Floating Into a Project
I’ve been floating adrift at work. I sit at my desk, and I have trouble staying awake generally. I spend a lot of time writing emails, posting the blog entries I write at home, and reading WSJ.com and Economist.com. Using Westlaw, the endlessly huge legal database, I find very interesting articles on subjects I want to read about. Indian law mostly, and I’m learning Indian law real well. I also sort of latch on and listen to what my colleagues are doing. I read the company’s contracts. I read case law and statutory law that’s relevant to our pending litigations. I go to court and see these litigations play out. But just generally learning Indian law isn’t a goal to work towards. A goal would maybe help keep me awake and give me some motivation. Plus, what will I put on my resume? Just that I spent all summer studying Indian law at the desk of a company?
Interns in India are always working on “projects.” People hear that I’m a legal trainee, and they want to know what my “project” is. When I was hired at Marico last spring, there was supposedly a “project” that I was supposed to come to India to work on. I’ve been thinking that the word “project” is business-speak over-phrasing. You know how business people talk in vague pronouncements with big words – I am uniquely positioned for this job. This company is uniquely positioned for this opportunity. Phrases like that.
But for the last week my boss has been talking about my project, and other lawyers were saying I need to complete a project for this internship to show Marico that it was indeed worthwhile to take me on as an intern. And I’ve been trying to arrange a meeting for the last week to meet with my boss to talk about my project. It turns out that I’ve had a project the whole time. A sheet of paper detailing my project was made before I even arrived in India, and human resources was supposed to forward it to me when I was in the States, but they never did, and today was the first day I saw it.
I’m going to meet with the manager who oversees the import of saffola oil seeds from Australia that we use to make Saffola cooking oil, one of Marico’s premier products. I’m going to write a report comparing Indian and U.S. intellectual property law. I’m going to learn how Marico positions its health food products in a way that while they claim to have the effect of drugs, they still fall under the body of food regulatory law. And most importantly I’m going to make a checklist of U.S. cosmetic law that will apply to Marico’s U.S. subsidiary, the Sundari line of skin products. This sounds like a lot to do in less than three weeks time (less than three weeks being how much more time I have at Marico)
Interns in India are always working on “projects.” People hear that I’m a legal trainee, and they want to know what my “project” is. When I was hired at Marico last spring, there was supposedly a “project” that I was supposed to come to India to work on. I’ve been thinking that the word “project” is business-speak over-phrasing. You know how business people talk in vague pronouncements with big words – I am uniquely positioned for this job. This company is uniquely positioned for this opportunity. Phrases like that.
But for the last week my boss has been talking about my project, and other lawyers were saying I need to complete a project for this internship to show Marico that it was indeed worthwhile to take me on as an intern. And I’ve been trying to arrange a meeting for the last week to meet with my boss to talk about my project. It turns out that I’ve had a project the whole time. A sheet of paper detailing my project was made before I even arrived in India, and human resources was supposed to forward it to me when I was in the States, but they never did, and today was the first day I saw it.
I’m going to meet with the manager who oversees the import of saffola oil seeds from Australia that we use to make Saffola cooking oil, one of Marico’s premier products. I’m going to write a report comparing Indian and U.S. intellectual property law. I’m going to learn how Marico positions its health food products in a way that while they claim to have the effect of drugs, they still fall under the body of food regulatory law. And most importantly I’m going to make a checklist of U.S. cosmetic law that will apply to Marico’s U.S. subsidiary, the Sundari line of skin products. This sounds like a lot to do in less than three weeks time (less than three weeks being how much more time I have at Marico)
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