News Archive
LL.M., J.D. Grad Says Studies at IU McKinney Sparked Opportunities
07/12/2021
Changyang Sun, LL.M., ’16, J.D., ’19, has big plans and says her time at IU McKinney has opened new doors for her career path. She’s currently working as a law clerk, has published her masateral thesis and is at work on more scholarship, and hopes to sit for a bar exam in the United States before flying home to China to join a law firm there.
Sun appreciates how IU McKinney trains international lawyers and law graduates to sharpen their analytical legal thinking.
“For me,” Sun said, “the law is a game of logic. It is not about how many statutes one could memorize; it is about the depth and reasonability of one’s legal analysis. Being a law student in China and America, what I have learned from McKinney in legal research and legal writing helped form my legal mind logically.”
Sun currently works as a law clerk in a law firm in Virginia and helps with managing cases and producing legal documents. She has published her thesis titled “The Study of Legal Issues of BRICS National Development Banks’ Loan Investment Modes in the BRICS Law Reviews.” She had written it for her masters degree in international law at Southwest University of Political Science & Law (SWUPL), in Chongqing, China. The publication was sponsored by the Academe of BRICS Laws of SWUPL. Since 2020, she has been working on another paper titled “The Right to Sex Education: Proposals for Awareness Programs to Reduce Sexual Exploitation of Minors.”
McKinney is renowned for its expert faculty. Two sitting Indiana Supreme Court justices, the Honorable Steven David, ’82, and the Honorable Mark Massa, ’89, teach LL.M. students. A former Indiana Supreme Court justice, Professor Frank Sullivan Jr., also teaches LL.M. students and even directs the law school’s LL.M. Corporate and Commercial Law.
“Law school is a growing pain, but I enjoyed every minute,” Sun said. Studying at McKinney rewarded her with beautiful cultural and professional experiences, she said. She also received a Graduate Certificate in Intellectual Property Law from the law school. “Attending McKinney improved my ability to adapt to a new cultural environment and closely cooperate with international colleagues on issues of law.”
Her time at IU McKinney also provided Sun with an added benefit, she said. For her, studying for her “LL.M. or J.D. is the process of knowing the law,” Sun said. The law, she added, is “also the process of knowing yourself.”
