Washington Lawyer - May/June 2024 - 28

FEATURE
lawyers an understanding of complex situations, and they can be adept
at explaining [issues] in nonlegal business terms, " he says.
For Cohen, working abroad has been the best career decision he's made.
" It's made me a better lawyer and a more skillful leader. I've expanded
my professional and personal contacts, and I am constantly learning
about law and culture all over the world, " he says.
INTERNATIONAL
ORGANIZATIONS,
GOVERNMENT &
NONPROFITS
International practice did not
cross Lucy Reed's mind while in
law school, but Reed, an independent
international arbitrator
based in New York and member
of Arbitration Chambers since
2020, has lived and worked
abroad at intervals for nearly 10
years of her four-decade career.
Her choice of litigation practice
in 1979 with former D.C. firm
Wald, Harkrader & Ross, whose
clients had claims before the
Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal at The
Hague, proved influential to her
career. " The litigation and civil
procedure experience I got with
my first firm translated well to
international work, " Reed says.
" It gave me a reference point for
picking up integrated procedural
systems in arbitration practice. "
Taking a position in 1985 as attorney-adviser
with the U.S. State
Department's Office of the Legal
Adviser, Reed was appointed in
1989 as U.S. agent to the Iran-
U.S. Claims Tribunal at The Hague
for a three-year term. She returned
to New York in 1993 when her husband landed an attractive job
in the city. " I would have loved to stay longer, but personal considerations
often play a role in overseas work decisions, " she says.
practice. " My work had led me into new fields of law that I have had to
learn on my own, like diplomatic immunity, international humanitarian
and human rights law, and others - and that keeps you young! " she
says.
Like Reed, Susan Ringler, who retired in 2023 as chief ethics and compliance
officer of the nonprofit International Rescue Committee (IRC), started
her career in litigation. In 1985
Ringler became an assistant U.S.
attorney in the Maryland U.S. Attorney's
Office. " It was the ultimate training
ground for someone interested
in litigation, " she says. " I handled all
aspects of trial and appellate litigation
and worked on many different
cases involving violations of federal
criminal law in Maryland, from bank
robberies to complex fraud. "
After 13 years, Ringler was ready for
her next career step. " I wanted to
work overseas and use the incredible
experience I had with the U.S. criminal
justice system, " she says. Her
chance came in 1998, when she volunteered
for a posting in Russia as
criminal law liaison with the American
Bar Association's Central and
Eastern European Law Initiative
(CEELI), a program founded in 1990
following the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Ringler says her CEELI experience was
transformative: " I quickly learned that
our role as liaisons was to listen and
learn what reforms our local partners
felt were possible at that time, and to
share comparative insights into how
other criminal justice systems functioned. "
Lucy
Reed pictured exploring a market in Mumbai, India.
Returning to the United States in
2000, Ringler subsequently went
on to other roles that drew upon
her litigation and international backReed's
subsequent work included varied roles in international claims, dispute
resolution, and arbitration practice, much of it during the time she
spent with Freshfields between 1998 and 2016. When the firm needed a
partner to grow its practice in Asia, Reed, then head of Freshfield's arbitration
group, relocated to the Hong Kong office in 2012 for two years
and then to Singapore for another two. She ended up staying almost
four more years when she was named director of the Centre for International
Law and professor at the National University of Singapore in 2016.
As a U.S.-trained lawyer admitted to practice only in U.S. jurisdictions,
Reed has had to be resourceful to meet the demands of her international
28 WASHINGTON LAWYER
* MAY/JUNE 2024
grounds, including positions at the World Bank, the Independent Inquiry
Committee into the U.N. Oil-for-Food Programme, corporations, and
finally, in 2017, the IRC. Her advice to others contemplating working
abroad is to " stay open to opportunities, be willing to learn, and stretch
yourself in your career. "
THE ACADEMIC ROUTE
Teaching offers another avenue for overseas work for attorneys. For Catherine
Bocskor, a retired corporate general counsel, working abroad and
teaching were " bucket list " goals. After four decades of practice, she
wanted a " résumé enhancer " as an entrée into teaching at U.S. universities.
In 2011 her online research turned up a yearlong job teaching international
business and law at Prince Mohammad University in Al Khobar,
Saudi Arabia.
Washington Lawyer - May/June 2024

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