Jones Day trip:

A group of 11 students from Pestalozzi visited the offices of law firm Jones Day in London on March 26th. The Jones Day Foundation has given a generous donation to support our work for the last two years. The purpose of the trip was for the students to understand the different types of law that are practiced, the routes to qualify as a lawyer and for the students to participate in case study scenarios.

Nischal Poudel reflects on the day:

Lawyers, men and women in black coats, sitting behind a thick bundle of law books, studying a new case. That’s the image that came to my mind whenever I heard the word ‘lawyer’. I had a very vague idea about the profession which was mostly shaped by the lawyers I’d seen in movies. This was true for many of my friends as well. So when we left for London on a trip to Jones Day one of the largest law firms in the world, we didn’t know what to expect.

We reached the firm’s offices in London at around 9:30 am. The warm welcome made every one of us feel special. A short introduction session with an amazing group of partners, lawyers and trainees of the firm left us excited and smiling.

Our first legal workshop started with a question, “If a t-shirt company buys a certain number of trucks from a truck company, which the truck company fails to deliver within a certain time, what should the t-shirt company should receive as compensation?” From that moment on, it was a full-blown learning opportunity, and was great fun. We discussed and learned about damages for breach of contract and the role of ‘amount of loss’, causation and remoteness in making decisions related to compensation – terms that were totally alien to us before the session. We looked at examples of cases around the world and discovered how cases with very similar traits could end up very differently, depending on how the facts are presented and even what the judge had for breakfast.

During lunch, we sat with other partners, trainees and shared our stories, while also gaining new insights.

A negotiation activity in the afternoon was the most interesting part of the day. After being divided into two groups, we put ourselves into the shoes of two firms that were faced with a misunderstanding after an unfortunate incident. If the matter went to the court, it was disadvantageous for both of the parties, so we had to come to an agreement. Yet in a situation where both of us wanted to maximize our benefits, it was difficult to do so. We were ‘respectfully’ disagreeing and ‘diplomatically’ putting forward our views and our opinions as to not to worsen the situation while fulfilling our objectives and it was so much fun. We couldn’t stop talking about it throughout the question and answer sessions afterwards or on the ride back home to Pestalozzi.

In a nutshell, we really enjoyed ourselves. Jones Day totally changed our view on the law world, the profession of law, and the importance of the law in our day-to-day lives. All of us felt there was something we learned that we could proudly take back with us. So we would really like to thank Jones Day for having us. We students are grateful to Pestalozzi as always, for this and for the tons of other amazing opportunities, that are helping us grow and changing our lives.