Season 4: Episode 6: Alex Kaung Myat Ahkar
Associate at Steptoe LLP in Washington, D.C.
Alex Kaung Myat Ahkar
Associate at Steptoe LLP in Washington, D.C.
How to land a job in BigLaw as a LLM?
When Alex was pursuing his LLM at Georgetown, he was on track for a promising career in Myanmar. I did not take any bar exam courses, since he planned to head home after graduation. A month into his studies, a coup e’tat in Myanmar changed Alex’s professional and personal trajectory. Forced to adapt quickly, Alex took extra courses to sit for the New York bar while working in DC as a paralegal. Today, he is a full-time associate attorney at Steptoe LLP in the energy practice group. His internship and experience as a corporate lawyer back home played a crucial role in landing this position.
What “cultural shocks” did he encounter in the job search journey in the U.S.?
How did he network with his professor to secure an internship?
How did he discuss his previous experience at the World Bank to form a transferable narrative to impress hiring partners at BigLaw?
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Would you tell us about your background?
I’m from Myanmar, which is also known as Burma. For LLM students, it might not be necessary to explain where Myanmar is, but I often have to explain it to people in the US. It’s a country between China and India, in Southeast Asia. I came to the US on January 5, 2021, which was actually one day before the January 6 Capitol riot.
I came with a Fulbright scholarship for my LLM, and then, just a month after arriving, there was a military coup in Myanmar. Because of that and my political activism, I can’t go back home. What happened is I had to restart my legal career here in the US. I never intended to stay in the US; my goal was to get the LLM and return home. I was an associate at Allen & Overy and had a promising career path ahead back home. I was qualified in Myanmar, so I didn’t need US bar qualification. But during my time at Georgetown, I didn’t take any bar-required courses.
If you’re coming here, you might want to consider that. Anything can happen, so make sure you have all the bar-required courses, just in case. Since I didn’t take those courses, I had to go to another university for an entire year to fulfill the bar requirements. So, I ended up going back to school for another year, and only after that was I able to sit for the bar and continue. It was two years of my time— not wasted, but it definitely took a lot more effort. That’s where I am right now.
What do you do as a multilingual lawyer?
I’m currently an associate in Steptoe’s energy practice group, focusing on energy and infrastructure project finance. Before that, I joined Steptoe as a litigation paralegal. During that time, I needed to study for the bar and support myself, so I was very lucky to land a paralegal position. My background in Myanmar is in corporate mergers and acquisitions as well as project finance. Now, I feel like I’m back to where I belong. Along the way, I had some twists and turns, doing litigation and arbitration, which I was passionate about, and a bit of sanctions work due to Myanmar’s situation. I had a little bit of everything, but currently, I’m back to project finance.
For an international student on F-1 student, the whole internship and job seeking process can be daunting. Would you share your experience in securing internship and jobs after the Optional Practical Training (OPT) for an international student?
I have a slightly different situation with my immigration status. I came here with a Fulbright scholarship, so I was on a J-1 visa. We don’t have OPT; we have something similar called Post-Degree Academic Training (PDAT), but it comes with more restrictions than OPT. My recommendation is to build relationships with professors and lawyers from your first semester.
For international students and attorneys, the goal should be to land an externship and maintain those connections with professors or partners at firms where you want to work. It’s not guaranteed, but it’s your best chance to secure an opportunity.
After graduating from Georgetown, I did my externship at Allen & Overy through an internal process. I took an arbitration class with a professor, who specializes in international investment arbitration. I built my relationship with him through that class and used it to secure an internship after graduation.
At the same time, I reached out to partners and contacts in my home country and Asia to support my name in the US. After my visa expired, I couldn’t work for about eight months, so I had to go back to school. During that time, I was fortunate to get a paralegal position at Steptoe through referrals.
Do you feel like as LLMs, we are in a somehow disadvantaging position because we are not taking all of the courses required to graduate as a JD. Can you compensate the “shortcomings” with other strengths as a LLM student?
You can definitely compensate for the challenges. To be honest, private firms in the US tend to favor JD students. Traditionally, they hire summer associates from their 1L or 2L year, and then those associates are often hired full-time.
So it’s for us like we have to pave our own path. I would say that it also depends on your relevant experience that you had back in your home country.
For example, I had about three years of work experience, which has really helped to market yourself in a way that, hey, I do not have X, Y, and Z, but I am actually even more capable than tall of these JD students that basically came in because I am an attorney back in my home country, and I have these work experiences. So I think it’s a matter of how you can sell / market yourself and foster that relationship. I think from the perspective of the employer, they don’t know you. You just have to build that relationship with them to see that you were capable of doing things.
It’s not easy, but it’s not necessarily a disadvantage if you can market yourself well and present your narrative effectively. It’s definitely doable.
Did you have any “cultural shocks” in the job search process?
The networking aspect is definitely new for me, especially as an Asian person. I consider myself social and outgoing, but I still struggle at networking events, introducing myself and making connections. It’s really just a matter of practice - getting comfortable with putting yourself out there and being genuine.
In terms of work, I’ve found some differences as well. Back in Asia, particularly when I was in Thailand and Singapore with Allen & Overy, the work hours were intense - 16 to 18 hours a day. I often pulled all-nighters and barely slept. I haven’t experienced that level of pretty chill.
What kind of work did you do at the World Bank, and how did that tie in with the work that you've done before and that you ended up doing after?
To be perfectly candid, my World Bank experience was more of a COVID side gig. During COVID, I was recommended by an acquaintance from Myanmar. I worked on legal research and wrote a paper about the logistics and transportation sector in Myanmar. It was a short-term consultancy for about three months, involving research on laws and regulations. My project finance experience has definitely been useful. It comes in handy from time to time. As for connections, I’m still in touch with some of the energy professionals at the World Bank in DC.
Is it true that in BigLaw in the U.S., when applying for an associate position, one could apply for those that lead to the partner track, or an alternate track. Do you think for international lawyer, it might be smart to choose a non-partner track to have a better chance on the job market?
At this point, it doesn’t really matter. At Steptoe, we have a non-partner track called staff attorneys. This path doesn’t lead to partnership but offers valuable experience. For LLM students, there’s also an International Associate track, which is different from the traditional associate track. This track lasts about one to two years, depending on your visa, and can lead to opportunities for sponsorship and transition into the regular associate track. Right now, I wouldn’t focus too much on these discussions during interviews or while applying for positions. The priority should be getting your foot in the door at a firm, as that will be beneficial in the long run.
You mentioned that you worked as a paralegal in BigLaw before becoming an associate attorney. Could you talk about that experience?
I worked in a very niche area of law—asbestos litigation, which is quite specific to the US. In my home country, we might deal with asbestos, but not in the same way. I was on the defense side, representing a client for over 30 years. This client wasn’t an asbestos manufacturer but had written a safety report in the 1930s. Back then, asbestos was considered safe and widely used. The client’s report initially said asbestos was harmless, but a doctor who later left the company revised it to say it was harmful. Because of this change in wording, our client ended up being implicated in asbestos litigation as a co-conspirator in public health issues and had to settle.
As a paralegal, I handled settlement agreements, settlement offers, and database management. Given my experience as an attorney back home, I was quickly promoted to train other paralegals in the department. Even though I didn’t know much about asbestos or litigation initially, it was a valuable learning experience. The day-to-day work was quite repetitive since we had been representing the client for so long, but it allowed me to complete tasks efficiently and focus on other things like studying. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend aiming for paralegal positions here in the US if you’re looking to advance in your legal career.
US firms often prefer paralegals who plan to stay in that role long-term because of the time and resources needed to train them. Instead, I suggest starting with externships and building relationships with partners. That’s likely the best way to get your foot in the door.
After getting your LLM from Georgetown, did you wish you had taken more courses on U.S. law in general? Or were you able to learn on the job?
I didn’t really have a sense of “I wish I knew this” because I adapted quickly. Many of the skills are transferable. For example, as a corporate lawyer, I dealt with virtual data rooms for due diligence, which is similar to managing databases during my litigation paralegal work. Reviewing contracts and documents was essentially the same process.
I didn’t feel like I was missing out or needed to know more. Instead, I took the initiative to make the most of my time. I actively participated in the firm’s pro bono work, which allowed me to connect with partners and associates from different practice groups. I worked on immigration-related pro bono matters and used the opportunity to expand my network and gain additional experience.
How to explain to the employer in private sector your World Bank experience, which is quite different from law firm experience?
The World Bank role was just a three-month consultancy, so I didn’t really experience a transition into international organization work. It was mainly a research task, and once the three months were up, it was done. I didn’t move into a different type of work; I remained focused on corporate law.
When explaining my resume to potential employers, I highlight that the World Bank experience was an opportunity I seized, even though it was not directly related to my primary career focus. I emphasize that the legal research skills gained are transferable to the roles I’m applying for now. My tip is to frame any work experience you have in a way that highlights its transferable skills, even if the work itself seems quite different.
I have a question about the New York bar exam. Many of the LLM students end up studying all subjects in the two months leading up to the bar exam. Are there any particular subject that are very complex or unique to the U.S. jurisdiction?
The first subject I really hated was real property. The terminology is quite archaic and hard to grasp all at once. The second difficult subject for me was civil procedure, mainly because it’s dry and filled with technical details, like deadlines for various actions, i.e. do this in 15 days, that in 12 days, which are hard to remember. Other subjects are more similar to what we’ve learned in our home countries, so they’re not as problematic. Evidence can also be tricky, so I decided to take Constitutional Law and Evidence during the course because they’re heavier subjects.
Did you earn a certificate in arbitration during your time at Georgetown? Is that helpful in your job search?
Back when I was at Georgetown, I focused solely on my specialization, so most of my classes were in arbitration, which helped me meet my certificate requirements. If you're considering taking bar classes and pursuing a certificate, you should really discuss your plans with the advisors. I don’t want to discourage you, but arbitration can be quite challenging if you're not from a Latin American country. The US market often focuses on Latin American markets, so firms typically look for associates who speak Spanish. However, there are still many opportunities outside the private sector. There are international organizations, especially in DC, where you could find opportunities as well.
