Name: Laure

Year: Junior

Major: Exchange Student from Sciences Po Paris

CFS Program: Legal Field Studies
My CFS experience has been the peak of my year spent at the Northwestern University and has allowed me to discover a little bit more of the United States. I have not finished yet my internship at the Law Offices of Reza Baniassadi but I already have learned a lot about the practice of law in this country and, more specifically, on immigration law.
Indeed, the Law Office of Reza Baniassadi is a small law firm that is dealing mostly with immigration cases and, to a lesser extent, with civil litigation cases. This internship has not only offered me a good insight into the American work environment but it has also helped me to better prepare for my first year of law school in France, which will start this August. Before this experience, I never had the opportunity to work in a law firm and I was really eager to discover the day-to-day routine of a law firm.
My main task is to assist the attorney in the preparation of some cases: after a few weeks, I was able to prepare some simple cases on my own from the beginning to the end. It is really rewarding to feel useful and to be able to help families reunite. Moreover, immigration law is particularly important in the United States because of the high number of persons requesting visas, applying for citizenship or willing to regularize their status. It is an area of law that is particularly affected by political decisions, especially now that immigration has become one of the most discussed election topics this year. Thanks to this internship, I have had the opportunity to observe how political decisions could have an influence on the lives of thousands of people.
The other advantage of the CFS program is the class, linked to the field of the internship; it is the ideal complement to our professional experience. In less than three months, I was able to visit almost every important ‘legal place’ in Chicago, from a juvenile detention center to a criminal court passing by a big corporate law firm. We were also able to speak to different kinds of law practitioners. I had never imagined discovering so much of the American legal system in so little time. It is why I warmly recommend the CFS program, notably to exchange students that want to discover another facet of the United States while building their professional future.