Student and Alumni Profiles

Pace Law School's superb international law faculty in New York and London - augmented by public and private law  practitioners from international organizations and multinational law firms and corporations around the globe - provide Pace students with the legal skills and diverse experiences required for successful international practice.

The ability of Pace Law graduates to hit the ground running is reflected in the number and quality of the international law firms employing Pace graduates, including: Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP; Linklaters; Clifford Chance; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; the U.S. Court of International Trade and U.S. Department of State; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates; White & Case LLP; Holland & Knight LLP; Hunton & Williams LLP; Nixon Peabody LLP; and others - a list which grows each year.

A CAREER IN INTERNATIONAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION

Jessica Bannon Vanto provides a perfect example of how Pace’s international programs can provide the foundation for an enriching career. In her case that has meant working for three of the top international arbitration practices in the world over the past ten years. “The international offerings at Pace not only prepared me for a career in international law and arbitration but were in fact directly responsible for the career opportunities that awaited me after graduation. After my first year at Pace, I participated in the Pace International Summer Internships Abroad Program, which took me to Vienna and Paris. Primarily as a result of those international experiences, I was able to join the international dispute resolution group at Debevoise & Plimpton, first as a summer associate and then as an associate. My experiences at Debevoise, in turn, qualified me for lateral moves, first to Hanotiau & van den Berg, an international arbitration boutique in Brussels, Belgium, and then to Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's International Arbitration Group in New York.”

The benefits of Jessica’s Pace externship did not end there. “Two years after my internship, I returned to Vienna to compete in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot. Since then, I have returned every year to act as an arbitrator and to take advantage of the extensive professional development and networking opportunities for international arbitrators that the Moot has come to offer. Exactly ten years after participating in the International Summer Internship Abroad Program as a student, I returned to Vienna to lecture to the current Pace international interns.”

Most important of all, Jessica has found a career path that she finds satisfying. “International dispute resolution is very different from domestic litigation. It requires cultural sensitivity, language ability and other soft skills that are not as prominent in national litigation. Reconciling often vast differences between parties in a conflict situation is always a challenge for those of us in this field. It is also what I find so fascinating about my work.”

PREPARED FOR A GLOBAL PRACTICE

"After spending time abroad in Thailand teaching English at an international university, I knew I wanted to work in international law, but I wasn’t sure exactly which fields even existed,” notes Pace Law alumnus Christopher Bloch.  When he arrived at Pace, Chris began consulting with members of the international law faculty, and quickly found himself interested in the field of international arbitration, a dispute resolution process commonly used to resolve international disputes outside the formal court system of any particular country.

Via Pace’s International Internships Abroad program, Chris received a summer placement in Sydney, Australia with Clayton Utz, a renowned Australian firm known for its particular strength in the field.  “From that point,” he notes, “I was just hooked.”  Back at Pace, Chris gained further hands-on experience as an intern for a federal court judge and as a researcher for the Pace Institute of International Commercial Law.  All of these experiences helped prepare Chris for a coveted summer associate position at the Cologne, Germany office of leading international firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where Chris deepened his already impressive experience in international arbitration.  “With the rise of the global economy, and the flattening of the globe, international arbitration is only becoming more prevalent and more important,” he says, “I want to keep working in this field, and Pace has definitely helped me make that plan a reality.”  Upon graduating magna cum laude in May 2010 with Pace’s Certificate of Concentration in International Law, Chris returned to the Institute of International Commercial Law as a Staff Attorney and Research Scholar to assist on several projects involving international sales law and an international project on online dispute resolution for the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (“UNCITRAL”).

Currently, Chris works in Singapore for Michael Hwang Chambers, assisting one of the leading arbitrators in the world on cases involving parties from all over the globe.  His work involves disputes arising out of international commercial contracts and bilateral investment treaties being heard under the rules of various international arbitration institutions including the ICC, SIAC, LCIA and PCA.  He still believes that “the work I have done in Australia, Germany and now Singapore has all been directly affected by my time at Pace and all of the faculty members who helped me get to where I am today.”