Miljana Bigović LL.M. ’26 wasn’t supposed to graduate this year.
Bigović, a managing associate at a leading law firm in Sweden, first arrived at Harvard Law School in 2024, thrilled to begin her Master of Laws program. But just hours after she landed in Boston, Bigović was in a hospital bed, preparing for emergency surgery. Doctors had discovered a cyst on her brain — present since birth but undetected until then — and told her she needed immediate treatment to survive.
Fortunately, the operation was a success, and Bigović recovered — but Harvard would have to wait. “I had to defer the year, but it also gave me access to treatment I might not otherwise have received,” she says.
It was not the first time an unexpected turn had reshaped Bigović’s trajectory — and she has since learned to navigate such moments with perspective and composure.
“I’ve come to believe that not everything needs to make sense in the moment to prove meaningful over time,” she says. “In the end, it’s been an extraordinary year — I’ve met remarkable people and had the opportunity to take part in experiences at Harvard that I deeply value.”
Bigović was born in post-communist Serbia to parents who were both schoolteachers, and distinguished herself early as a top-performing student with a strong intellectual curiosity. She studied at the University of Novi Sad, where she continued to excel. On the advice of a school psychologist, she chose to pursue law, a vocation that appealed to her because of its complicated and ever-changing nature.
“I think my mom was very happy with that,” she laughs.
After graduating — as the number one student out of more than 10,000 — Bigović received a generous stipend to study for an advanced law degree at Stockholm University. It was there that she developed a strong interest in international arbitration — a field in which advocates help parties resolve complex cross-border disputes outside of national courts.
“It is a field that combines analytical rigor with strategic thinking in a way I find deeply compelling,” she says.
Yet even with her strong academic record, Bigović says she soon encountered a difficult, though not unusual, dilemma for highly-educated Serbs: remain in the country and struggle to find suitable work, or go abroad in search of opportunity. “Even strong academic results do not necessarily translate into opportunity in Serbia,” she says. “The system is still developing in that respect.”
A defining opportunity soon followed.
In a newspaper interview about her academic awards, Bigović spoke candidly about the challenges of launching her career. The article caught the eye of a successful Serbian immigrant living in the United States, who, impressed by her story, sent her an email.
“He saw something of his own journey in that interview,” Bigović says.
The man first offered Bigović a short-term research project, and then he did something that would shape her future, she says. He connected her to a senior leader at the Stockholm branch of DLA Piper, a renowned international arbitration firm.
This led to an interview — and ultimately far more than she had anticipated. “The partner is a true leader in the field, and I entered the interview deeply impressed,” she recalls. “I didn’t fully appreciate at the time how formative that opportunity would be, but they offered me a ten-week summer placement, and that changed the course of my life.”
The internship eventually blossomed into a permanent offer of employment, and eventually, Bigović worked her way up to the title of managing associate, handling high-stakes cases with a global roster of clients. Among her many accomplishments, Bigović was the lead associate on a case that secured a €1.1 billion victory for a Nordic-based client in 2025.
She describes international arbitration as a natural fit.
“I’m drawn to the intellectual challenge — the process of developing an argument and understanding how each element fits into a broader strategy,” she says. “There is also a strong strategic dimension to the work — almost like playing chess at a high level.”
Bigović, who has also long enjoyed studying world languages and literature — she is fluent in four languages and proficient in three more — says she also appreciates that her area of expertise requires knowledge of cultural practices and nuances.
“I’ve come to appreciate that perspectives are often shaped by cultural context,” she says. “Effective advocacy requires an understanding of how arguments are received across different legal traditions.”
As an example, she points to differences in witness examination practices across jurisdictions, noting the importance of adapting advocacy styles accordingly.
“Perspectives are often shaped by cultural context. … Effective advocacy requires an understanding of how arguments are received across different legal traditions.”
In addition to her professional work, Bigović also helped advance international arbitration through lectures and advocacy training, working with students from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine.
Yet by 2024, she felt compelled to further her own education, recognizing there was still more to learn at the intersection of business, law, and leadership. “I am very happy at DLA Piper, but I wanted to deepen my understanding of how these disciplines interact,” she explains.
Harvard Law School was the only place where she believed she could pursue all three, she says: “My long-standing goal was to study at Harvard.”
While her plans were delayed by a year due to her unexpected medical issue, she returned to Harvard Law last fall healthy and excited to begin at last. She says she has been thrilled at the opportunities available to Harvard Law students, adding that she has taken classes at the Harvard Business School and MIT alongside her law courses.
But perhaps her most meaningful experiences have come as president of the Harvard International Arbitration Law Students Association, she says. “This has been a record-setting year for our organization.”
Under Bigović’s leadership — and with the help of 15 board members she personally selected — HIALSA hosted numerous well-attended guest lectures, and the largest ever arbitration conference, which brought together 50 accomplished speakers and more than 200 guests, the majority of whom traveled internationally for the event.
“For a few days in March, Cambridge, Massachusetts became a focal point for the global arbitration community,” she says.
Her organization also held a pre-moot for law students attending the Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, which Bigović herself competed in years ago. Bigović says she is also proud of the Harvard Arbitration Review Journal, as well as her group’s mentorship program connecting law students to practitioners in the field.
“I’ve been very fortunate to work with an exceptional team,” she says. “The level of talent has been remarkable; they have made me a better lawyer and leader,” she says. “These are connections that I know I will have for life.”
As she prepares to graduate, Bigović says she is thankful for the many opportunities she’s received at Harvard. “It proved to be precisely the right environment at a pivotal moment,” she says. “I genuinely cannot think of a better place to have had this experience.”
Today, she is excited to return to her role at DLA Piper with renewed perspective and clear ambition to contribute to the continued development of international arbitration, particularly in emerging markets.
“I would like to contribute to strengthening arbitration frameworks in parts of the world where they are still developing, such as Serbia,” she says. “Achieving that means continuing to learn from leading practitioners and staying closely engaged with the forefront of the field.”
She has also never forgotten the early support she received when she needed it most.
“It was pure kindness on his part,” she says, of her fellow countryman. “He asked for nothing in return — only that I do the same for someone else, when the time comes.”
She plans to do exactly that, including by mentoring young lawyers from countries like her own, in the hope of helping them see the range of career possibilities available to them.
After all, Bigović says, that billion-euro legal victory and others like it are certainly gratifying. But what is most meaningful, she adds, is seeing the next generation of lawyers grasp the power of law — and themselves.
“That is where real impact lies — when you can inspire others to recognize their own potential,” she says. “There is nothing more meaningful than that.”
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