Season 5: Episode 9: Vayuna Gupta
Legal and Policy Advisor at Global Rights for Women
Vayuna Gupta
Legal and Policy Advisor at Global Rights for Women
How to get a job in public interest law as a LLM?
Vayuna has always wanted to become a lawyer and make others feel empowered in their daily life and work. She represented victims of domestic violence, neglect, abuse in New York State Family Court. Now she’s the Legal and Policy Advisor at Global Rights for Women, traveling around the world to collaborate with partner NGOs in different parts of the world on legal and policy systemic changes in gender-based violence laws.
What was her job search process?
How to pass the New York bar as a LLM at your first attempt?
How was the cultural differences and sensitivity reflected in a case she worked on?
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Where did you grow up and why did you choose to study law?
I grew up in the western part of India, in a city called Ahmedabad. I went to law school in another city in South India. When I was 18, I had to make decisions about my future pretty quickly, including my choice of pursuing law. I'm a first-generation lawyer. I don't have any attorneys in my family, not even in my extended family, so I had no reference point for what a legal career would look like. But at that point, I really wanted to use my education to make a difference. I didn't know how, but I wanted to be in a position where I felt empowered and could help others feel empowered in their everyday lives and in the choices they made for themselves. As I reflected on this, law seemed to fit all the requirements I had for my future profession. That's how I decided to study law in a country where most people typically choose STEM majors—science, math, medicine—over fields like law.
Why did you study law in the United States?
I completed my master's in international law at New York University School of Law. I was part of the 2021-2022 batch, which was just towards the end of COVID, but not completely over it.
At that point, I really wanted to continue my work in the public interest sphere on a global scale, and international law seemed to fit that description.
In India, there are very few opportunities in international law. Additionally, law schools in India offer very few international law courses. I saw studying in the US as an opportunity to learn more, and I believed that being a foreign-trained attorney would be an added advantage when working in international law. All of this convinced me that international law was the right path for me.
When I arrived at NYU, I focused my courses on international human rights and humanitarian law, which I enjoyed. I'm grateful that I can now do that work in my professional life.
Could you tell us more about your current work?
I’m the Legal and Policy Advisor for Global Rights for Women, an organization that focuses on legal and policy systemic changes in gender-based violence laws around the world. We work on a partnership model, collaborating with partner NGOs in different regions that request our assistance. Our role is to help them critically analyze their laws and suggest reforms related to gender-based violence.
As the legal and policy advisor, most of my work involves engaging with these partners and international organizations, primarily UN Women. A significant part of my job involves traveling to various parts of the world to speak with survivors of gender-based violence and understand their experiences. This firsthand insight allows me to review their laws and recommend policy changes from a survivor-centric perspective, considering the cultural context of each society.
Additionally, I conduct training for advocates on how to better respond to survivor needs, sharing insights from our organization's experiences across different regions. Most of my recommendations are grounded in the international obligations of each country. While I also draw on successful practices from other parts of the world, I believe that basing suggestions on international obligations makes them more objective and effective.
I don’t use my multilingual skills extensively in my current role, but I find that sometimes being from a different culture helps me relate to others.
However, my multilingual skills were incredibly useful in my previous job, where I represented parents in child protective proceedings in New York City. Many of my clients were immigrants .Being able to speak the same language as some of my South Asian clientswas helpful. It allowed for better communication, especially since many couldn't speak English fluently. It also helped my colleagues who had South Asian clients needing interpretation.
Could you share with us some memorable stories you encountered in your work?
A couple of months ago, I learned something interesting at my current job while working on a long-term project in the Philippines. I found out that the Philippines, does not have a divorce provision for its majority Christian population. One can’t legally divorce there, apart from a few exceptions. This absence of divorce rights for women complicates gender-based violence work because the inability to exit relationships makes it harder for survivors or victims to move on.
In my previous job, I worked with an NGO, Center for Family Representation, that provided pro bono legal representation to indigent parents in child welfare proceedings pro bono. I represented clients from various backgrounds, and there were times when colloquial phrases didn’t translate well into English. I remember one South Asian client who used a phrase that literally translated to, "Before this happens, I would rather die." In its original context, it was just a colloquial expression and not meant to be taken literally. However, the opposing attorney was alarmed. We quickly had to clarify that she didn’t mean it literally; it was just a phrase she used. This incident taught me about the communication barriers that can arise, especially when dealing with clients who cannot express themselves in English as fluently as needed in the U.S. legal system.
Which interpretation did the court eventually adopt?
The court had to clarify with her if that’s what she meant. She reassured the court that she didn’t mean this literally. So, it was fine. I did notice that, at least for situations like this, that particular court try to be a bit culturally sensitive. It’s not the case across the board, but the judge I was in front of definitely made an effort to be sensitive to cultural differences to a certain degree.
How did you find your current job?
This is my second job after my LLM. My first job was with Center for Family Representation.. In law school in the U.S., we’re encouraged to network for jobs. For me, I found opportunities through direct applications. I know many people have benefited from networking to find jobs, but that hasn’t worked out for me yet. For both, my previous job and this one, I found the positions on ‘Idealist’, a job portal for public interest jobs, , applied, someone read my application and offered me an interview.
Do you have any advice for new graduates?
A LLM is a really, really quick journey. It is definitely stressful and overwhelming. Too much happens too quickly. As a foreign-trained lawyer, before you can adjust to the new city, to the United States, it's practically over. And in that period, there's the bar exam, then there's looking for jobs and opportunities. There's a lot of resilience that LLM students have and have been able to show in the process, a lot of learning and adapting, and that's, I think, their strength, which just goes on to show that they can be great professionals in the space.
I feel that an LLM is an incredibly hard journey as a student, and also as a professional re-entering a foreign market. But it's also really rewarding journey when we keep at it and things do work out. In the end, I hope that everybody gets to achieve whatever they hope for. That’s my two cents for new graduates.
You have taken and passed the New York bar exam at your first attempt. Would you share any advice on how to pass the NY bar?
I think it’s okay not to study for the bar exam until you graduate. It’s important to spend your nine months in law school adjusting, taking courses, and figuring out what you like and what you want to do next.
There are three steps for the bar exam. The Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) isn’t the hardest, so that can be taken at any point during your school year.
For the bar exam, which is a two-day test, preparation is exceptionally intensive. There are two months post-graduation where I really appreciate people who can work while studying for the bar, but for most, it requires dedicated study time. As an LLM student, you might need to put in eight to ten hours a day depending on your memorization skills, English language skills and test taking experiences, especially since most LLM students haven't taken the primary American law courses that JD students cover in their first year.
All this said, I do want to acknowledge that for some people, those two days aren’t their best, and that’s fine. It’s okay to take the bar exam again. The exam isn’t a reflection of one’s ability or what one can achieve in their life.
It’s a tough journey for an LLM student in the US, and everyone has their own path, so don’t be too hard on yourself.
