For me the Lex Fellowship was an amazing experience. It was the opportunity to study abroad in a fantastic new country and gain legal experience and perspective I would be hard pressed to find being an undergraduate student in America. I was able to spend time with peers who like me shared the goal of graduating law school and who were also incredibly ambitious and focused on their goals. This made for great friendly competition and amazing conversation in down time. It was amazing to meet with lawyers, who were well renowned in their field, at some amazing firms. It was a truly humbling experience because they took time out of their busy schedules to speak with us, something I never forget and constantly play over and over in my head. I am still in contact with some of the attorneys, and consider some of them life long friends. The other fellows and I also had the opportunity to visit globally recognized schools such as the IESE Business School, IE Law School, and Villanueva.
The program staff was amazing. Not only did they take care of the other fellows and I. The relationship was deeper than that. I think of them as care takers, mentors, and friends. Not only do they care about you and your well being. They want to make sure you are satisfied with the trip and if you are not they ask how can they improve. They mentored us because just because it was downtime did not mean anything, and we would often engage in deep philosophical conversation that left everyone involved more understanding and more aware of different perspectives and schools of thought. Finally they were friends because at meals and down time they were amazing to hang around and made for excellent conversation and jokes/banter. They were incredibly hands on with us and you can tell the seriousness and dedication they spent whether it be for meetings, the law firms and lawyers we met with, to little details like making sure we ate at amazing restaurants they catered to every individuals palate.
This program promised cultural immersion and it did not disappoint. I love to travel in my spare time and I did plenty of that, enjoying many beautiful and well planned excursions. We visited Toledo and got to see ancient Spanish architecture with an incredible view of city that was simply breath taking. While in Toledo some of us visited a classical Gothic Cathedral that left many of us speechless. In Segovia we visited a classical Roman aqueduct. I studied latin and roman history in high school and to see one of these structures up close was truly amazing. We also received a brief Spanish history lesson on this excursion as well. I am also an avid fan of nature and share a deep appreciation for art. In our down time we visited many a nice park and would simply sit and talk. As mentioned before we visited a Gothic Cathedral. We visited the Botanical Gardens, and we visited one of the most famous museums in the world the Museo Del Prado. The final aspect of cultural immersion, and my favorite, were the amazing meals we were treated to. We must eat to live and as long as we are eating you might as well do it well and we certainly did. I left Spain with many new favorite dishes that I constantly look for now that I am back home from paella to arroz con leche.
Something intangible this program helped me decide was what kind of lawyer I wanted to become. I had already decided what kind of attorney I wanted to be, but being in that environment and seeing their work schedule and what it takes. I felt relaxed and excited all at once, and I knew that this was what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be. I walked into the program knowing I wanted to do Corporate M&A and I left knowing I wanted to do Corporate M&A but nevertheless it was interesting to hear about types of law I was unfamiliar with such as Maritime Law, Intellectual Property Law, Industrial Law, and a popular practice in Spain because they have so many unions Labor Law. I built life long friendships with other fellows, some of the locals, and still contact some of the attorneys and warmly call them my friends.
I walked in thinking I was going to be studying abroad and learning about lawyers. I left with an open mind, an open heart, a new perspective, and the desire to go out and get it. I implore you to participate in this program as it will truly change your life. I came back different than when I had left, for the better, and that is because I tried new things. You get from the program what you put into it, so to maximize your experience step out of your comfort zone, you would be amazed to see just how much you can do when you put your mind to it!
