Read about Min Son’s experience:
Anderson & Anderson LLP is an international law firm with its headquarter in China. It has several offices in Asia, including Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. In 2013, the Mongolian branch of the law firm established its subsidiary NGO, the EJA. The main purpose of the association is to undertake the rule of law work in Mongolia.
According to the Charter of the EJA, the association works to promote the Rule of Law, justice, equality, corporate governance, probity in and among all government officials, honesty, and transparency in the furtherance of a more just Mongolian legal environment. The EJA also provides a cultural exchange and legal internships to young Mongolian lawyers and foreign lawyers to learn the legal system and culture. The rule of law work and the EJA is important for A&A, because as a young democratic country, Mongolia currently faces many problems with corruption, and with enforcement of legal and regulatory frameworks.
Throughout my internship, I learned that the advancement of rule of law leads to economic success and foreign investment. Many legal practitioners and associations, including the EJA, believe that the advancement of Rule of Law will lead to economic freedom in Mongolia. Accordingly, my internship work concentrated on promoting rule of law in Mongolia. This year, in particular, Mongolia scored its lowest marks on the rule of law pillar of the Heritage Foundation’s 2015 Index of Economic Freedom. The annual Index examines each country’s property rights and freedom from corruption. As the Index result indicates, the rule of law is a fundamental aspect of economic freedom in Mongolia, and is a growing concern in Mongolia.
There are two main ways the EJA uses to promote the rule of law in Mongolia: Ensuring access to justice in Mongolia, and helping Mongolia attract much needed foreign investment. To ensure access to justice, the EJA provides pro bono legal services. The attorneys of A&A and the EJA provide pro bono legal services on a regular basis out of the belief that legal skills should be used to bring justice and fair treatment to the people of Mongolia who may otherwise be denied. Past pro bono services include establishing both Mongolian or foreign NGOs in Mongolia, and providing legal services to the indigent.
For this type of activity, I was given the opportunity to attend client meetings and write client meeting reports and client emails. For example, one of the potential pro bono clients I met came to the office to discuss legal services, claimed human rights violation and religious persecution. She claimed that she was persecuted because she was a Christian. The client also sought legal assistance with recovery of personal property. Details of the case will be omitted here due to confidentiality reasons. The client meetings and researches were a good way for me to observe and learn the ways in which lawyers can help underprivileged citizens.
The second type of activity that promotes the rule of law in Mongolia is improving the rule of law in order to attract much needed foreign investment. In particular, the main fields of activities for this goal include international conferences, seminars, development projects, legal research, advocacy and training. I was involved in this type of work, and my main focus during my internship was attending international conferences like the AmCham Dialogue and working on a development project like the World Bank Survey.