Paris, We Meet Again
Four years ago, I studied abroad in Paris. I stayed there for six months, living with a French host family and making my best attempt at improving my French and immersing myself in the culture. The memories I made and the lessons I learned in Paris are truly indescribable, and the city will always have a special place in my heart. So when our boss told us he would give us some time off to travel, suggesting that we work remotely as needed, we quickly accepted the offer. I realized that after four years, I would finally be able to go back to Paris, even if only for a few days.
I had reached out to my friend Sylvain a few months ago to see if we could stay with him when we visited. We quickly bonded the first time we met four years ago because I had discovered that his mother is from Taiwan, his father from Sichuan, and he grew up in Paris. We had exchanged stories, mine about growing up as an Asian-American, his about life as an Asian-French person, comparing and contrasting as we went along. Each night after Beth and I got back from running around the city, he would take us on little historical tours near his apartment (conveniently located near the Champs-Élysées), pointing out notable things only a native would know about.
Beth and I knew we were only staying in Paris for a short time, but we managed to do some networking. After all, we had already been making numerous phone calls to people working in US law firms, having to figure out ways to make the seven hour time difference manageable. So why not take advantage of potentially being in the same time zone as a William & Mary Law grad? As someone who used to cringe at the thought of having to network, my view on it has completely been transformed this summer. I think it really comes down to how amazing the William & Mary Law School alumni network is: almost everyone whom I have reached out to has been eager to share about their career and to give valuable advice. I soon realized that there are also a significant number of W&M Law alumni working abroad, which has been a dream of mine for a while. My research paid off, and we were able to meet with a partner at King & Spalding who is an expert in international arbitration, which is a practice area that I am potentially interested in pursuing. As we walked into the building, we noticed that Christian Dior's administrative office was located on another floor. That's what I love about Paris - everything is effortlessly intermingled - from law, to politics, to fashion.
I learned a lot from this lawyer. He was completely honest, and wanted to make sure I knew about the realities of the legal market for an American law student interested in practicing international arbitration abroad. He explained that around twenty years ago when he moved to Paris, international arbitration was still a new and growing field, so it was much more common for law firms to transfer American lawyers to international offices as they sought American expertise. However, the reality is that international arbitration has become much more sophisticated, and many of the leaders in the field are coming from Europe and Asia. It took longer for arbitration to be viewed as a legitimate legal solution in the United States. Nowadays to enter the international arbitration market, additional certification may be necessary. To put it more bluntly, if there is a German lawyer fluent in three or four languages that has a specialized certification in international arbitration that can do his or her job exceptionally well, what would be the value added of bringing an American onto the team who likely has no experience or training in the field? The partner at the Paris office said all this not to dissuade me from pursuing international arbitration, but to give me his honest thoughts on his field so that if I am to pursue it, I know what skills I need to work on and how to market myself. I personally appreciate it when networking contacts are transparent about various facets of their careers, both good and bad, as opposed to tiptoeing around the negatives.
All in all, my second time in Paris was lovely. The nice part about returning to a city you have already visited is that there is way less pressure to fit in all the touristy activities. That's not to say we didn't do anything touristy - we walked to Trocadéro to get our pictures in front of the Eiffel tower, perused the Musée de l'Orangerie to see Monet's Water Lilies, and visited Sainte-Chappelle to admire its awe-inspiring stained glass windows. But we also just relaxed in the Tuileries Gardens and walked around Le Marais, one of my favorite districts. One night, we had dinner with Sylvain at a Chinese noodle place. Our interactions with the waitress started in French, progressed into English, and ended in Chinese. These are the funny little moments that I'll remember forever.
Unfortunately, we weren't in Paris for their Pride festival, but le Marais
is known as the center of Paris' LGBT+ scene.
The Sainte-Chappelle is pretty small, but the stained glass panels of
of this Gothic-style chapel sure pack a punch!
