World Bank atrium, Washington DC

 guarini Externship: Global Legal Practice in Digital Society

About the externship

Digital technologies operate globally, under complex and often incomplete patchworks of legal regulation, and special skills, including risk management, creativity, communication and innovation, are required to effectively ‘lawyer’ in these contexts. Technology lawyers are confronted by legal, regulatory and compliance challenges relating to the wide-ranging use of emerging technologies, including questions about data ownership, permissible use, jurisdiction, privacy, ethics, and liability, among others.

Often, these questions are not readily addressed by existing legal and regulatory frameworks. In many instances, standards and practices are shaped and re-shaped by large technology corporations, as well as by interactions between international and national public and private regulatory regimes. As international organizations (as well as their member states) are increasingly partnering with private actors in provision of public services, lawyers in both private and public sectors must also grapple the changing nature of state and international organizations’ responsibility and accountability.

Through a combination of a seminar and a practicum, the Guarini Externship offers NYU Law students an opportunity to develop the skills required to address complex global problems and prepare them for challenges and opportunities that technology innovation holds for laws and legal practice.

Externship host organizations

Please note that the range of organizations that hosts externs varies from year to year, depending on student interest and organizational need. Previous externship placements are listed below.

Student experience

"Working with a UN body, I had an opportunity to get an inside look at how UNICEF developed its internal policies and standards. It was fascinating to learn how UN agencies conceptualise data-for development and how such conceptualization shaped their practices and operations. "

- Ramya Chandrasekhar, UNICEF, Fall 2021

"The externship was a great opportunity to see data (and law) in action! It was eye-opening to observe how how different data sets were used to derive industry insights, and the role different laws played in shaping which data was available, to whom, and for what purposes."

- Sinee Sang-arooniri, YipitData, Fall 2021

"From my time at the World Bank, I learned a tremendous amount about how legal teams support international organizations and help build institutional knowledge. I also learned what it is like to guide a project from its infancy towards a much more developed stage. I enjoyed getting to do real, hands-on work that I know will be used by World Bank teams going forward, and I am so grateful for the fantastic colleagues I had the pleasure of working with. "

- Spencer Hammersmith, World Bank, Fall 2021

Student project contributions

satellite over land

GDPR Enforcement (or lack thereof) and cross-border contracts

Ali Strongwater @ Access Now, Fall 2021

Morgan Lucey @ the World Bank, Spring 2021

Lauren Bourke and Holly Ritson @ the OECD

Daniel Sive @ Africa Open Data Day 2021