Week 3 at AIA

This was a very tough week at AIA, primarily because all of the other law trainees had to go to class instead of working in the office, so I was the only person at the office who is not an actual employee. This meant that anything and everything that was needed my Mr. Billiet was immediately thrown on my desk without warning and explanation. Luckily before the madness began I was able to conduct several interviews with arbitrators and mediators from the US include in my Warsaw speech, which I completed on Monday and have since been practicing.

Later in the week I was able to talk to the cheif organizer, Mr. Bertrand, of AIA's upcoming conference in June, titled "UNCITRAL Model Law: 25 years." He gave me a lot of guidance as to what role he want me to play in the planning process. I will be responsible for finding additional speakers from somewhere in Africa, Hungary, and Canada. I will also have to brainstorm ways that we can promote the Conference to our supporters and members. I took initiative on this, and was able to secure a speaker from the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, and Mr. Betrand was very pleased.

The week turned stressful when Mr. Billiet came into my office and told me he wants me to do research for him on Belgian arbitration law, and based on some suggestions of his, help write up a speech for him to deliver at UNCITRAL that will explain how Belgian law can change to be come more competitive in international arbitration cases. With no knowledge of law, let alone Belgian law, it has been a grueling process thus far. Then, I had to type up a text for an ongoing arbitration case that Mr. Billiet is consulting on. Finally, I spoke with the woring group on the EMTPJ project, and apparently we are very behind schedule. Therefore, I spent the end of the week trying to redesign the curriculum of the course based on the guidelines we received from the many mediation centers in the EU. I am hoping this will show results in the beginning of next week.

Weeks three and four with the Legislative Division were not as exciting as one and two, but I am still extremely happy with my choice of residency. At the start of my third week with the Treasurer I was given the responsibility of analyzing a piece of legislation the Treasurer has an interest in. I had to read the bill and write a short summary for internal staff to use. It required more work than I thought it would, as I had to contact people outside of our office for information about the legislation. After sending it to be reviewed by staff, I recieved some good constructive criticism that I was happy to have. Hopefully I be able to write more analyses in the future without much oversight from staff members and that are helpful to staffers looking for the basic information about legislation.

The Capitol has been incredibly quiet post-State of the State address. It seems everyone is focusing on the election, those running and staffers alike. I have always known that political jobs were often contingent on election results, but it becomes more real when the people you work with talk about possibly not having a job after the primary or general election.

Any talk that does occur within the election is likely centered around the election. This primary season seems to be more controversial than past elections and it is exciting to be in Springfield for it all. I'm interested to see if there is any change in dynamic due to who wins. (For example, IF Quinn would lose in the primary, will the legislature act any differently with a lame-duck governor?)

I get a chance to see the results of another CLP fellow, Dan, daily when I read the Capitol Fax blog. New to reading the blog, I have discovered that you can find just about anything you want to know about Illinois politics on the blog. Everyone in my office looks at the blog on a daily basis, on busy days just scanning headlines to see if there is anything that would affect our office. On days with more down time, the stories posted on Capitol Fax are usually very interesting, especially with the election around the corner. By the way, great work Dan!

One of the responsibilities that fell on both myself and Brittany (the other intern) last week was to "clean up" a piece of legislation the Treasurer is introducing. Our office originally created a version of the bill but then decided to make variations. Before a bill can be introduced into the House or Senate, it must first be taken to the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) in the Capitol to be drafted into the format officially used by Legislature. Every single bill must be drafted in this format and that office is the only one with the correct computer software to turn a draft of a bill into something that can be used by the Legislature. Also, the office must protect the integrity of the documents and for that reason does not issue the documents electronically (i.e. In a PDF file that can be opened on any computer). The bill is posted on the website and distributed on paper instead. So, once we wanted to make changes to our already drafted bill, it had to be scanned in and then modified. This proved to be a formatting nightmare- and a problem the interns had to solve. The bill was hard to read and very confusing once all of our changes were in place. Also, the bill had to be fixed before it could be submitted to LRB because the office would have not accepted the mess we created. It took Brittany and myself over a full day of work to get the bill into a format that was far from perfect, but at least intelligible. Everyone in our office seemed to really appreciate our hard work on getting the bill fixed.

The week of February 1-5 will likely be an exciting one for Illinois and Springfield. The primary election on Tuesday and the House reconvenes on Wednesday. I'm excited to see what it brings!

Sara Cline- January 28th

I have the day off tomorrow, so it is a short week for me!

I spend a lot of time this week doing research on earmarks. Basically I had to pull together data on the earmarks secured by different Senators and Reps across all appropriations bills for FY10 and back. It is very interesting to see what different Sens/Reps are able to secure earmarks for.

Again, I spent a lot of time working on the Greek Lobbying Effort- some outreach to students selected for the April visits, and working on a presentation for someone to give about what is going on with Greeks in Congress.

On Tuesday, I went to a breakfast fundraiser for Sen McClaskill (D-MO) on behalf of the FRATPAC (Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee). She was extremely lively and made a lot of interesting remarks!

Yesterday afternoon, I accompanied Jess to a Senate hearing on energy conservation. It was my first time attending a hearing, so I didn't know what to expect. Jess on behalf of a client, and she invited me to go a watch, to get a feel for it in case I need to cover one in the future. I found it a little hard to hear what was going on, but generally very interesting. There were a number of witnesses testifying- including representatives from the DOD, DOE and USPS. Prior to the hearing, I wondered why a rep from the USPS was going to be there, but it is amazing all of the efforts the postal service is taking to go green. It seems like they're thinking about it from every angle, and even looking into replacing their regular mail delivery trucks with more energy efficient/green versions.

That's pretty much it. As with everyone else I have talked to, there is a lot more going on here, but many things are confidential.

First Week-State Senator Michael Frerichs-Champaign District Office

The first week at State Senator Michael Frerichs office has been quite busy. I am very excited to have chosen this placement for my residency. Since I have served in a congressional office before I will be able to compare and contrast the two. The district office expects to have six interns; however, I will be the only full-time intern in the office. At the onset of the internship it has been discussed that I may travel to Springfield on a bi-weekly basis in order to help run Senator Frerichs office at the Capitol; currently the office has no staff. Another option is for his Chief of Staff Laurie to travel to Springfield to run the office leaving me to run the district office during session; either is certainly a great opportunity.

Monday morning began with the usual basics related to an introduction of many office environments: sorting the mail, reading through local newspapers for articles of importance etc. Although the morning began with the dull essential activities of the office I am certain Senator Frerichs will place a immense amount of responsibility upon me. Monday morning the senator was out of the office to attend a funeral; Laurie and I sifted through constituent letters of concern which could have potential in terms of legislation for the upcoming session.

Upon the senators return we had a meeting to discuss the issues of concern which were expressed in the series of constituent letters. This meeting was one of importance which gave me an opportunity to see which issues are of key importance to the senator. The Senator also took a keen interest in issues of importance to me. For the duration of my residency I will be forwarded all issues relative to the University of Illinois and Higher Education.

As of Tuesday morning the Senator left to vacation for the week in Honduras.

On Tuesday morning, Laurie and I went to a meeting at the local Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club. The meeting was part of an effort to discuss a possible collaboration between the Boys and Girls Club and the local school district to renovate Booker T. Washington School. The collaboration would provide for the construction of better educational facilities with certain areas for specific Boys and Girls Club usage. This idea has been exercised in Toledo with much success. A variety of issues exists which may deter the effort, mainly cost. However, the state may be able to offer assistance.

In the afternoon, Laurie and I met with a recently released felon of the community to discuss a possible reentry program. The Department of Corrections offers a variety of programs to prepare incarcerated individuals the skills necessary to gain employment upon release; however, discrimination by employers against felons often creates a problem. The reentry program would look to work with local employers and recently released felons to facilitate a successful reentry into society.

The day ended with attendance at a local IDOT open house with concern to a proposed project: Olympian Drive. The project is opposed by many individuals involved with the agriculture community; these individuals cite the project will decrease the overall available area for agriculture purposes for an unnecessary project.

Wednesday had a primary focus on research related to potential legislation. I am excited to begin work related to potential legislation. I feel as if I am already serving as an integral part of this office. I have contacted a wide-variety of constituents, agencies etc. to investigate opinions and the overall possibility of implementation of potential legislation. The remainder of the week has served primary as time for research regarding potential legislation.

Thursday afternoon, Laurie and I attended an open house at the local Census Bureau in Champaign. At the open House we were briefed as to the events upcoming which are related to the upcoming census. It is interesting to hear of all the essential actions which are needed in order to carryout a thorough census. The Census Bureau will be able to provide many local citizens with temporary full-time and part-time jobs which is great especially in this time of great need for many.

Friday was marked by further research into potential legislation. However, I was assigned further responsibility this afternoon as Laurie asked if I too will serve as intern coordinator for the duration of my residency.

This week has showed lots of promise for the duration of my residency hear at State Senator Michael Frerichs district office.

1st and 2nd weeks at DoS.

The first couple weeks have been great. I love the work that I'm doing at the State Department. I am in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs (IO) with the office of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). As you can see already abbreviations are VERY necessary for the Department of State (DoS). Each bureau has an abbreviation and the first week I learned quickly that its something like another language. Most of them make sense, like African Affairs (AF), and Secretary of State (S) but some of them are ridiculously random like Legislative Affairs (H).

We started with numerous security briefings, which basically were telling us what NOT to do, whats not for non citizens what not to share w/anyone. what not to say, what not to post online. We were told hackers and foreign intelligence agencies do a lot of phishing for info, like how scammers send fake emails from banks to get ur acct info, they do that if u have a DoS email address but to send viruses and try to obtain information. They told us stories about employees that have been fired for leaking info to other governments, taking confidential information home, and even blogging and putting too much information on the blog. During orientation I got to meet interns from other offices and we had speakers from foreign service recruitment which was cool because we will be working right alongside foreign and civil service officers so we can see what they do and possibly work for DoS one day.

The first week I just did a lot of translating documents because UNESCO's headquarters being in Paris, France, most publications come out in French first and in English a few days later. The second week was much more eventful. A very important diplomat associated with UNESCO came into town and had a packed schedule of meetings with S (Secretary of State) and our AS (Assistant Secretary) and DAS's (Deputy Assistant Secretaries). It will take time to keep up with all the acronyms. I had to do research for briefing papers that other staffers were completing for these meetings. Our ambassador also came from Paris for this event. After the long day of meetings there was a reception of the hill and I got to meet the diplomat and other United Nations affiliated individuals. It was great. The internship program for DoS also arranges "field trips" so I will be going to visit an Embassy in a few weeks and I plan to attend a conference on Atrocities in Africa, as well as go hear a speech that S will be giving. Thats all for now.

Second Week at AIA

At the beginning of this past week I found out that my paper proposal was accepted by the Warsaw Conference Committee, which is very exciting. Thus, the majority of my time in the office was spent writing, and editing, and editing, and editing my speech. After far too many drafts, I'm confident it is both informative, and more importantly deliverable. However, I still need to practice it. I have also been doing a lot of research on the topic so that I can participate actively in the question and answer sessions. I will speaking about multi-step dispute resolution in the United States in general, and in particular under the auspices of the American Arbitration Association. Basically, multi-step dispute resolution is when two parties, when entering into a contract, decicde that if any conflict should arise down the road, they will agree to try and negotiation through it themselves, before proceeded to more "adversarial" methods. Hence, there are two steps. It is much more interesting than it sounds, trust me. And, with no background (nor potential future) in contract law, I can still appreciate its theoretical relation to diplomatic communications.

I also made a lot of progress with the EMTPJ project, which is scheduled to be held in August. With a list of nearly every major mediation center in the EU, I set up a sort of phone booth for myself in the office and began calling and giving them AIA's pitch to join. At times I felt a bit like I was a telemarketer, but most were very excited to be a part of the initiative so very little convincing was needed. The biggest point I had to emphasize is that AIA is not a competing mediation institute, but rather a non-profit organization that is trying to universalize the practice of mediation across the EU. With the grant received the EU commission, the goal is the unite all "practitioners of justice" with a single mediation accreditation. It is definitely a bold project, especially seeing as once we have the EU under the umbrella, the idea is to expand it into India, several countries in Asia, and perhaps the US as well.

For February's newsletter, I have been editing several articles from our regular contributors. Many of them are case studies on big international arbitration cases, so the legal terms can be confusing. My boss is motly concerned with whether or not the English makes sense, since most of the contributors are not native English speakers. In order to perhaps make the newsletter more interesting, I have been contacting arbitrators and mediators from different countries and with varying backgrounds to see if they would be willing to have a brief phone interview with me to be included in the newsletter. I have received on reply, from an arbitrator in Los Angeles, with whom I will speak next Tuesday. At the end of the week I put together the questions I will ask him, which mostly deal with multi-step dispute resolution. I did this purposefully, so that I may be able to use some of his insights in my paper.

Second Week - January 22, 2010

Last week I began my internship at The Capitol Fax Blog. The General Assembly was first in session on Tuesday and it was extremely exciting getting to meet people and learn more about how state government operates. I met the other intern I will be working with and followed around Rich Miller as he was meeting and greeting all the people he knows in the Capitol after being on vacation. Some of my work was running erands, but overall sitting in on the conversations Rich has with legislators is quite intriguing. I sat in the press box and watched as the Senate approved a cemetery reform bill, and later sat in on a House committee hearing on changes to state medicare.

The next day was the State of the State address. My primary responsibility for the day was filming reactions to the address that could be posted to the blog. After the address I headed to the Comptroller's office to tape Dan Hynes's press conference. It was interesting getting to watch from a couple feet away as a candidate for Governor gave his reaction, and I got to meet some of the members of the press corps whose bylines I recognized from the media stories everyday.

Unfortunately, given the primary coming up on Feb. 2nd, the General Assembly will not be in session again until Feb. 3rd, so I have not gotten to work at the Capitol Building since the State of the State address. Primarily I have continued to edit Morning Shorts each morning, which is a round-up of all the major news stories relating to the elections, state government, and stories affecting Illinois at all levels, and I continue to read the blog and follow along as the election develops. I did have an assignment to search through the State Board of Elections website and create a list of links to all candidate financial disclosure information for State Rep. and State Senate in competitive elections.

Sara Cline- January 22, 2010

Although this was a short week (Monday was MLK day), it was jam-packed. As I mentioned in my previous post, this week the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) were in town. On Tuesday, I watched their information sessions and training, to prepare for the Hill visits on Wednesday. The orthodontists were concerned about how health care reform would affect them as small business owners.
It is embarrassing to say this, but prior to this week, I knew next to nothing about health care reform. Doing some research to prepare for the visits and listening to the training taught me so much! There were a few parts of HC reform that the orthodontists were particularly interested in. The first issue was Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs). If you aren’t familiar with FSAs, they’re accounts were people can put money from their paychecks for medical spending, without it being taxed. Both the House and Senate versions of the HC bill put a limit on FSAs at $2500 (to raise money by having more of peoples’ actual paychecks to tax), which the orthodontists oppose. The majority of orthodontists said that their patients/patients’ parents use FSAs to be able to pay for their braces.
Another thing the orthodontists were concerned about was the red flag rule. I’m not 100% certain I understand it correctly, but this is what I think it means. Certain companies are required under this rule to go through additional steps/protection measures to protect the identities and confidential bank information of their clients. The companies this rule was meant to affect were credit card companies (for example- VISA because they would have all of your personal information), but orthodontists were included because people often pay for their orthodontic work in installments, much like they would with a credit card. Although that is somewhat similar to a credit card, the orthodontists don’t have nearly as much personal information, and there has never been a documented identity theft from an orthodontics office, so the orthodontists were seeking to be excluded from the rule.
Those were the two main concerns of the ADA, but they had a number of other concerns that they wanted to address as well. (Too many to describe in detail.)
On Wednesday teams of 4-5 orthodontists met with members of the House and Senate and their staffers. In meetings where the member was attending, PB lobbyists went to the meetings and assisted. I accompanied the PB lobbyists in the meetings over the course of the day. Since I’m not an ortho, and they were the ones running the meetings, I played a listening role, which was very interesting. I think I learned just as much watching the orthodontists as I did in preparing for the meetings.
On Thursday, I had a meeting with my boss, Kevin, and it seems like from here on out, I’m going to be focusing a lot on the April Greek visits. I had no idea how much work went into them when I participated two years ago. The project I am currently working on is figuring out what current members of Congress were previous sponsors of the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act (CHIA) and seeing if the Greeks met with them last year. There is going to be a lot to do in the coming weeks/months for these visits, but I am extremely interested in it, so the work will be enjoyable!

First Two Weeks with the State Treasurer

My first two weeks with the State Treasurer has included both exciting days and not-so- exciting days. I began on January 4th, which I chose to give myself enough time to feel comfortable working in the Capitol while it was relatively quiet, because Session did not start until the following week. I knew that the Capitol would be relatively quiet because the GA was not in session, but it was even quieter than I had expected.

Although I am working for the Treasurer, I work in his legislative office which is charged with monitoring legislation the Treasurer is interested in and lobbying members of the General Assembly to vote certain ways on bills. I have three co-workers that are here on a full-time basis. John and Sheleda are both staff with the legislative division and Brittany is another intern who is working to complete her masters degree through the University of Illinois Springfield. Colleen is the director of legislative affairs for the Treasurer but remains in her Chicago office except for when the General Assembly is in Session. While Colleen is not here, John is the one I ususally answer to, but with technology Colleen always knows what is going on with our office, either through email or conference calls. John has worked in the Capitol building for over 20 years in various positions and is incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to all things involving the General Assembly.

My first day involved mainly orientation type stuff. John gave Brittany and I a tour of the capitol, much more extensive than the one you recieve on school field trips. He showed the two of us a lot of shortcuts and hallways not generally seen to the outside public and I know that when the time comes for me to find a Senator or Rep's office there is no way I will find my way back.

The rest of the day is mostly spent in conference calls discussing the Treasurer's big issue for the second half of the 96th General Assembly, Debt Settlement. Essentially the legislation is proposing restrictions on debt settlement companies that advertise their ability to help consumers get out of debt, but more often than not the consumer suffers due to high fees from the company and leaves them in a worse credit situation than before. If the legislation passes, debt settlement companies will face a limit on what they can charge consumers and there will be more transparency on what services the company is actually providing.

The legislative division reads every bill that is proposed in the General Assembly so bills that are of possible interest to the Treasurer can be monitored. Reading the proposed bills took up a good part of my first week on the job, but it was something I found myself enjoying. For one, it made the days fly by and two, it was interesting to find out what issues the legislators are concerning themselves with. Some of the legislation is likely to become issues of high importance in the upcoming Session, while other pieces of legislation actually make you laugh at their absurdness.

During the first week, John also took Brittany and myself to other divisions within the State Treasurer's office, such as Unclaimed Property and Bright Start (Illinois' college savings program). On Friday, the Director of Unclaimed Property came to the Capitol to give us a tour of the Treasurer's vault (which is actually located several floors beneath my desk) and contains any physical items in the Unclaimed Property division (these items are often found in safety deposit boxes that are inactive for years and are then turned over to the Treasurer to hopefully return the contents of such boxes to a rightful owner or to be sold on an auction). I was warned that the vault really wasn't that exciting- which it wasn't. But it is something that most people don't get the chance to do.

Monday, January 11th began my second week on the job. Most of the morning and some of the afternoon was spent at the Illinois building, down the street from the Capitol, where the biggest portion of the Treasurer's staff is located. The staff located in this building deal with the Treasurer's investments and general financial "stuff". We met with the Deputy Treasurer, people from internal audit, accounting, and several other divisions. Even though it was obvious that those we spoke with were attempting to put their job description in plain language, some of what they were talking about was still way over my head. It made me wish I had maybe taken an Econ class or two during undergrad. Maybe.

Monday afternoon was my first trip to a General Assembly committee hearing. I was a little nervous about it, since I was the only one from my office attending and I was expected to report back. But I prepared myself about the slated topic for the hearing and felt confident I would be fine. I was surprised, however, to find out that the original topic for the hearing was changed and now the committee was discussing a bill about Medicare funding, not something I have much (or any) familiarity with. To add to my frustration, some members of the committee were not there, so others were subbing for people, and it was obvious that some of the committee members were more worried about checking into their hotels for the night and getting ready for the start of session on Tuesday. This all led to a rather chaotic and rushed hearing. However, I took as many notes as possible and returned to my office prepared to research the bill more. As it turns out, the proposed funding stemmed from something done last year in the GA which I had no idea about and John came to my rescue and explained things once I talked to him about it.

Tuesday was the first day of Session and the Capitol was the complete opposite of the week prior. From my office there was a constant buzz all day long that could be heard out in the rotunda. This was the Capitol I had been picturing when I found out that is where I would be working everyday. The office listens to the GA everyday it is in session though speakers that are located in our office. Sheleda and I have our desks on the main floor of the office and listen to the House if both chambers are in session at the same time, while John and Brittany sit upstairs and listen to the Senate. The beginning of session was a little anti-climatic as both chambers had one party request to caucus within minutes of beginning. However, when the House reconvened, the representatives discussed the Medicare funding bill (Which I thankfully knew much more about now) and passed it out of the House, along with several other pieces of legislation. Listening to the House or Senate floor was a little hard for me at first, but I got used to it and when I listened Wednesday it was definitely much easier to follow.

Wednesday was a very hectic but exciting day in the Capitol. The Senate began session at 9 and the House at 10:30 and the Governor was set to give his State of the State address at noon. After to listening to the GA for several hours I had the opportunity to meet Treasurer Giannoulias who was in Springfield for the address, along with Robin Kelly his chief of staff and several other senior staff members that came on the trip with him. Colleen chose not to go to the address, so I was able to go in her place, which I found exciting as an intern. The Governor's address lasted well over an hour, but I enjoyed listening to what he said (and did not say- the Governor has come under much criticism for the speech). I returned to the office sometime around 2 only to go back to a Senate committee hearing. Thankfully, they discussed the bill they were supposed to this time. The Senate then reconvened around 3:30 and quickly discussed the bills on the agenda. The GA does not reconvene for session until after the primary election so many senators and reps were eager to head back to their districts after the address.

Compared to Wednesday, Thursday in the Capitol was silent. More bill reading in the morning, followed by a trip back to the Illinois Building to meet with the Director and Deputy Director of Illinois Funds. IL Funds is a program for use by government entities (like local governments, fire districts, etc.) that acts as the bank for these programs, often with little or no fees and a greater return on investments than a typical bank.

On Friday the staff was allowed to wear jeans to work with a donation to any organization involved with humanitarian work in Haiti. Between the Treasurer's Chicago, Springfield, and Mt. Vernon offices, $1,300 was raised. More bill reading!

Brady Collins - First week at AIA

I arrived in Brussels last Friday to give myself the weekend before starting work. This gave me the chance the move into my apartment and familiarize myself with the city a bit. It was definitely a good idea, because after the first week it appears that I will be working from 9am-7pm everyday, and will not have much time during to see much outside of the office. I work at AIA (The Association for International Arbitration), which is a non-profit organization that promotes the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms. ADR is a rapidly growing field. It started as a subsidiary field for legal professions to involve themselves in, but has grown to include "practitioners of justice" from all different backgrounds. Therefore, while AIA was started by a lawyer (my boss), it markets itself to anyone who wishes to work towards conflict management and dispute resolution.

I am the only intern in AIA which I like because I have the freedom to do more and can receive as much attention and help as I need. There are, however, other law students who are doing a traineeship in my boss's law office, which is attached to the AIA office. The first couple days I felt a bit lost, and was dabbling in some work without really knowing the purpose or any concrete deadline. Finally on Wednesday there was a meeting for AIA members and I received a formal greeting, as well as an outline of the future goals for the organizations and what my role will be for the six months I am here. Afterwards, I felt much better and was very excited to know exactly what I will be working on and what it is going towards.

They evidently have a lot of trust in me, yet it seems they feel I am more experienced in ADR than I really am. It is truly amazing the responsibilities they have granted me, and at times I feel a little overwhelmed. AIA has a newsletter that it published every month, and I will be acting as editor and publisher. I am also encouraged to write articles for the newsletter that relate ADR. This week I wrote an article about the financial crisis and the increasing amount of investment arbitration cases that have been filed as financial institutions and investors try to get back on their feet. I will also be involved with putting together what is called the "European Mediation Training Scheme for Practitioners of Justice."

Essentially, after received a grant from the EU Commission AIA is trying to put together a mediation course that can be taken by anyone (lawyers or not), thus awarding them a certification of "International Mediator" that will allow them to practice ADR across the entire EU. This week I had to call mediation centers from all over the EU to ask them it they want to be a part of the project. Later, I will be responsible for coordinating with each center as we design the curriculum and appoint teachers. I also spent some time looking over case files and documents about ongoing international disputes, and helping Mr. Billet (my boss) to type up arbitration awards dictating how to resolve the dispute.

The biggest shock came when my boss told me that after being invited to speak at a conference on international mediation in Warsaw, Poland, he has decided he wants to send me in his place. This means I had to propose a paper to the conference panelists, and if it is accepted I will go to Warsaw in February to present it to the Conference participants. This is both exciting and utterly terrifying. I have proposed the paper outline, and am currently awaiting their response. This week I should hear back, and will either be calmly disappointed or enthusiastically intimidated..does that make sense?

Sara Cline- January 15, 2010

I moved out to DC last Friday and spend the weekend getting set up and prepared to start working for Patton Boggs. Patton Boggs is a public policy international law firm, and I am serving as a public policy intern. If you would like more information about the company, you can visit the website: www.pattonboggs.com.

One of the main things that happens at PB, or at least in the area I am working in, is lobbying. Next week, the American Association of Orthodontists will be in town, and they’ve hired PB to lobby against certain aspects of Health Care reform. Next Thursday, the orthodontists, accompanied by PB lobbyists, will meet with member of the House and Senate to talk about those issues. So, this week I have been getting things organized for that.

I’ve helped make calls to schedule appointment for the orthodontists, as well as researched information on their concerns (opposing FSA limits, tax credits and incentives for small business to insure employees, grants for training in dental workforce, focus on primary and preventative oral HC).

Additionally, I have been working on the Greek lobbying effort. This topic is something that I will be discussing over the course of my internship, unlike the AAO lobbying, which will likely be over after next week. There are two main things to tell with regards to Greek lobbying:

(1) About 5 years ago, the Fraternity and Sorority PAC (“frat pac”-- http://www.fratpac.org/) was created. The money the PAC raises is used to help Greek House and Senate members, especially those in vulnerable races.

(2) Every April, about 100 Greek student leaders come to DC to lobby on the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act (CHIA). (I did this in April of 2008, which is what lead me to this internship.) CHIA would make donations to non-University owned, not-for-profit student housing (Greek housing, Hillel, Newman) tax deductible. Greek housing takes a huge burden off of Universities, but because of a lack of money going into them, they’re not always safe. There is a provision of CHIA that states that the money we’re seeking to be donated tax-free would be used for safety improvements and repairs in the houses. The main use would be installing sprinkler systems, which are very expensive (my sorority just installed one and it was over $300,000). Right now there is wide bi-partisan support in both the House and Senate, but no sense of urgency to get CHIA passed. As it gets closer to the Greek lobbying visit, I will provide more information about this.

So, this week I have attended meetings to prepare for the April Greek visits (planning, logistics, selection of student leaders attending) and done research on Greek members of Congress. My boss is in CA right now making a presentation on vulnerable and retiring Greek members of Congress, which I researched and helped to prepare.

I really enjoy what I am doing here, but am surprised with how many hours I am working (although I don't mind at all). Out of the three days I’ve worked this week (Monday was just orientation, and today’s not over yet…) I’ve stayed until 7:30 or 8 on two of them. But, at this point it doesn’t bother me.

That is it for now, as I am still getting into the swing of things. I’m looking forward to the long weekend, and going with the orthodontists on hill visits next Thursday!

(PS- I am very new to blogs, and don't really care for them.. so my posts probably won't be very jazzy or flashy.. hopefully they're not too boring!)