Projects – Overview
LIDS is firmly committed to two goals: making a difference in international development and providing our members with opportunities to get involved in hands-on, exciting, and high-impact work in a field of their choice. To serve these goals, LIDS sets up semester-long projects with leading organizations and entrepreneurs active at the intersection of law and development. Typically, we run a number of projects during the fall (September-November) and spring (February-April) periods. Over the last three years, LIDS has worked with over 30 partner organizations on more than 40 projects.
During the 2012-13 academic year, we will continue to run projects in collaboration with international development organization partners. These projects will be carried out with, and on behalf of, our partner law firm, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, and will look broadly similar to the projects that LIDS has run in the past. Please check our Current Projects page for specifics. LIDS is also very pleased to announce a new aspect to our student participation system, the White Paper Series. The White Paper Series will be built around researching questions of law and development, and will result in student-generated documents that will be both posted on our website and shared with the development community at large. This will be an opportunity both for students to build research and writing skills and substantive knowledge on the practice and theory of development, and for LIDS to develop its institutional knowledge and find a voice in the wider conversation around law and development.
Our project teams typically consist of 3-6 graduate students (from HLS, HKS, HBS, Fletcher, or MIT) and work directly with a senior client at one of our partners — generally, a development agency such as an NGO, IGO, an entrepreneur serving the bottom of the pyramid, or foreign government. Teams meet weekly and members are expected to contribute 3-6 hours of time a week, on average.
LIDS projects are excellent opportunities to become an expert on an exciting development issue, hone (legal) research and writing skills, become a great team player and build a professional network. And, according to our members, they’re also a lot of fun. The descriptions below provide a sense of the work that we do.
If you are interested in participating in a LIDS project, please check our website’s calender for recruitment dates or get in touch with Sam Smolkin or Sarah Weiner.