July 21
This past week has been quiet, as most of my office has been out of town, going to a conference in Taiwan. I’ve written before about the office’s work with open source data. ODC was invited to compete at the Presidential Hackathon in Taiwan, where they’ll be presenting a project idea to the conference about working with road infrastructure data at the sub-national level. The conference provides a space for experts in the field (including ODC) to come together and exchange ideas and come up with solutions for development challenges in the region. Pretty cool, I think.
The other interns and I were back in Phnom Penh, working on our own projects. I don’t think I’ve ever written about the other interns here, mostly because for the first half of my contract here I was the only one. However, now that European universities are well into their summer breaks, three interns from universities in Germany and France are here and doing similar work to me. It’s been exciting to have some new faces around the office, and to hear about ODC’s connections to the wider world of development. I’m the only intern whose work is directly related to the law, while the others have backgrounds in economics, business, and political science. It’s been interesting to hear perspectives from other fields on Cambodia’s development problems and what solutions they come up with.
As my project is winding down I’ve been spending some time planning for the upcoming semester, mostly because the interviewing season for my 2L summer is beginning back in the US, and while I’ll return too late to participate in OCIs, I’ve been thinking about where I want to take this next. This summer has shaped my perspectives a lot on what kind of law I want to pursue and what kind of company I want to work for. I tried to come into this job with an open mind, and was pretty much just looking for an adventure after sitting in a classroom all year, but I’ve really enjoyed being here. I will say that working for ODC is a pretty non-traditional legal internship, considering I’m not working in the American legal system at all and my project on Cambodian law will just be a small portion of ODC’s work. Still, I’ve been spending all summer getting my head around how another country puts together its legal system and enforces its laws, and that alone has been great experience.
The one thing I’ve really loved here has been working around new technologies and data. Here, at least, the increasing availability of tech like smartphones and more programming knowledge in the society has led to some really cool innovations. ODC has certainly taken advantage of this, but I’ve also heard of and used a ton of apps that were developed in Cambodia for the Cambodian market, and it’s been so cool to see that sort of innovation at work, especially here. I get the sense that there’s nothing more fun that working on the cutting edge.
Unfortunately, the law is not known for looking fondly on innovation. I’ve been thinking more and more about the legal industry’s tendency to fall back on old patterns, and how that tendency is probably connected to many of the industry’s problems these days. I’d like to think that the current upswing in tech and innovation could have a positive impact on the legal system, but that’s such a massive topic and I’m afraid I can’t capture all my thoughts on it in one blog post.
Anyway, that’s where I’m at this week. I’ll probably try to fit in one more weekend trip from Phnom Penh, but my time here is wrapping up quickly and soon enough I’ll be back in the US.