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Students Travel to South American Law Schools for Linkage Program

Three students sitting on steps in South America posing with peace sign–formed fingers
Meena Venkataramanan ’28 and Sarah Kwon ’28 in Chile with with host Mariana (center).

In May, Yale Law School sent nine students to Argentina and Chile to take part in the Owen M. Fiss Latin American Linkage exchange program. Four more students will travel to Brazil in August for similar program organized by our partner schools in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

Meena Venkataramanan ’28, Sarah Kwon ’28, Siri Danielson ’28, and Natasha Markov-Riss ’28 spent three weeks at the Universidad de Chile and Universidad Diego Portales. The two universities enjoy a friendly rivalry at the top of the country’s legal academy and planned a full schedule for the participants.

Meena summarized her experience: “The Latin American Linkage Program was a highlight of both my YLS experience and my life so far. The three weeks I spent in Santiago were nothing short of magical and immersive as I navigated, entirely in Spanish, an enchanting city and cultural nexus where history meets modernity. I will forever remain grateful for my incredible experiences learning about cultural memory, truth, and reconciliation, meeting inspiring changemakers in law and human rights, and exploring this breathtaking city with those who call it home.”

seven women sitting around a large rectangular wood table
Linkage students with Nancy Yáñez Fuenzalida, a judge on Chile’s Constitutional Court.

Much of the students’ time was spent debating big ideas (including the transition from the left-leaning Boric administration to that of current President Kast, who voted against removing Pinochet from power in 1988). They also walked through Chile’s court system and visited leading law firms, federal agencies, and museums — even finding time for tours of a cemetery full of national heroes and the national stadium. Venkataramanan, Kwon, Danielson, and Markov-Riss are now well versed in the statute of autonomy for Chile’s central bank.

Melissa Barales-López ’28, Domingo Cortinez ’27, Sofia Aslan ’28, George Hu ’28, and Julian Watrous ’27 started their summer recess with a three-week immersion into Argentina’s legal system. This year, the Universidad de San Andrés joined the Universidad de Palermo as partner school in Linkages. Highlights included meeting Supreme Court Minister Carlos Rosenkrantz ’88 JSD and a private tour of the ESMA naval academy that was used as a detention and torture center during that country’s most recent dictatorship. As in Chile, the students who came to Yale in January brought the Yale students to meet their bosses, who included the country’s lead prosecutor for white collar crime and money laundering, Diego Velasco; superior federal court Judge Luis Francisco Lozano; and, thanks to the addition of San Andrés to the Linkage family, Argentina’s recently created “Ministry of Deregulation.”

In August, Dana Molina ’28, Robyn Stewart ’28, Chaka Tellem ’28, and Joseph Moore ’27 will go to Brazil, where they they are scheduled to study the caso Master, a scheme by Daniel Vorcaro to defraud Brazilian pensioners. Molina, Stewart, Tellem, and Moore will also meet with high judges; scholars who implemented Brazil’s successful university quota system that reserves places in the top law schools for students from underrepresented backgrounds, civil rights advocates for indigenous and Afro-Brazilian communities; and officials at federal and state agencies that took action during the federal abdication of the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Owen M. Fiss Latin American Linkage law student exchange has two objectives. One is to afford the participants an intensive experience of the legal system and system of elite legal education in the destination country. The other is to create conditions for the development of lasting relationships among the most promising legal minds committed to democratic values at Yale and our partner schools.