Summer in the city: Legal intern hones research skills with Human Rights Watch

When Case Western Reserve University School of Law student Anna Styer was offered an internship with Human Rights Watch in New York City, she had the option to make it a remote position. But growing up in the small town of New Philadelphia, Ohio, made her wonder what it would be like to live in America’s biggest city. 

“I thought it would be interesting to maybe see what life would be like,” Styer said, “Just kind of going to work and living like a normal New Yorker.”

So she accepted the job and planned her move to the city that never sleeps.

Styer’s main focus—international law—is what drew her to Case Western Reserve initially, and is also what helped her land the Klatsky Fellowship in Human Rights, which provided financial support for her summer stay in the Big Apple. This position is just one of the many experiential education opportunities offered by the law school.

For three months, from the 34th floor of the Empire State Building, Styer worked in the Environment and Human Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, serving as the legal researcher. Drawing on her first year of coursework at CWRU School of Law and a passion for international law, Styer worked on various initiatives. 

Among them was the legal section of a major report advocating for the state of New Mexico to implement setback laws, which require oil and gas companies to be at least a mile away from schools to protect the health of the children within them. She combed through international human rights treaties and federal and state laws to write the report which, she hopes, will ultimately be used by state legislators to prepare proposed legislation. 

Anna Styer stands at the front door of the site of her summer internship at Human Rights Watch, where she's been serving as a legal researcher.

Her role as an intern also involved monitoring relevant state court cases—such as an environmental rights case heading to the New Mexico Supreme Court—and analyzing potential legal challenges to environmental regulations. Styer also helped build a database that tracks planned, government-level relocation policies for communities—especially Indigenous island populations—forced to move due to rising sea levels and climate change. 

Additionally, Styer drafted a submission to the United Nations on the key threats to "environmental defenders"—activists, indigenous people and small farmers who advocate for environmental protection—and provided recommendations for legal and policy instruments to better protect these groups.

But it’s not all work all the time; she’s been able to get a taste of what it’s like to be a “real” city dweller. 

“I've been having so much fun, both in my job and exploring New York City,” she said, noting that she met some of her fellow George Washington University alumni peers, and hopes to expand her professional network as she works to land her next summer job.

Before she ends her internship, she aims to publish a short dispatch—a brief, timely article—on the Human Rights Watch website, focusing on a current environmental event or one of her ongoing projects.

“It would be really great to have something published in my name,” she explained. 

And whether it was legal writing and research or taking notes during high-level international meetings with the Brazilian Minister of Human Rights, Styer said it’s been one of the best summers she’s had. 

“I had high expectations for the internship” Styer said, “but it's really exceeded any expectation I had.”