Week 1: Intro to IFES and the Center for Anti-Corruption & Democratic Trust
I arrived in Arlington late on Sunday evening and took some time to get settled. Despite being fortunate enough to explore much of Europe and North America in my life, Monday was to be my first-ever meaningful time in the DC area. So, naturally, I took the entire day to explore the National Mall, clocking some thirteen miles on my Apple Watch and seeing all the most popular monuments and buildings: the Capitol, Library of Congress, Supreme Court, White House, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and Jefferson Memorial, among others. Despite overcast weather and being forced to shelter more than once from scattered downpours, I managed to catch a slight sunburn—lesson learned.
As Monday was Memorial Day, my first day in the office was Tuesday, May 30th. Eager to make good first impressions, my first-day nerves were never going to be completely extinguished, but I could not have asked for more reason to take a few calming breaths. Throughout the flurry of first-day orientation meetings, office tours, and introductions, I was met with genuine kindness and patience.
My professional experience so far with IFES can be split into two distinct areas: the office environment and the legal work.
As to the first area, again, I cannot speak more highly of the people I have met so far. I have received welcome emails, invites to coffee, and endless recommendations for restaurants, museums, and day trips. Even more impactful professionally, I have also been questioned as to what I want from this internship, and good-faith effort to help me meet those goals have been promised. In fact, one of my first tasks of the summer was to think of a topic, region, or issue that interests me; I am meant to report my conclusion in a meeting in my second week.
As I sit in on meetings and begin to keep straight the acronyms that fly around in IFES circles, I also begin the more formal side of the legal work I will be doing throughout the summer. This, the second area of my experience so far, has consisted partially of researching and summarizing cases for the “ElectionJudgments” database. This database, managed by IFES and made possible through the generous support of USAID, serves as a research tool that makes global judicial decisions surrounding elections and election law more transparent and accessible.
Another of the larger tasks that I have been delegated is to review and expand elements in a judicial training curriculum being assembled by IFES. This curriculum will be deployed in IFES-led trainings for judges in developing democracies, and it will train participating judges to make clear and informed decisions around election disputes, fraud, frivolous lawsuits, and so on. This curriculum has already been requested by international groups and several of IFES’ country programs around the world.
As the week neared its end, introductory meetings abated slightly, and I was able to get my first real taste of the work to come. My first case summaries for the ElectionJudgments database consisted of a case from the Supreme Court of Nepal and the Court of Appeal of Samoa—if I ever wondered during my 1L year what it would be like to conduct real international research over my summer internship, I’m about to find out.
In closing this first blog, I’ll offer my first own first impression of this organization overall. First, meetings here typically feature participants located all over the world—a meeting focused entirely on introducing me to IFES team members with whom I will be closely working included participants tuning in from the US, France, and Nigeria. IFES employees also travel all over the world for their work. This, while not hugely shocking for an organization with “International” in the name, points to the global impact that this organization has obtained. More than the global reach, this organization is brimming with experts who passionately care about their mission—building resilient democracies that deliver for all.
I am very much looking forward to reporting throughout the summer on the work I am completing for IFES.
Weekend visits: the Adams Morgan neighborhood in DC, the National Museum of the American Indian, and Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.