UI Students Abroad: Annette Stewart recipient Armin Halilovic shares news of his summer internship in China
Armin Halilovic, recipient of a 2012 Annette Stewart International Summer Travel Stipend, completed a summer internship in China. He has shared news of the trip below. Thank you, Armin!
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I spent my summer working as an associate for an international company in Shanghai, China. The internship was broken up into three separate parts. During the first part of the internship, my primary responsibilities were to review high value international contract agreements. Fortunately, the contracts were not written in Chinese characters. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of the contracts were governed either by U.S. law or by U.K. law so the legal principles that I have learned in first year contracts really came in handy. I was also required to write memoranda and reports regarding potential legal disputes that may arise and how the contracts may be altered to avoid such disputes.
During the second part of my internship, I was required to draft numerous contract templates for the company. Surprisingly, this project was not as boring as it may sound. I was required to do a lot of research and analysis because the templates would be used in international agreements. I had to ensure that the terms and conditions would be enforceable if the company had to go arbitration. Furthermore, the company works in the oil, gas, telecommunication and renewable energy industries; therefore, I had the opportunity to gain a much better understanding of these industries while drafting the contract templates. I am certain that the company made numerous changes to the contract templates that I have drafted. Nevertheless, I felt a lot of pressure knowing that some parts of the templates may be used in multi-million dollar contract agreements.
During the last phase of the internship, I spent the majority of my time conducting comparative studies on U.S., U.K. and Chinese law. Furthermore, I wrote reports on outstanding legal disputes, provided assistance in the negotiation process, conducted informative presentations and etc. Overall, my experience in China has been extremely positive and beneficial. I am absolutely certain that the skills that I acquired during the course of the internship will be useful in the future.