Students from Russia-annexed Crimea and the troubled Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, where Kremlin-backed separatists are waging war, will have a chance this summer to undergo a one-month internship with leading law firms.
Global law firm DLA Piper accepted applications through June 20 from fourth-year law students from these areas. Skype and telephone interviews are under way. Qualified applicants must have a strong command of English.
The project, called “Break Into Law,” is expected to take in 12 interns who will be given free room and board, including a per diem living allowance. Up to six people could start interning as early as June 30, Olena Lazareva, DLA Piper marketing and public relations specialist for the firm’s Kyiv office, told the Kyiv Post.
“If we get more than the expected number of qualified applicants, we’ll take in more, and the program will last through August,” she added.
Ukraine’s education ministry has also taken notice. It recently gave DLA Piper managing partner and supervisor of corporate social responsibility projects Margarita Karpenko a certificate of appreciation for the firm’s “contribution to higher education.”
Project manager Maryna Kostogryz said: “We want to help students build their future and give them a start.” Students will acquire practical experience in a field where graduates usually have only a wealth of theoretical knowledge, a common complaint by seasoned attorneys.
While some Ukrainian graduates believe that a prestigious university diploma is the key to success, Leonid Antonenko, counsel at Sayenko Kharenko law firm, says “a diploma doesn’t always indicate a proper job candidate.”
Oksana Ilchenko, a partner for Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev and Partners, said involving law firms into university curriculum “will reinforce the bridge between theory and practice and also between the law schools and the market.”
DLA Piper interns will have a chance to choose an area of specialization and focus on one of the firm’s legal practices: corporate law, mergers & acquisitions, finance, real estate, taxation, and intellectual property.
Tetyana Kostina, 21, a senior at Odesa Law Academy and major activist in the Student League of the Ukrainian Bar Association, believes that DLA Piper’s internship is a great opportunity to acquire practical skills. She applied, and DLA Piper confirmed receipt of the submission.
In order to become a good lawyer, a student should not only attend lectures of university professors, but also go to conferences and gain practical experience, adds Kostina.
However, DLA Piper’s internship is not the only opportunity for Ukraine’s troubled regions.
The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs provides scholarships for obtaining master’s degrees in journalism and media communications at the School of Journalism at Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. Besides Crimea and Donbas, students from Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Zaporizhya oblasts are also eligible to apply.
Students from these regions will have a chance to live and study in the country’s unofficial western capital of Lviv, known for its European atmosphere. Ukrainian Catholic Unirvesity’s School of Journalism takes a Western-style educational approach, focusing on providing students with hands-on practice in publishing a newspaper, or running a website, television or radio station.
