Late last summer, Darius Pakrooh JD'14 found himself in a meeting at a law firm in Guandong, China. A partner in the firm spoke Chinese; the lawyer's client, a businessman, spoke Farsi. "I speak Farsi and some Chinese, so I was translating for everybody, as well as figuring out what was going on culturally," says Pakrooh, one of over a dozen Suffolk Law students who interned internationally in 2012.

Fluency in a foreign language is helpful, but not required, to participate in the program, established six years ago as an exclusive partnership of Suffolk and the Austria-based Center for International Legal Studies (CILS). Also not required are plans for a career in international law.

"It used to be that you could be a local practitioner and never have a case that crossed the border of Massachusetts," notes Bridgett Halay, director of graduate law programs at Suffolk. But these days, all areas of law are potentially transnational.

The internships can also improve a student's ability to "think legally," said Makkawi A. El Makkawi, a Sudanese-born lawyer who practices in Dubai, when addressing a group of prospective international interns at Suffolk Law this fall. Interns are required to apply legal reasoning to situations where the letter—and often the structure—of the law differ from U.S. law.

"Working abroad takes you outside your comfort zone and really makes you focus on problem-solving," including finding housing and navigating a foreign city, Nick Wilson JD'14 told the group. He spent the summer in Prague, preparing international contracts.

While most students in the program intern at law firms, some work with nonprofit and governmental organizations. Bintou Zerbo JD'13 spent the summer in Geneva, interning with Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV). "It was not an 'intern-gets-the-coffee' job," she says. Instead her assignments, well organized before she arrived, included researching and comparing the drug development regulations of three different countries and writing briefs. She still found time to visit chocolate and Brie factories. And she returned home with the promise of strong recommendations from MMV lawyers.

"It's a great addition to your resume," adds Diler Erdengiz JD'13, who focused on commercial contracts, distribution agreements, corporate governance legislation, and aviation law during her summer in Brussels. "I find employers are impressed with people who can function in different cultures."

The payback can be even more immediate. Brian Badgley JD'14 parlayed his 2011 internship with the Regional Associates for Community Initiatives in Uganda into a research assistantship and acceptance to a clinical program at Suffolk. He also launched a Suffolk human rights club and secured a second internship at a humanitarian law research center.

The internship program has helped build upon Suffolk Law's international reputation, says Halay. The school offers an array of international law courses, a summer law program at Lund University in Sweden, exchange programs with universities in Canada, Germany, Mexico, and Sweden, as well as a  master's degree (LL.M.) program in Global Law and Technology with a specialization in International Law and Business.

Although the five-to-eight-week internships are unpaid, Sovereign Bank now awards some students scholarships of up to $3,000, with preference given to those working for nonprofit or government organizations or in Central or South America.