My internship at The Hague Institute for the Internationalization of Law

Since I have entered Vilnius University I knew that I want to explore as many opportunities and to see as much as possible. This is why I did not miss a chance to go for a study abroad and afterwards to do my internship in the foreign country. After everything I went through I can say that these were the best decisions I could possibly make and I strongly encourage everybody to do the same. This is a lifetime opportunity to broaden your cultural knowledge and experience what it is like to work in other EU countries.



The Organization

I was an intern at The Hague Institute for the Internationalization of Law. The HiiL is a not for profit organization, which is located in the Hague, the Netherlands. Its main activities are related to the law innovation and it operates all over the world. As the organization puts it: "HiiL is passionate about making justice work. The core of our work is to improve rule-making and conflict resolution processes. In today’s challenging environment that is impossible without innovation. We support clients and other stakeholders doing this together, across borders and based on the best available knowledge."

The organization is rather small, its core team is comprised of 19 members. However, organization constantly employs interns and student assistants, which makes the environment of the organization very dynamic. Besides that, the team of the HiiL is very international. During my internship I met people from all around the world.

My activities at the HiiL

I was an intern at the External Relations department of the HiiL. I was supporting the implementation of the organisation’s overall fundraising and external relations strategies, searching, tracking and reacting on new funding and business opportunities, approaching potential clients, maintaining CRM system, preparing the proposals for potential customers and helping with various administrative tasks.

During these 3 months I gained a lot of confidence in business situations. I learned a great deal of new skills and have grown as a young professional. I had a lot of support from the rest of the team in the HiiL, which made my learning progress even more effective.

The Netherlands

The Netherlands is one of the best countries to do your internship. It is very international, therefore almost everyone speaks fluent English. Besides that, almost all of the major companies of the world has its headquarters in the Netherlands. Internships in this country most of the times are paid (300-400 eur per month). However, it is important to take in account that the life expenditures in the Netherlands are rather high (around 1000 eur per month). 

Country is located in a very convenient geographical position. All the main western Europe countries are located near by, therefore it is a great chance to explore all of them.

All in all, this was a life time opportunity for me and I would strongly recommend to everyone to choose the Netherlands as a place for the internship as it is a country, which provides a lot of opportunities. 

Vaiva Knašytė