Four Wayne State University law students will spend this summer as interns exploring the world of international business and law.

Their placements around the globe are made possible by Wayne Law’s dynamic and expanding Program for International Legal Studies, which is offering more travel and real-life work experience than ever before.

Law student Zachary Rowley, a Bay City resident, will work this summer as an intern in the Office of the General Counsel at Tata Motors in Mumbai, India. Tata is the largest manufacturer of automobiles in India, and Rowley will work on legal issues arising from the firm’s supply chain and distribution network.

Rowley majored in economics and East Asian Studies at Kalamazoo College, and studied language and international business as an undergraduate for five months in Beijing, China. So he knows what it’s like to be suddenly immersed in a culture other than his own. He’s very excited to be going to India and to be gaining more experience in international law, he said.

“I plan on pursuing international business courses while at Wayne, and I think this will only help ground my studies in the real world,” Rowley said.  “Wayne has a great reputation for international law.”

An Eagle Scout, Rowley has traveled to many countries in addition to China, including the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Greece and Hong Kong. And now he’ll add India to that list.

Another law student entering the international business world is Nicholas Jones of Hopkins, who considers his pending internship with one of Mexico’s leading law firms —Barrera Siqueiros y Torres Landa in Mexico City — as “an amazing opportunity to experience not only everyday Mexican culture but also to experience the business and legal culture” there.

“I hope to spend a good amount of time working with the firm’s international arbitration group,” Jones said. “I also would like to get a chance to work on some conflict-of-laws issues that involve bringing American laws into the Mexican court system.”

Barrerra Siqueiros y Torres Landa has 24 different practice areas, and is regularly engaged in some of the most high profile foreign investment deals, international commercial arbitration and intellectual property transactions in Latin America. The firm and its partners are consistently ranked as global leaders by a variety of international publications.

Like Rowley, Jones is a graduate of Kalamazoo College, where he majored in biology and business, was quarterback of the school’s football team, and also attended classes in Madrid, Spain. He expects to graduate from Wayne Law in 2015, and hopes to practice international business law.

Steven Helton of Riverview and Zachary Van Horn of Traverse City will work as interns in the international arbitration group in London, England, for Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, a multinational law firm with offices around the world. The firm recently was named “International Arbitration Firm of the Year” by U.S. News magazine.

“I am very interested in pursuing a career in international arbitration, so this internship is an incredible opportunity for me,” Van Horn said.

He’ll be entering an LL.M. program in international commercial arbitration in London next fall, an opportunity he sought due to his enthusiasm for international law studies at Wayne.

Helton, too is excited about his opportunity to participate in international law work.

“I really look forward to working for Wilmer Hale because it's such a well-respected firm,” he said.  “I know that other people who have participated in this internship have gone on to do some very cool things, and I hope the same will be true for me.”

Gary Born, the head of Wilmer Hale’s international arbitration group, was the 2012 commencement speaker at Wayne Law, and was instrumental in creating the internships with the firm for Wayne students. Born is the author of “International Arbitration: Law and Practice” (Kluwer 2012) and “International Civil Litigation in United States Courts” (Aspen fifth edition 2011), both leading texts in the field. Born received the Global Arbitration Review’s “Advocate of the Year” award in 2010 and was chosen as the “World’s Best International Litigator” in a survey by Legal Media Group.

Wayne Law’s Program for International Legal Studies covers all travel and living expenses for each of these internships.

Four other Wayne Law students — Joshua Aprile of Marine City; Yunjoo Goze of Andong, Korea; Karinne Marcolini of Grosse Pointe; and Adam Taylor of Monroe — will be working abroad for human rights groups overseas this summer, and another — Eric Shovein, who grew up in Grosse Pointe Woods, will be studying in the Hague, Netherlands.

As recipient of the Freeman Fellowship, Shovein will attend the prestigious Hague Academy of International Law, the academic branch of the international Court of Justice, also known as the World Court. Each year, the Program for International Legal Studies at Wayne Law sends one student to the academy to be taught by some of the world’s foremost international lawyers in courses on either public or private international law.

Aprile will travel to Mexico City to work with Mexico Unido Contra la Delincuencia, an organization that assists both police and victims in response to the high level of criminal activity in certain parts of the country, and that seeks to strengthen the rule of law.

Goze is already in New Delhi, India, working with the Dalit Foundation, an organization dedicated to using the courts and social awareness to end discrimination against India’s Dalits, or “untouchables.” Dalits are subjected to pervasive forms of discrimination.

Marcolini will work in Nassau, Bahamas, with the Crisis Centre, an organization that helps victims of domestic violence, offering them legal assistance, and running public education campaigns to end spousal and child abuse and empower victims to leave their abusers.

Taylor will be working in Madurai, India, with Peoples Watch, a well-respected human rights organization that serves as a liaison to international monitoring bodies at the United Nations and elsewhere, and researches and reports on all aspects of Indian political and social practices.

Photos: (Top) Nicholas Jones, Joshua Rowley