Second-year law student Bryan Connolly. Photo courtesy of Bryan Connolly.

I participated in the European Law in Practice Summer Internship in the Summer of 2024. From mid-May through the end of June, I interned at the law firm Rödl & Partner in their offices in Nuremberg, Germany. I spent three weeks in the Mergers and Acquisitions legal department, learning some of the major aspects of German business and contract law and their applications to major asset transactions, as well as informing my colleagues on the Uniform Commercial Code relating to a potential deal with an American client. In addition to the specific legal knowledge I learned from and contributed to my work with the firm, I also learned about the practical impacts of world events on business law; specifically, how businesses headquartered in areas or run by individuals subject to foreign economic sanctions are forced to react, and how companies in other areas can capitalize on the opportunities presented.

I spent an additional three weeks in the Energy Law department, where I researched, wrote, edited, and revised articles for publication on their client web page about the firm’s growing geothermal energy programs in Africa and the emerging green energy economies in California, America, and the world at large. In this capacity, I also had an opportunity to visit Munich for a green energy conference and trade show, where I saw first-hand how the private sector is leaning into the green transition and what that means for governments and businesses here in the United States.

I ended my session with a great deal of knowledge on the legal system in Germany and the European Union, as well as a sense of direction in my own career pursuits of international energy law and regulation. Being forced to immerse, however deeply, in another legal system allows American law students to see the intricacies of our own legal framework and hone in on what makes ours different, both for better and for worse, and prepare for how best to work within it, while potentially advocating to apply here what works effectively there.

Second-year law student Bryan Connolly is pictured at the Eagle’s Nest in Berchtesgaden, Germany. Photo courtesy of Bryan Connolly.

Additionally, this unique opportunity through the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law gave me the chance to expand my professional resumé over the summer before my 2L year while participating in McGeorge School of Law’s Salzburg Graduate Study Abroad Program in July, meeting members of the vast international McGeorge alumni support network, and of course spending time exploring Europe and immersing in new, foreign cultures. Summer internships closer to home have their benefits, but this opportunity is unlikely to come about otherwise, and it presents law students with the chance to learn, both in the legal profession and in life, how to adapt and respond to new and unknown situations, a critical tool in furthering one’s legal education.

In short, this invaluable experience through the program offered by McGeorge has helped to further prepare me for the rest of my time in law school, my future legal career, and in my professional and personal lives, and has no doubt done the same for countless of my colleagues.

By Bryan Connolly, a second-year student at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law.