WFU Law School Afghan LL.M. candidate Yama Keshawerz meets Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Check out the recent news article about the LL.M. class field trip to Washington D.C. where one of our students met Sen. John McCain:

Every spring semester, Wake Forest University School of Law LL.M. students have the opportunity to hear oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.  This year, Professor Shannon Gilreath led the students to visit the high court on Wednesday, April 18.

While in Washington, D.C., the law school’s Afghan LL.M. candidate, Yama Keshawerz, was invited to attend speech given by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) about Afghanistan at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  “It was a great event and the event was attended by many,” Keshawerz said.

Click here to read the rest of the news article.

Keshawerz also made a YouTube video about meeting Senator McCain which can be viewed here.

This past weekend, two of our LL.M. students traveled to Washington D.C. to participate in the first International Commercial Moot Competition. The competition was held at American University. Janine Reder from Germany and Liam McClure from England did an excellent job and represented Wake Forest University School of Law well. Join us in congratulating Janine and Liam for their exemplary achievement!

Click here to read our recent news article about the competition and their participation.

By: Philipp Campestrini (LL.M. Candidate, ’12)

Philipp Campestrini (LL.M. Candidate, '12)

The first step to actually get an invitation for the New York University International Student Interview Program (NYU ISIP) is to upload your resume to an internet portal.  Matching to your profile, a list of different pre-selected law-firms is being provided.  Most of these law firms come from your home-country because they have certain requirements which you personally have to fulfill.  For me, for example, the language skills of German, French and English were the decisive requirements.  Within this list I could bid for interviews and when the law-firms were interested, they invited me for an interview in New York.  I received 10 interviews for the interview-day and 2 separate one-hour interviews. I was really happy that so many big Swiss law-firms showed interest in my resume and invited me for interviews.

A few weeks later, my journey to New York for the well known New York University ISIP began on a Thursday morning.  My Swiss classmate who also got invitations for several interviews joined me and we travelled together.  Fortunately, all professors from Wake Forest University School of Law knew that we had an important weekend coming and therefore, excused us for all classes on Thursday and Friday.  Fully packed with suits, dress-shirts, ties and application-documents, we drove early in the morning to Greensboro to the Piedmont Triad International Airport.  After a while of searching, we found an available long-term parking spot, but unfortunately this procedure took too much time and we had to rush to catch our flight to New York.  Arriving at the last minute, we checked-in our baggage and boarded the airplane without standing in line.  Continue reading »

By: Shuai Shao (LL.M. Candidate, ’12)

Shuai Shao and other ELSE students at the Winston Salem Dash baseball game

I am a girl from Beijing, the capital city of China. I graduated from Beijing University of Technology recently and then decided to come to Wake Forest Law School to further my knowledge in the international business area. The reason why I chose Wake Forest is that it has a good reputation around the states, a high professor-student ratio, as well as the warm and peaceful environment. The staff and professors are so nice and considerate because they offer our international law school students and lawyers a chance to improve social and academic English before semester starts through the English Language Skills Enhancement (ELSE)  program. This class helps us adjust to American law school easily. Though I had outstanding English level in my home country and got high ranking in my undergraduate university, I was still eager to attend this program. The reason why I chose to attend this program is because I felt the need to improve my social English in order to survive in a foreign country. Furthermore, it was important for me to know basic academic legal English before I began my law school studies here. Fortunately, after the six weeks class, it has proven to be a wise decision!

The intensive six-week ELSE program helped me a lot not only with my daily use of English but also in academic English. Moreover, I know many friends and many places at Wake Forest as well as Winston Salem. I know this is a good sign that I can start a wonderful year here!

Continue reading »

As in years past, US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be guest lecturing for one week each in Wake Forest University School of Law’s Summer Study Abroad Programs in Vienna and Venice.  This provides students with the exceptional opportunity to meet and learn from Justice Ginsburg!

Ginsburg  was appointed by President Bill Clinton and took the oath of office in 1993, becoming the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court.  For more information about Justice Ginsburg’s fascinating life and career, check out the websites below:

http://www.biography.com/people/ruth-bader-ginsburg-9312041

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Bader_Ginsburg

http://www.supremecourt.gov/about/biographies.aspx

http://www.pressherald.com/life/Ruth-Bader-Ginsburgs-husband-became-court-of-last-culinary-resort.html

We are still accepting applications to Wake Forest University School of Law’s Summer Study Abroad programs in London, Vienna, and Venice.  Check out the below article about the programs for more information:  

http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/news/2012/01/23/wf-law-opens-study-abroad-program-to.html?surround=etf&ana=e_article

By: Allysen Mahaffey
Administrative Professional, WFU Law International Graduate Programs

Downtown Winston-Salem (www.dwsp.org)

Moving to a new city can be overwhelming, exciting, and frustrating all at the same time. I moved from southern California to Winston-Salem, North Carolina in August of 2010 for a new job and adventure. Luckily, the World Wide Web has made moving across the world, or moving across the country in my case, a little bit easier. One of my favorite things to do is to go out to eat or get coffee with friends, which can be hard to do if you don’t know what restaurants, bars, or coffee shops you’re looking for.  After some google and yelp research, as well as asking local friends for advice, I’ve spent the last year and a half trying out new places to eat and hang out in Winston-Salem. It’s become somewhat of a tradition of mine now- to try out new places every week for lunch with a friend who went to Wake Law school and knew his way around better than I. Additionally, my friends and I take advantage of downtown restaurant specials who participate in the “Big Eat” every Tuesday during the months of January and February.

English Conversation Club lunch at Rose's Deli

Also, here at the WFU Law International Graduate Programs office, we decided to reignite the “English Conversation Club” with our LL.M., S.J.D. and V.I.R. students by going out to lunch once a month. The students practice their conversational English skills and we all get to try out a local restaurant. Between trying out new places with friends, taking advantage of the “Big Eat” specials, and organizing the English Conversation Club lunches, I have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of good, local establishments with pleasant atmospheres and friendly people. To help new students out with finding places to eat and hang out, I have compiled a list of recommended restaurants, cafes, coffee shops and bars.  I love a good atmosphere, reasonable prices, and unique dishes.

Sit-down restaurants (some also have bars)

Kimono Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar

4910 Old Country Club Road

It’s cheap, fast service, and the shrimp sauce is to die for. Favorite dish: Hibachi Chicken

Fourth Street Filling Station

871 4^th Street

American southern food.-The atmosphere is great, especially when it’s nice outside. Drink specials include half-off wine Wednesdays. They also have a great Sunday brunch.
Continue reading »

Liam McClure from Kent, England

Liam McClure is a current LL.M. student at Wake Forest University School of Law and will graduate in the spring of 2012. Liam is from Kent, England and earned his Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) at the University of East Anglia. We decided to interview Liam to get to know why he decided to pursue his LL.M. degree at WFU School of Law.

Where is home? What is it famous for?
I am from a place called Kent, in southeast England just outside of London. It is probably most famous for being nicknamed ‘The Garden of England’ due to its countryside and scenery, and for the ‘White Cliffs of Dover’, where you can see across the Channel to France. Kent is also the inspiration and setting for some famous literary works by Chaucer and Charles Dickens.

Have you been to the US before?
Besides visiting the US for vacations as a child, I was able to spend a year studying law in Louisville, Kentucky as part of my LL.B degree. I have also spent the last four summers living and working for the YMCA in North Carolina, ironically just outside of Winston-Salem.

What are the most notable differences between home and Winston-Salem, NC?
One of the biggest differences Winston-Salem offers is size: Winston-Salem is a lot smaller than where I am from, yet it seems to be a lot more spread out, with lots of space around. However, there is a lot to do and explore around Winston-Salem, and it has a really nice Downtown area with a great atmosphere, providing plenty of bars and restaurants. It is awesome to be able to get the best of both worlds by living in a city environment, but also being really close to plenty of amazing open, outdoor areas, especially the nearby mountains and parks!

Continue reading »

By: Emily Nahan-Krokti

Emily and other WFU Law students in Venice

I know everyone says this, but I really could not wait for my 1L year to be over. Yes, that year is stressful for everyone but the end of my IL year marked the beginning of my European summer in London and Venice.

The beauty of England was immediately evident to me. Upon my arrival, as I was taxying from the Luton airport to the Worrell House, I was surrounded by such stereotypically beautiful English hillsides, I half expected to see Mr. Darcy on horseback cantering alongside my taxi. This feeling of surreal beauty continued all month. The Worrell house is in a swanky neighborhood; proof of this is that its neighbors are Jude Law, Helena Bonham Carter, and Tim Burton, for those celebrity stalkers. The house itself is spacious but cozy with a gorgeous English garden. I had high hopes of travelling every weekend while abroad but I quickly realized that was not necessary when in London. You could spend years in London and still find new things to do. There is great theatre, world famous museums, parks, clubs, and, contrary to old standards, fantastic food. Although all of the wake students were on a bit of a budget, we were still able to enjoy the city. I managed to see Wicked at a discounted last minute rate, catch a play at the Globe for next to nothing, and eat fantastic Indian and Thai food, the new “local” London cuisine. Continue reading »

Olivett Ihama (LLM, '11) in Washington DC

By: Olivett Ihama (LLM, ’11)

It has been nearly two weeks since I found out that I passed the NYS Bar Exam, however it feels like I sat for the exam years ago. Unlike many JD students who sat for the Bar in July, the five month wait between sitting for the exam and finding out results was not an anxious wait for me. I decided once I walked out of the exam hall that I was not going to give the Bar exam any more thought until I received the email confirming whether I had passed or not. I stuck with this mind-set.

I remember making the decision to sit for the NYS Bar Exam very late into the application stage. In fact, I think I applied to sit for the Bar on the last day when applications could be filed in April. Despite the many trips I made to the Bar-Bri and Kaplan stalls that were set up in the halls of Worrell throughout the academic year (although I must admit many of those visits were due to free Krispy Kremes and IPad 2 prize draws), I did not decide to sit for the Bar until March (I think). This was largely due to the fact that I had heard so many JDs and American lawyers talk about how hard the Bar was, and how your brain feels like “mush” after sitting for it. I was not sure that I wanted to end a wonderful year at Wake Forest by sitting for the NYS Bar Exam. Instead I wanted to travel around America before I returned to England.  However, after consulting with some of my Professors both at Wake Forest and from my undergraduate university in England I realised that if I was ever going to sit for the NYS Bar, the summer before I returned to England would be the best time to do it. This was primarily because I had many resources available to me at Wake Forest (and Kaplan and Bar-Bri had offers for LL.Ms who wanted to sit for the Bar) and apart from my desire to travel across America (which I could do any time) I had nothing stopping me from taking this opportunity. Continue reading »

By: Mark Thomas (WFU J.D. alumnus)

In international law practice, every attorney must act as a “translator”. This role has at least two levels. There is, of course, the level of “translating” the law of one country into a clear and accurate explanation that persons from other countries can understand and apply effectively to their own circumstances, such as a business transaction, a need for a work visa, or the like. There is also a second and very important level: “translating” the cultural and social perspectives of one country to persons from other countries, so that those persons may understand the expectations and viewpoints that the first country’s people bring to the legal transactions. A simple example is the way in which different peoples negotiate business agreements. Those persons do not negotiate in a vacuum, but are influenced by their cultural and social experiences in the way they perceive themselves and the ways in which others interact with them. To successfully represent parties in all international transactions, these cultural and social influences need to be better understood and intelligently analyzed. Continue reading »