Roadmap: Comparative regulatory policy; consumer protection
Lorea grew up in the Basque region of Spain and in the United States, and spent time in Panama — and she was conscious of experiencing very different cultural, social, and economic environments. Her exposure to law began in high school, when she joined a mock trial team, and continued in college, where she took classes offered by her university’s law school and studied history, literature, and psychology in the law. These experiences led her to apply to HLS, and to plan for an international career.
Through her courses at HLS, the HLS-University of Cambridge JD/LL.M. Joint Degree Program, and her work experience, Lorea examined several areas of international and comparative law, including dispute resolution and international trade, emerging with a focus on data protection and privacy. After graduation, she will embark on a traineeship with noyb, a European privacy and digital rights NGO, and will later join the Washington, D.C. office of Hogan Lovells, a global law firm where she hopes to focus on privacy law.
“My time in law school has been a time of intellectual exploration, not anchored to any one discipline but instead focused on learning, on making the most of the experience. Through this interdisciplinary study, I have arrived at a focus on digital rights and consumer protection that remains informed by other legal disciplines, including comparative law, administrative law, consumer rights, and dispute system design.”
Lorea Mendiguren
1L
Courses
Lorea credits her 1L course on Legislation and Regulation, with Professor Daphna Renan, with sparking an interest in how countries regulate in different areas, and adds that she often refers to her notes from Torts, with Professor Richard Lazarus ‘79 — a subject that comes up frequently in her work on privacy.
During Winter Term, she enrolled in the Negotiation Workshop with Lecturer on Law Alonzo Emery ’10. The course helped her develop “skills that are useful not just in formal negotiations but in other relationships” and inspired her to take additional courses in dispute resolution during her time at HLS.
In the spring, Lorea began her exploration of international topics by taking Foundations of International Arbitration: Theory and Practice, with Visiting Lecturers Luke Sobota and Hugh Carlson.
Student Journal
Lorea joined the Harvard International Law Journal, first as a subciter and then as a line editor, a role that allowed her to address the substance of an article and suggest improvements.
Summer
Lorea spent her 1L summer as a legal intern at the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office of the Civil Rights Advocate, where she gained experience with healthy housing and fair practices for consumers. Among other projects, she drafted guidance for local authorities involved in enforcing the state’s lead paint safety measures.
2L
Courses
In the fall, Lorea took Administrative Law with Professor Jody Freeman LL.M. ’91 S.J.D. ’95, the Advanced Negotiation Workshop with Clinical Professor of Law Rachel Viscomi, and Transitional Justice: Dispute Systems Design and Durable Peace, with Lecturer on Law Lisa Dicker ‘17, a reading group that considered accountability and redress in countries after a crisis. In the Global Justice Workshop, with Professor Gabriella Blum LL.M. ’01 S.J.D. ’03 and Professor John Goldberg, she considered issues such as state responsibility for the international consequences of domestic policy decisions.
In the spring, she enrolled in a course on International Trade Law and a reading group on EU Tech Regulation with Visiting Professor Anu Bradford LL.M. ’02 S.J.D. ‘07, after reading Bradford’s work on the ways in which the EU has been able to influence the development of legal standards in other jurisdictions. “I was especially interested in what countries do discretely and how that impacts their relationships with other jurisdictions,” Lorea explains. Her focus on the intersection of regulation and trade led her to apply for the law school’s J.D./LL.M. Joint Degree Program with the University of Cambridge in hopes of delving further into these topics.
Winter Term
Lorea served as a teaching fellow for the Negotiation Workshop with Lecturer on Law Elaine Lin Hering, a role that allowed her to help prepare and lecture in the classes, and meet with students in office hours. “Down the road, I would love to be a professor, or even a mock trial coach, like the ones I had,” she notes.
Research Assistant
Lorea worked with Professor Vicki Jackson, producing a detailed memorandum on the implications of a case before the European Court of Human Rights involving high and constitutional courts in Europe and the right to a fair trial. The case has prompted states with an Advocate General to undertake reforms to create a stronger separation of powers between that role and the judiciary.
Student Journal and Organization
In the fall, Lorea continued her involvement with the Harvard International Law Journal as an article editor, a role that allowed her to address the substance of an article and suggest improvements. In the spring, she was elected co-editor-in-chief. When she was admitted to the HLS-Cambridge joint degree program, the journal agreed to add a third co-editor-in-chief to enable Lorea to continue in her role through the summer and remotely over the next year.
She also served as symposium co-chair for La Alianza, organizing a program at the intersection of social justice movements and Latinidad that featured civil and environmental rights efforts.
Summer
Lorea spent her 2L summer in the Washington, D.C. office of Hogan Lovells, working with a number of the firm’s practice groups, including its International Trade Group. She was involved with cases before the U.S. Court of International Trade and conducted work in relation to a dispute arising under the rapid response labor mechanism in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a provision that allows a state to take action to enforce the labor law of another state at a specific facility.
3L
University of Cambridge LL.M.
In pursuing the Cambridge LL.M., Lorea wanted to deepen her understanding of the EU’s structure and of interstate relationships, especially among the U.S., the EU, and the UK. During her time in Cambridge, she took year-long courses on EU Trade and Digital Law, EU Competition Law, Economics of Law and Regulation, and Law of the WTO and Free Trade Agreements. She learned, for example, that the EU’s digital and competition laws frequently intersect, and that the EU often incorporates provisions such as environmental emissions standards into its trade agreements, causing all jurisdictions involved to abide by these standards. “That’s a powerful influence that merits investigation,” she observes. In conjunction with her seminar on Law of the WTO and Free Trade Agreements, she completed a thesis on regulatory cooperation in U.S. and EU trade agreements, a project that engaged her love of writing and her interest in possibly pursuing an academic career in the future. As part of her research, Lorea met with a UK trade policy expert, asking questions and discussing his work on high-profile trade negotiations.
“I have been able to study law, including privacy and digital law, from a U.S., UK, and EU perspective. Developing a strong grasp on EU data protection law during my LL.M. studies allows me to better understand differences in U.S. law,” she notes. “Having a comparative understanding of the legal landscape helps us to analyze the effects of different policies, including what works and what doesn’t work.”
Summer
In the “extra” summer after her year in Cambridge, Lorea returned to Hogan Lovells, working with the firm’s Privacy Group, which advises U.S. clients on data breaches and compliance with privacy laws such as HIPAA and state data protection laws.
“4L”
Courses
During her final semester at HLS, Lorea took Privacy Law with Visiting Assistant Professor of Law Aileen Nielsen, and Digital Governance: Privacy, Artificial Intelligence and Information Technology, with Visiting Lecturer on Law Alan Raul, where she continued to compare U.S. and European privacy and data protection philosophies and protocols. Building on her experience during her summer at the Rhode Island Attorney General Office, Lorea also enrolled in the law school’s Consumer Protection Clinic and the accompanying seminar. In the clinic, she focused on debt settlement cases and an unfair and deceptive practices case against a solar company, and for the seminar, she conducted research on the legal implications of deceptive practices that arise in online settings.
Student Journal
Lorea completed her involvement with the Harvard International Law Journal by serving as an executive editor for the print edition.
After HLS
Lorea will spend six months at noyb, a strategic litigation NGO based in Vienna, that focuses on expanding privacy and digital rights in the EU. Her Cambridge LL.M. coursework gave her a working understanding of the EU’s economic and market structure as well as its litigation process, and her work with noyb offers an opportunity to complement this academic study with practical experience in the EU legal system. In the fall, Lorea will return to Hogan Lovells, and hopes to work with its Privacy Group.