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Mia Sussman is an associate in the Washington, DC office of Latham & Watkins, LLP. Mia was a 2002-2003 Dutko Fellow at the International Senior Lawyers Project, where she served as Program Assistant and Volunteer Coordinator. Mia then spent an additional year working in ISLP’s New York office before attending law school. In May 2007, she graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, where she was involved in several student groups and was an Articles Editor on the Michigan Journal of International Law. For her leadership and public service activities in the Jewish and general communities as a law student, she was awarded the Arthur T. Pfefer Memorial Award from the Twin Cities Cardozo Society in 2006. Mia has studied and worked abroad in Israel, France, India and Italy.
Mia double-majored in International Relations and French at Tufts, from which she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 2002. At Tufts, Mia served on the Boards of Hillel and the Tufts Democrats, and was a founding chair of the Read by the River program.
But for my experience as a Dutko Fellow, I would not be where I am today. The Dutko Fellowship is a ten-month program that breeds a lifelong connection to the ideals and the people who represent the Fellowship. I continue to be inspired in everything I do by the examples of Dan, Deb, and the other Fellows.
Deb worked tirelessly over the summer leading up to my fellowship to help me find the perfect job placement, one which spoke to my interest in and passion for international relations, law, and volunteerism. What I learned in those first months from Deb was that when you decide to do something, you must throw your whole self into it, use all your resources, and have the confidence that it will all work out. This is perhaps the most valuable lesson I learned during my fellowship year.
The organization I chose to work with during my fellowship was a new nonprofit organization called the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP). ISLP works to advance human rights, equitable economic development, and access to justice worldwide through the provision of pro bono assistance by senior lawyers. The entire ISLP staff consisted of my Executive Director and me, supported by an unbelievable board of public-spirited senior partners at global firms. I was given free reign as Program Assistant and Volunteer Coordinator to help coordinate international pro bono projects, redesign the organization’s website, start a newsletter, propose volunteer recruitment strategies, and plan receptions in cities across the country for our volunteers and supporting law firms to make connections.
My work with ISLP was so fulfilling that they agreed to create a full-time position for me after the fellowship ended, and I moved to New York to work with ISLP’s Executive Director for another year before applying to law school. Deb and the staff and Board of ISLP were a tremendous source of advice, encouragement, and support as I went through the law school application process.
At the University of Michigan Law School, I continued my commitment to leadership and active citizenship by serving as an Articles Editor on the Michigan Journal of International Law, an orientation leader, a mentor to first-year law students, and a member of the board of the Student Network for Asylum and Refugee Law. I spent a summer interning with the Human Rights Law Network in Delhi, India, working through the law to protect the human rights of some of the most marginalized people in the world, and spent a semester studying EU law in Florence, where I studied the legal developments in both the commercial and the human rights realms. In fall 2007, I began work as an associate at Latham & Watkins LLP in Washington, DC.
I would not be here but for my Dutko experience. My two years at ISLP, only made possible through the Dutko Fellowship, were what inspired me to study the law. The people I worked with at ISLP were my mentors throughout the process, and continue to serve as invaluable sources of advice and inspiration as I continue my career. And throughout the years, Deb has continued to be the first person I turn to for career, education, and personal advice. She is a mentor, a teacher, an inspiration, and a friend. What the Dutko Fellowship has done for me is to make me want to be that kind of person.
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