Meeting with Leia Shin, Graduate of LLM in Transnational Arbitration & Dispute Settlement, 2018

I am a Korean attorney-at-law and a member of the first generation of Science Po’s TADS LL.M. (Class of 2018). Approaching the 10th anniversary of legal practice as a lawyer in international commercial disputes and international economic law, I look back on the professional and academic experiences that took me so far and feel much gratitude to the invaluable year and a half at Sciences Po that opened my eyes to the bigger dynamics of international law and its most pressing legal issues.

I joined Sciences Po’s new LL.M. program on Transnational Arbitration and Dispute Settlement in 2017 at the crossroads of my career. I had just made the huge decision to leave one of the most prestigious law firm in Seoul which had been the bootcamp of my early career in international commercial arbitration and cross-border litigation practices. Although commercial dispute resolution work in the Asia-Pacific was fascinating, I felt a stronger thirst for growth as a professional and wanted to expand my world further to the areas of investment disputes and trade disputes. Knowing first-hand the philosophical depth and avant-garde thinking of the French academia, I vested my chips in the promises of Sciences Po’s newly launched program – a decision I look back with pride today as the program reaches a new height of success every year.

For me, TADS offered a unique opportunity to indulge in the holistic set of disciplines in public and private international law and introduced me to new frontiers of consilience between the two – the exploratory works that attempt to solve the increasingly complex legal issues of the modern international economic order by bridging the disciplinary gaps between public international law and private international law. The program was not only rich in delivering the fundamentals but was singularly attuned to the most current issues in the forefront of practice. The experience at TADS pushed me to think like a pioneer and rekindled my enthusiasm in law with new and interesting puzzles.

After the TADS, I joined the global professional services firm of Ernst & Young in Seoul as Assistant Director of the General Counsel’s Office. The day-to-day works at EY combine the two disciplines from my earlier career – issues of international economic law and the management of disputes. As a leader (one of the Big Four) in accounting, consulting and financial advisory services, much of EY’s works engage in the different operational aspects of the capital market which provide a peculiar set-up for legal risk management that ranges from legal issues related to corporate activities such as international IPO and multi-party cross-border contract negotiations to regulatory compliance and accounting fraud litigations. The job gives me both a detailed understanding of cross-border corporate and financial activities and a bird’s-eye view over the multinational regulatory framework that governs it.

I am currently juggling doctorate studies alongside a professional career. I have recently completed the courseworks for an S.J.D. in international law at Seoul National University Law School, my alma mater. I am working on a doctoral thesis on the topic of state counterclaims in Investor-State Dispute Settlement and the issue of jurisdiction - which is a topic of interest I picked up during my studies at Sciences Po. My next project includes developing a deeper expertise in the area of international economic law and related private international law issues, increasing involvement with the academia and exploring career experiences in common law jurisdictions for comparative insight.

I believe TADS is a perfect all-round training for all arbitration practitioners, not only to aspiring law graduates but also to experienced professionals. It offers in-depth lectures and workshops on the law and practice of different areas such as investment, energy, trade, cross-border litigation, sports and human rights, together with an up-close opportunity to pick the brains of the leaders of the respective legal studies or practice fields. If you are a legal professional in search of an intellectual impetus to drive your career to further heights, the TADS family will be the right fit for you.