An Interview with SooYun Cho, Foreign Law Intern

Today’s interview is with SooYun Cho, a foreign law intern at the Law Library of Congress.  SooYun, who will be going back for her third and last year of law school at the University of Montreal this fall, is currently working with Nicolas Boring on research related to French speaking jurisdictions.

Describe your background.

I was born in Seoul, South Korea, and I lived in Korea until I was eleven years old. I then moved to Montreal, Canada, with my mom and my brother and we became Canadians. My parents chose Montreal because it was a city where I could learn two languages at once. It was definitely not easy, but thanks to this experience, I grew to enjoy learning new languages and I am now learning Mandarin in my spare time.

What is your academic/professional history?

I currently study at the University of Montreal Law School and I will be starting my third and last year this coming fall.

How would you describe your job to other people?

I’m an intern in the Global Legal Research Directorate and I work with Nicolas who is a foreign law specialist for all French-speaking jurisdictions. Whenever the United States Congress, other government institutions or the public need legal research assistance on laws of French-speaking countries, the requests are assigned to Nicolas. Under his supervision, I provide answers to these inquiries using the Law Library’s large collection of print and electronic primary and secondary resources. I also keep up-to-date with legal news in French-speaking countries and I write Global Legal Monitor articles when important legal developments take place.

Why did you want to work at the Law Library of Congress?

I wanted to work at the Law Library of Congress because the Library offers a unique research experience like nowhere else in the world. Since the Law Library of Congress has extensive legal resources from around the globe, I knew that the Library would also get requests for a lot of different countries in various fields of law. I liked the fact that every day would be different and that every request would be a new challenge.

What is the most interesting fact you have learned about the Law Library of Congress?

When I look at the hundreds of Korean law books that the Law Library has, I think to myself that I wouldn’t ever need to go to a law school in Korea to pass the Korean bar exam. I could study all the material at the Law Library and I would still be ready to practice in Korea without spending a penny. This is just to say that the Law Library really has a lot of books for all countries, small or big. Being the biggest library in the world, this should be obvious, but it is still very fascinating. Also, since I am one of the few people who can read Korean among the staff, it makes me feel like all those hundreds of Korean books are there just for me and that’s a nice feeling.

What’s something most of your co-workers do not know about you?

I am a heavy gamer. I play League of Legends and Overwatch almost every day. I particularly like these two games because they are competitive but they also require a lot of teamwork to win.