Part 4
I’ve just finished my eighth week at USAID. The projects I’ve been able to help with so far have varied a lot - employment litigation, drafting contracts and templates, and reading statutes and researching legislative history in order to draft information memos. Being able to split my time between the Ethics & Administration and the Asia divisions has given me a lot of insight into the different work that lawyers in the Office do. A lot of the work that attorneys do in the General Counsel’s office is advising clients (the various bureaus at USAID and Missions overseas) when legal (and policy) issues arise. Therefore, a lot of the work I've done is researching statutes, case law, and USAID internal policies to find an answer to the client's question.
The General Counsel’s office at USAID does not hire entry-level lawyers but over the past couple of weeks, the office has set up various career panels or chats with current USAID attorneys and former interns to hear about their career paths and get advice for how to break into the international human rights/development field and the federal government more generally. I’ve also been able to sit in on meetings with the staff at one of the Missions and with the desk officers in DC, all of whom do non-legal work, so it has been great to see the various types of opportunities available at USAID.