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6NewsMagazineSpring / Summer 2007Three international LL.M. students hope toincorporate elements of the U.S. legal systemin their high-profile work at homeWhen legalworlds collideFrom left: Yeoung Jun Park, Chih-Hao Wu and Young Sou KimThey come from countries halfway around the world, fromdifferent backgrounds and cultures, with one purpose: tolearn more about the U.S. legal system so that they can bebetter judges and prosecutors at home.Students in USC Law’s growing LL.M. program for foreigntrainedlegal professionals are learning far more than they expected— and planning ways to use their newfound knowledge toimprove their work in their native countries.Launched in 2001 with an inaugural class of 12 students,USC’s LL.M. program welcomed more than 90 students this year.LL.M. students take courses alongside J.D. students, providingextraordinary opportunities for intellectual and cultural exchangethroughout USC Law’s academic programs.But while J.D. students might not always see how theircoursework will apply to their careers, USC’s international studentsclearly connect their studies to their work at home. In fact,three of this year’s LL.M. students serve in high-ranking positionsin Asia and plan to implement changes in their work basedon knowledge gained during their time at USC.As a Judge Advocate General (JAG), the chief prosecutor ofthe High Prosecutor’s Office in the Korean Navy, Young Sou Kimdefends, prosecutes and presides over military court-martial cases.Commanders in the Korean Navy turn to him for guidance on militaryissues involving the laws of war and rules of engagement. Kimalso advises the military on issues involving government contracts,environmental law, labor and administrative issues, as well as claimsagainst the Korean government. He also assists in providing servicemembers and their families with a range of pro bono legal services.“Before I came to USC Law, I had primarily worked in thejudicial fields of the JAG Corp.,” says Kim. “I felt the necessityto have more knowledge in specialized areas like internationallaw and intellectual property. However, I wasn’t acquainted withthe case method used in law schools here, and, initially, I had ahard time adjusting. The method to approach an issue is totallydifferent from that in my country.”Yeoung Jun Park is a prosecutor in the Special InvestigationBureau of Korea’s Ministry of Justice, in the Gyeongju branch officeof the Daegu District Prosecutor’s Office in the southern region ofKorea. His portfolio includes crime trafficking, sexual abuse againstthe disabled, bribery, embezzlement and property disputes.“There have been numerous debates in Korea on whether toimplement the American law education system or not,” Park says.“I just wanted to experience the American educational systemfor myself.”Based on his course on Evidence — taught by ProfessorThomas Lyon, who Park says “is very funny” — Park is developingideas for recommending changes in his own country’s judicialprocess.“The federal rules of evidence here in the U.S. are verydetailed,” Park says. “From [Professor Lyon’s] classes, I havelearned many hints on how to recommend the rules to my governmentin Korea and to apply those rules in our judicial system.”As a judge in Taiwan’s Kaohsiung District Court, JasonChih-Hao Wu has presided over both criminal and civil casesfor the past five years. Learning all the details of a legal systemis difficult to do in one year, but Wu says he already sees manyadvantages of the U.S. legal system. “I do prefer the methodologyand rationale given by judicial decisions, statutes or theories here[to] those I have learned in my country,” he says.Wu recently published a two-part report on U.S. dispute resolutionprograms in Taiwan’s Judicial Weekly newspaper, a Mandarinpublication distributed to all the judges and prosecutors in Taiwan.“To me, the most significant influence after studying here,and what I can use in my job in the future, is that I have founda valuable resource [in] the extensive and practical referencesto various legal issues,” Wu adds. “After my course here, I willreturn to Taiwan to help my judicial administration to promoteTaiwan’s ADR system.”— Aaron Goh
Spring / Summer 2007MagazineNews7USC Law students returning to the Gulf Coast find theregion still has tremendous needs — legal and otherwiseStill reelingWhen Andy Miller arrived in New Orleans with31 other USC Law students over spring break,he was struck by how little had changed sincehe visited a year ago.Although most of the debris was gone andcrumbling houses demolished, many residents were still in despairand even lacked basic necessities, not to mention legal help.“It’s amazing how much work there is still to do,” says Miller’08, who worked with the Center for Racial Justice and helpedorganize the trip. “It has been a full year and people are still grapplingwith the same issues and difficulties that they were a year ago. Itwas difficult for many of us to process how little had changed.”During spring break 2006, nearly 40 USC Law students traveledto the Gulf Coast to provide legal aid and other assistance tovictims of Hurricane Katrina. A contingent of USC Law studentsreturned to the area this year to assist in legal efforts in NewOrleans and Biloxi, Miss. Working alongside practicing attorneys,students helped with class-action lawsuits, examined housingclaims, and even sifted through criminal cases at the Departmentof Justice. They were placed in jobs with a variety of agencies,including the Mississippi Center for Justice, Juvenile JusticeProject of Louisiana, FEMA and the NAACP.The effort was organized by the new USC Law student organizationLegal Aid Alternative Breaks (LAAB). The USC studentsjoined more than 500 other law students from across the countryand the national Student Hurricane Network, which has assistedor placed more than 2,700 law students with legal organizations inthe Gulf since Katrina hit in 2005.“It’s trips like these that re-connect me with the reasons Icame to law school,” says Greg Pleasants, who graduated in Maywith a JD/MSW. “It offered me a brief respite from the endlessjumping-through-hoops of law school and let me refocus on therich relationships and challenging work offered by service andpublic interest law.”Pleasants knew from his experience last year that legal aid isvital to the overall relief effort in the Gulf region. This year, heinterviewed people at free community health care clinics in theBiloxi and Gulfport areas of Mississippi. “We learned a lot of ‘law’during this trip — I now know more about federal and Mississippilaws regarding Medicaid coverage than I ever imagined I would.More important, however, we witnessed first-hand the powerfulimpact that changes in the law can have on people’s lives and howthe effects that flow from those changes are often quite differentthan what they are purported to be.”About half of the students who made this year’s trip also participatedlast year. For the others, the visit was an eye-opener.“I know that many people have lost hope and are frustrated —including the lawyers and other volunteers in the region,” saysstudent Paula Mayeda ’09, who worked with the StudentHurricane Network on a FEMA trailer and survey mapping project.“I’m hoping that our group will help publicize the needs thatthe region still has.”Associate Dean Lisa Mead, who joined the students in NewOrleans and Biloxi and heads the USC Law Office of PublicService, says the skills students learn in public service can’t beduplicated in the classroom.“Law students from across the country traveled to the GulfCoast to lend all kinds of assistance — legal, physical and emotional— to the victims of the hurricanes,” says Mead, who with studentspresented a report on the trip to the USC Board of Trustees in April.“There is a very strong interest in service among a significantnumber of very thoughtful, articulate and motivated students —some of whom are going into public service as a career and somewho will be going to law firms — and all have found this experienceto be moving, even life-changing. The students have a veryclear sense of the value of these trips to them as well as to thepeople they help.”— Gilien Silsby
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