The United States announces new "Declaration on Atlantic Cooperation"​

By Jake Rickman​

What do you need to know this week?

On Monday, the US government announced its new “Declaration on Atlantic Cooperation”. The announcement amounts to a new transatlantic agreement between countries on both sides of the Atlantic as big as the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands, to smaller, less-developed nations like Ghana, Guatemala, Liberia, and Nigeria.

The declaration is about as big-picture as it gets. There is little in the way of mealy and granular policy embedded in the announcement. Instead, the purpose behind the announcement is to demonstrate to the world — and in particular China and Russia — that the US intends to step up its financial and political influence across the world through a mixture of environmental, economic, and scientific initiatives.

Importantly, there is no military aspect to the envisioned partnerships. Read in this light, the declaration clearly intends to rebuff China’s increasing sphere of influence in places like South America and Africa, where it has invested billions in infrastructure and trade projects.

Why is this important for your interviews?

When we hear talk of “geopolitical developments”, this is a classic example. Accordingly, your job in an interview is to understand how this announcement:
  • Impacts clients and their businesses; and
  • Influences how law firms might advise their clients.
From a strategy perspective for applications and interviews, geopolitical developments are good ones to stay on top of because their impact is incredibly wide-ranging so as to touch on nearly all industries and legal practice groups.

The goal is to spend a bit of time thinking critically about ways in which you can develop your analysis of the impact of a development like this in an application and interview setting.

For instance, take regulatory practice groups, which advise clients on compliance with national and international rules and regulations. The declaration envisages new rules governing natural resource exploitation. If you are interested in the energy/oil and gas sectors, ask yourself what challenges and opportunities a new international regime would have for clients and how law firms can help solve these issues for their clients.

How is this topic relevant to law firms?

Clients are not limited to private companies. While law firms are less likely to take much of an active role in drafting sweeping foreign policy declarations such as this, as the objectives behind the declaration are hammered out among the participating companies into more concrete arrangements, private practice law firms will play a pivotal role advising governmental bodies on their impact.