Varvara P., 1st year master’s program law school student at St. Petersburg State University

In fall of 2024, I went through an internship at the Dispute Resolution practice at CLS. My initial goal was to acquire experience in interacting with courts, in preparing legal positions and, of course, in working in various legal practice areas of interest: contracting, procurements and land law, which all came to be. I wanted a practice that would allow me to delve deep in any direction, rather than stop on a single one.

Happily, the CLS team fulfilled my dream completely.

This is not one of those places where you are given only routine tasks; on the contrary, you will develop the skills a lawyer needs to prepare a position for court or a memo for a client. You will discover you own strengths and weaknesses and will gain an understanding of what specifically is of interest to you, what you need to work on and what to keep in mind. You will see from the inside the whole process of work on the ultimate response to a client’s query, and will gain an understanding that work of a good lawyer requires thorough knowledge of all the details.

I should mention that CLS takes care of its staff, giving them an opportunity to learn not just through in‑house presentations, but also through courses at the Legal Academy and M-Logos. The internship is great in the sense that you can combine work and studies (specifically, my master’s program), and a large number of colleagues graduated from the same university, which definitely unites people and gives an opportunity to share your impressions concerning the studies there in different time periods.