Q&A with Lorenzo Lamo ‘21GS, 1L at Duke University School of Law

Lorenzo Lamo ‘21GS came to the Dual BA certain of his interest in international educational opportunities, but less clear where that path might lead career-wise. It was his experiences at Sciences Po and Columbia that brought him to the law. Now a JD/LLM candidate at Duke University School of Law, Lamo shares what excites him about global law, and the enduring rewards of the international expertise he accumulated in the Dual BA. 

Majors: Economics, human rights

Sciences Po campus: Menton

What is your GS story?

I'm Colombian and I grew up in a predominantly Latin American community in Miami, Florida. From an early age, I had a strong interest in languages. In high school, I was also very involved in debate and model UN. For me, the Dual BA was a perfect way to immerse myself in a foreign culture, learn a third language, and delve into international relations in a global setting. At the time, the Syrian Civil War was front page news, so I remember that being one of the driving factors for choosing the Menton campus specifically, having developed an interest in that conflict and the presence of so many international actors in the Middle Eastern region.

What were some highlights of your Dual BA experience?

I absolutely loved my two years at Sciences Po. For some classes, almost everyone in the classroom had a different nationality. These were experiences that I couldn’t get anywhere else.

The first specific thing that comes to mind is my extracurricular involvement at Menton. I was the President of the Amnesty International branch [there] and we did a lot of work at the Franco-Italian border related to refugees and migrants. I think the ability to do actual human rights work outside of the classroom, and apply a lot of the concepts you’re learning about in a real world setting, was really powerful. That was my first exposure to human right lawyer-ing and seeing the impact lawyers can have, so that was a definite highlight of Sciences Po. 

Another feature I would say is how well rounded of an education you get out of the Dual BA—having the ability to study two different disciplines under two different education systems. I came out as a very analytical thinker, and a very well rounded student which prepared me for the professional world.

What drew you to law and to your current law program? & what specific interests or goals do you have within the law field?

During my time in the Dual BA, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, and I actually had a sit down with the Director at-the-time of the Menton campus, Bernard El Ghoul. He suggested law as a career path and I started exploring that through different internships I did during college with Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, and even the US House of Representatives. The experiences I had, with lawyers and seeing the impact and the toolkit they had—I got the feeling that lawyers were often best equipped to have a direct impact and rectify situations, whereas some other disciplines could be more on the periphery. I knew I wanted to have that direct impact and I found the law to be a very empowering way of doing that.

With my interest in law, and my international background from Sciences Po, a natural path was to go into international law which I’m specializing in now. I’m specifically interested in private international law—cross-border transactions, from mergers, to securities, to energy and infrastructure. 

This brought me to Duke. Having done a dual degree in undergrad, I wanted to do something multidisciplinary and have a similar experience in law school, so I found the Duke JD/LLM in international and comparative law. It’s a three-year program but you get two degrees—an American JD and an international-focused LLM. It’s a pretty unique program which made the decision to come to Duke easy. In your second and third year in the program, you get to do a lot of coursework in international law, and this summer I’m going to be doing an internship abroad in the Hague and taking international law classes through a program run by Duke at Leiden University in the Netherlands. I’m also doing an internship in Sao Paulo, Brazil in Latin American corporate work which is something I’m really excited about exploring in the future. These kinds of opportunities are huge draws of this program.

How did the Dual BA and GS’s nontraditional educational opportunities prepare you for or inform your law pursuits? 

I think to be a lawyer, any kind of lawyer, you need to have the hard skills of knowing the letter of the law, civil procedure, criminal law contracts, etc.. But for me, the main benefit of the Dual BA was a lot of the soft skills you need as an international lawyer, like being able to speak multiple languages fluently and developing cross-cultural fluency—the cross-cultural fluency I developed from the Dual BA makes it really easy for me to have conversations with people from all over the world which is going to be a huge professional benefit. 

I also think having been in a foreign setting at Sciences Po, that makes employers feel very comfortable about sending you to meetings abroad or putting you in front of a client in a different country. You are able to prove a track record, even though you are very early into your career, as someone who is able to work seamlessly across borders.

What advice would you have for current GS students, especially fellow Dual BA students, who are interested in law school? 

This advice goes for many careers, but I think really informing and educating yourself about your chosen field to make the best decision possible is so important. A lot of people don’t grow up with lawyers in their family, especially first generation professional students. So, I didn’t know any lawyers growing up, but once I became interested in this career, I was really proactive about reaching out to people and making use of the Columbia network—a lot of people who did their undergraduate or law studies at Columbia are happy to talk to students about their career path.

There are also many international or general law conferences happening in New York. I remember once in my junior year, I signed up for an international law conference one weekend in downtown Manhattan…I was the only undergraduate student! It was all practicing lawyers and law students, but it was great, and that’s the benefit of being in New York; there are just so many opportunities.

I also want to highlight how the Dual BA is a great education for international law, whether it’s human rights work or more private work like what I’m going to be doing for the next few years. So many transactions and disputes nowadays are happening across borders, and you need a lot of the skills you can only access through an undergraduate education like the Dual BA.