Part 2
This week marks the end of my fourth week, and I’ve been staying busy over the past two weeks splitting my time between the Office’s Asia and Ethics and Administration divisions.
The Ethics and Administration team handles the Agency’s legal issues relating to privacy, employment, conflicts of interest, and other administrative law issues. I took an Employment Law course during the Spring 2021 semester, which has come in handy, and I’ve been able to meet and work with some of the employment lawyers on the team. So far, it’s been a mix of doing research projects and helping draft litigation documents. Originally, I had signed up to take Employment because I liked the professor and the course material seemed helpful for developing general knowledge, but I had not expected to use that information this summer at USAID!
I’ve also been able to work on some issues related to privacy law for my work with the Ethics and Administrative team. I don’t have any prior experience in this field but the privacy lawyers have given me a lot of background material to look through in order to get caught up to speed, so I have been spending time studying the Privacy Act, international principles related to privacy, and other relevant legal frameworks.
Overall, the work has varied a lot so far, and it’s been a great introduction to both U.S. foreign assistance specifically but also an insight into the legal work that all federal agencies do more generally.