our] … projects over the past weeks”.