LEX LATA, LEX FERENDA
The law as it is, the law as it should be
Leila Nadya Sadat is the James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law and Director of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University School of Law. She has served as Special Adviser on Crimes Against Humanity to the International Criminal Court Prosecutor since 2012. She is the Director of the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative, a ground-breaking project launched in 2008 to write the world’s first global treaty on crimes against humanity. She also launched in 2018 the Gun Violence and Human Rights project examining the U.S. gun violence crisis from a human rights perspective. Professor Sadat is an internationally recognized authority and prolific scholar writing in the fields of public international law, international criminal law, human rights and foreign affairs, and has published more than 100 books and articles in leading journals, academic presses, and media outlets throughout the world. She is the author of the award-winning The International Criminal Court and the Transformation of International Law: Justice for the New Millennium (Transnational, 2002) and Forging a Convention for Crimes Against Humanity (Leila Nadya Sadat, ed., Cambridge 2011). Sadat was a delegate to the 1998 Rome Diplomatic Conference and the 2010 ICC Review Conference in Kampala, Uganda. She held the Alexis de Tocqueville Distinguished Fulbright Chair in Paris, France in Spring 2011. She recently received an Honorary Doctorate from Northwestern University and the Arthur Holly Compton Faculty Achievement Award from Washington University.
Professor Sadat is the President of the International Law Association (American Branch), a member of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations and the American Law Institute, and a Counsellor of the American Society of International Law.
Isaac Amon, JD ’15/LLM in Negotiation Dispute Resolution ’15, J.S.D. ’19, is an expert in international criminal law and procedure. He has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis. Isaac worked in private practice before entering public service as the Legislative Director for the Missouri Department of Corrections, and also served as Legal Counsel to the Missouri Board of Probation & Parole in death penalty cases. Asaac graduated summa cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in History. His senior thesis – awarded Highest Honors by the Department of History – focused upon the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition, and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. During the summer of 2014, he interned at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and in December 2014, served as a delegate to the Thirteenth Assembly of States Parties to the International Criminal Court. He has taken classes at Utrecht University, the Sorbonne and Hebrew University. His research interests include International Criminal Law, Dispute Resolution, and the intersection of History and Law.
Lola Awobokun, JD ’19, is originally from Nigeria and she relocated to Houston, Texas when she was 14 years. She is a graduate of Texas A&M University, College Station where she majored in Sociology and received a business administration minor. At Washington University School of Law, she was a member of the 2018/19 award-winning Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition team and served as the President of International Law Society, as a Staff Editor on the Global Studies Law Review Journal, and as a Research Assistant for the Harris Institute on its work supporting the International Criminal Court’s Legal Database. During the summers of 2018 and 2019, she was a litigation summer associate at Baker McKenzie’s Houston office. Her research areas include public international law; human rights, and international courts and tribunals.
Abadir Barre, JD ’16/LLM in Negotiation Dispute Resolution ’16, is an immigration and civil rights attorney with the Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein, P.C., in New York City. After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley with bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Rhetoric, Abadir went to Kenya and worked on peace and conflict resolution within the Somali community. In the summer of 2014, he interned at the Puntland Legal Aid Center in Puntland, Somalia. In the summer of 2015, he earned the Harris Institute’s Dagen-Legomsky Public Interest Fellowship to support his work interning with the International Development Law Organization’s Somalia Department.
Fizza Batool, JD ’17, served as the Harris Institute Fellow during the 2017/18 academic year. She graduated magna cum laude from Saint Louis University completing a double major in Criminal Justice and Legal Studies. During the summer of 2016, she traveled to The Hague, Netherlands as the Dagen-Legomsky Hague Fellow to study public international law at The Hague Academy. She is also the Executive Articles Editor of the Global Studies Law Review, which is publishing her Student Note entitled Exile and Election: The Case for Barring Exiled Leaders from Contesting in National Elections. Her research interests include international and domestic criminal law, international human rights law, and international state arbitration.
Carolina Battistella, LL.M. ’19 in Negotiation Dispute Resolution, has a JD from the University of Trento, Italy. At Washington University School of Law, she worked as a Research Assistant from Crimes Against Humanity Research Project. Has a strong interest in international law, particularly in international commercial arbitration.
Marla Borkson, JD ’17, is currently an attorney in the Office of Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury. In 2020, Marla was recognized as part of the twenty-fifth class of Mansfield Fellows, a program established by Congress in 1994 to build a corps of U.S. government officials with substantial Japan experience. After graduating from the University of Florida with degrees in Political Science, Geography and certificates in Arabic and Chinese languages, Marla moved to Chengdu, China where she lived for multiple years studying and working with Mandarin and regional sub-dialects of Chinese. Marla also lived in Kathmandu, Nepal where she worked with International NGOs in the education sector. Marla has extensively traveled the South Asian region and enjoys learning the local languages and dialects.
Emily Brewster, JD ’19, grew up in the Chicagoland area. She graduated with a degree in Anthropology from Boston University in 2014. In college, she was an editor of the BU Pre-Law Review and member of the Rugby and Fencing Teams. Emily has interned for legal organizations in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Boston. She has completed research on the human rights issues of the South Pacific nations for the International Commission of Jurists, Australia, and she has studied the British Legal System and British Children’s Rights Law. Her research interests include international environmental law, antitrust, and international human rights.
Suhao Chen, served as a Visiting Researcher at Washington University School of Law until August 2017. Suhao is a Ph.D candidate in law at Southwest University of Political Science and Law (Chongqing, China) and the Assistant to the Dean of the Center of Procedural Law and Judicial Reform. His research interests include criminal procedure, evidence law and international human rights law. Suhao’s Ph.D project, which is funded by the China Scholarship Council and Chongqing Education Commission, is on the pre-trial rights of detainees to communicate with the outside world. His project will examine the influence of international standards and norms on domestic jurisdictions and address legal issues arising in the detention practices of international criminal justice systems and their potential domestic impact.
Evelyn Chuang, JD ’13, was the 2013–2014 Harris Institute Fellow. She received her BS in Human Development from Cornell University and graduated cum laude from Washington University School of Law. She previously interned for Legal Resources Centre in Ghana, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania, and EarthRights International in Thailand. As a public defender, she practiced law in Missouri (June 2014 – June 2015) and Washington (December 2015 – May 2017). She also worked in Suva, Fiji, as the Academic Development Coordinator for the JDP School of Law at the University of Fiji.
Matteo Colorio, LLM’19 and JD candidate at the University of Trento, Italy worked as a supervised research assistant for the Crimes Against Humanity Research Program at Washington University School of Law. He has a strong interest for International Law and especially for International Criminal Law. His other research interests include Transitional Justice and its interactions with international criminal courts and tribunals. “To become an international laywer, each of us should first lay down the foundations. The Harris Institute was the place where I laid down mine. Thanks to the exceptional training I received, I discovered the subject matter I feel passionate about and devoted to.“
Mattia Cutolo, LLM ’17 in Negotiation Dispute Resolution, has a JD from the University of Trento in Italy. At WashU Law, he was awarded the “LLM Excellence in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution Award.” He also worked as a Research Assistant to Professor Sadat in European Union and International Law. He has researched and written about international civil rights and politics, and is particularly interested in political and economic interaction between the United States and the European Union. His other research interests include international business transactions and the effects of globalization on economic and legal systems around the world.
Dylan Davis, JD ’20, graduated from Bard College Berlin in Germany with a concentration in Political Theory and Philosophy. During the summer of 2018 he interned at the Roma Tre Immigration Law Clinic at Rome Tre University in Rome, Italy as part of the Global Public Interest Fellowship. In the summer of 2019, Dylan was awarded the Harris Institute’s Dagen Legomsky Research Fellowship to study at the Xiamen Academy of International Law. His research interests include International Human Rights Law and Critical Legal Theory.
Freya Doughty, , is a research assistant for the Harris Institute and a JSD candidate at Washington University School of Law. She expects to graduate in May 2022. During the summer of 2020, she worked under Prof. Charles Jalloh of the United Nations’ International Law Commission, as part of the Dagen-Legomsky Fellowship. She earned her LL.B from UWE Bristol, England in 2017, and her LL.M in Public International Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2018. Freya’s research interests fall under the wide bracket of public international law, with her JSD thesis focusing on the intersection of human rights and environmental law, and upcoming book chapter concerning international criminal justice.
Megan Ferguson, JD ’20, graduated from Seton Hall University with a degree in Diplomacy and International Relations, and Philosophy, and minored in Asian Studies. Megan’s work as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Kinmen, Taiwan after graduation sparked her passion for understanding how individuals may shape international policy, and her determination to bring community voices into international law and international law to communities. Megan interned with the Legal Aid Board of Durban, South Africa in 2018, and observed community lawyering in both an international and a criminal context. In the summer of 2019, she interned with a domestic prosecutors’ office. Megan was a member of the Washington University Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition team for two years. In 2019, she placed as the second best oralist in the international round of the competition, out of more than 450 oralists total. Megan’s research interests include humanitarian law and international criminal law.
Yuan Fang, is currently a JSD student at Washington University School of Law. He expects to graduate from the JSD program in May 2022. Yuan earned his first master degree in law from Beihang University (Beijing, China) in 2018, and his second LLM from UC Berkeley School of Law in 2019. His research interests include public international law (space law, human rights, etc.), and technology law (cyber law in particular). Yuan’s JSD project focuses on the subject of “cyber warfare”, examining how to make the current international law a better fit for the context of cyberspace through the dynamics between human rights protection and national security.
Léa Garriga-Lafabregue, LL.M. ’17 in U.S. Law, obtained an LL.B. from the University of Montpellier in France and a Master’s Degree in Business and Tax Law from the University of Cergy-Pontoise in Paris, France. At Washington University School of Law, she was a member of the International Law Society, facilitating cooperation between foreign students. She worked alongside the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute to promote France and French Law, including being an assistant host for the French Conversation Table. She has researched and written about International Tax Law, transfer pricing regulations, and business transactions between the United States and the European Union. In February 2018, she sat for the New York Bar Exam.
Jing Geng, JD ’11, was the 2012-13 Harris Institute Fellow. She is currently a PhD researcher at Católica Global School of Law in Lisbon, Portugal. In addition to earning her JD from Washington University, Jing also obtained an LL.M. in Public International Law, cum laude, from Utrecht University in 2012. From 2013-2015, she served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Camille R. McMullen of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. Jing’s research interests include international human rights, women’s rights, gender equality, human trafficking, and human migration.
Madaline George, JD ’14, was the 2014-2015 and 2018-2020 Harris Institute Fellow and currently directs the Institute’s Gun Violence and Human Rights Initiative. She is an expert in international human rights and refugee law, and has extensive experience working abroad. She previously worked at the Climate Project, a non-profit focused on raising public awareness on climate change throughout the United States and abroad, at Lawyers for Human Rights in Durban, South Africa, and interned at the Migrant Immigrant Community Action (MICA) project in St. Louis. Madaline is also the Co-Founder of an organization that advocated for refugee and migrant rights in southern Africa and Germany, for which she has operated projects related to sustainability, conflict resolution, and human rights education in Germany, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Malawi.
Nicole Gougeon, JD ‘18/LLM in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution ’18, graduated Cum Laude from Grand Valley State University with a double Bachelors in International Business, and Marketing. During the summer of 2016 Nicole worked in Durban, South Africa at the ZA Legal Aid office, and in 2017 she traveled to Seoul, South Korea as the Dagen-Legomsky International Public Interest Fellow to work at the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board. Currently, Nicole is working on expanding the Mediation programs in the St. Louis District Courts for Pro Se parties. She will be travelling to Sydney, Australia in 2018 to work at the Australian Center for International Commercial Arbitration to further her work in Dispute Resolution.
Eleanor Gourley, JD ’16, served on the 2014-2015 Executive Board for the International Law Society as secretary and is the alumnae liaison for the Women’s Law Caucus. In the spring of 2015 she served as an intern at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. She also served as an Executive Articles Editor for Washington University Journal of Law and Policy. After law school, Eleanor worked as a staff attorney at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia for almost three years before becoming a staff attorney at the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition in Baltimore, Maryland in 2019.
Marianne Guéry, LL.M. ’18 in U.S. Law, graduated summa cum laude with her Master’s Degree in Anglo-American Business Law at the University Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris, France). She previously obtained her LL.B., magna cum laude, from the University of Angers (France), during which she also studied at the University of Greenwich (London, United Kingdom), and obtained a Master’s Degree in International Business Law at the Panthéon-Assas University (Paris, France). She is particularly interested in international business transactions, corporate law, and international alternative dispute resolution. She interned in business law firms in France and Cambodia and she is pursuing a career in international business law.
Joshua Handelman, JD ’21, is the Editor in Chief of the Washington University Global Studies Law Review. He graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a bachelor’s degree in Government and Politics, and minors in Philosophy and in Middle Eastern Studies. At UMD, he completed the Federal Fellows Program for students interested in public service, specializing in Homeland and National Security policy. He worked as a research intern at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). He also served on the executive board of a student group advocating for a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His research interests include Middle Eastern affairs, international conflicts, terrorism, international governmental organizations, and international commons (such as the oceans, climate, outer space, and the internet). He is originally from the Washington DC-Metro area.
Mathias Holvoet served as a Visiting Researcher at the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute until the end of June 2016. Mathias is a PhD-Researcher in International Criminal Law at the Faculty of Law and Criminology of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, affiliated with the Research Group Fundamental Rights and Constitutionalism (FRC). His PhD-project is one Work Package which is part of a broader research project funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) entitled “The Global Challenge of Human Rights Integration: Towards a Users’ Perspective” (www.hrintegration.be). Mathias researches the various aspects and dimensions of the controversial and contested requirement of a ‘policy’ as an element of the definition of crimes against humanity. The provisional working title of his PhD is ‘The Policy Behind the Atrocity. An Inquiry into the Status and Substance of the ‘Policy Element’ under the Law of Crimes against Humanity’.
Jarrod Jolly, LLM in U.S. Law ’14, is currently the Second Secretary and Legal Adviser at Embassy of Australia, in The Hague, Netherlands. Prior to his current position Jarrod spent more than four years as a Policy Officer at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Previously he worked as an Associate to the Honourable Justice J S Douglas of the Supreme Court of Queensland, as a Senior Research Officer at the Australian Senate, and on numerous projects for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Jarrod holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and Arts from the University of Queensland, Australia, and a Master of Laws from Washington University School of Law, United States. His principal research interests include trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants, international criminal law and comparative constitutional law.
M. Imad Khan, JD ’11, is an Associate with Winston & Strawn LLP in their Houston, Texas office. He advises companies across diverse economic sectors, including energy, oil and gas, electricity, renewables, waste management, mining, and pharmaceuticals. His international dispute resolution practice focuses on international arbitration, complex commercial litigation, and white collar, regulatory defense and investigations. Having served as lead associate on several high-profile and global cases, Mr. Khan has a wide variety of experience representing and advising sovereigns, multinational companies, State-owned entities, and intergovernmental organizations through all aspects of dispute resolution. Mr. Khan maintains a deep understanding of his practice by frequently speaking and publishing on topics related to his practice and industry/business-sector focus. He currently holds leadership positions with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the International Centre for Dispute Resolution. In addition, he chairs the International Arbitration & Dispute Resolution Symposium program at Washington University School of Law. Mr. Khan also serves on the Houston Chapter Board of Directors for Developments in Literacy, a non-profit committed to empowering children through education in Pakistan. Mr. Khan is also is an adjunct professor at Washington University School of Law.
JooRi Kim, JD ’19, was a senior editor of the Washington University Global Studies Law Review and a research assistant to Professor Leila Sadat and the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute. She is interested in international public interest law and international alternative dispute resolution.
Anton Krayniy, JD ’19, graduated cum laude from Tulane University with a double major in International Relations and Russian Studies. He wrote his honors thesis on the effect of Russian self-perception on Russian foreign policy from the nineties to 2016. During the summer of 2017, he traveled to The Hague, Netherlands as the Dagen-Legomsky Hague Fellow to study public international law at The Hague Academy of International Law. At Washington University School of Law, he served as Co-President of the International Law Society. His research interests include international trade regulations, international human rights law, international state arbitration, and space exploration regulations.
Nicholas Lamparski, JD ’19, is currently a Judicial Law Clerk in the Federal Judiciary in Montgomery, Alabama. He graduated with honors from Michigan State University’s James Madison College completing a double major in Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy and Finance. During the summer of 2017, he was in the Student Honors Program at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Credit Ratings in New York City. At Washington University School of Law, he was a team member of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition team and served as a Research Assistant to Professor Andrew Tuch. His research interests include sovereign debt, sovereign credit ratings, cross-border international transactions, and international commercial arbitration.
Donato Guido Loforese, LLM in U.S. Law ’15/Bachelor and Masters of Law joint degree at University of Trento ’16, participated at the Transnational Law Program to develop an in-depth understanding of comparative law topics between Common Law and Civil Law systems. He has worked both in Palestine and Trento, Italy as a reporter for human rights projects in the Middle-East with MAIA onlus and the Al Quds University. His research interests include Immigration Law, Islamic Law and Societies, War Crimes and Human Rights protections during armed conflict.
Rose Lyu, LL.M. ’18, earned her Bachelor’s Degree in law from Wuhan Institute of Technology, in Hubei, China and completed The Hague Academy of International Law’s program in Private International Law. Before she enrolled in Washington University in St. Louis, she worked with one of the largest global immigration law firms, Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP, where she provided legal advice, made customized relocation plans to corporate clients and their employees, advised clients to remain compliant with China’s immigration regulations and requirements, and assisted the Senior Account Manager with maintaining VIP accounts. At Washington University School of Law, Rose was a team member of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. During her study in the states, Rose interned at a multinational chemicals corporation, assisting its North American in-house team with legal matters regarding cross-border compliance, contract negotiation and dispute resolution. Rose also acted as a mediator in civil housing courts. Her research interests include public international law, international litigation/arbitration, and international corporate compliance.
Bethel Mandefro, MA in International Affairs ’11, works as the Coordinator for Washington University’s Africa Initiative. She previously worked as the Program Coordinator and Office Manager for the Harris Institute from 2011 to 2019. At the Harris Institute, she managed the day-to-day operations, including logistics, communications, event management, budgeting, website maintenance, and more. Bethel earned her Bachelor of Science in International Business and Organizational Behavior from University of Missouri – St. Louis, with a minor in Spanish, and worked as an export logistics coordinator at BDP International in Philadelphia prior to returning to St. Louis to pursue her graduate studies. She earned his Masters in International Affairs from Washington University in 2011. Her directed research project for her Masters theses focused on the impact of government policies in improving access to clean water in Sub-Saharan Africa. An avid traveler, she has visited various countries in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central America, and also studied and worked abroad in Guadalajara, Mexico and Bilbao, Spain.
Douglas J. Pivnichny, JD ’13, is currently an Associate Legal Officer at the International Court of Justice. Prior to his current position, he worked as an Associate Legal Officer at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria. Douglas served as the Fellow at the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute in 2014. In 2015, he was awarded a prestigious International Court of Justice Traineeship position and worked as a Judicial Fellow for H.E. Judge James R. Crawford from 2015-2016. He holds a J.D. from Washington University School of Law and a BA (Hons.) from the University of Oxford in Philosophy, Politics & Economics. He earned his masters degree in international law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID), Geneva, where he wrote his masters dissertation, Treaty-Based Claims against Subdivisions of ICSID Contracting States. His principal research interests include international arbitration, transnational financial regulation, and the relationship between international law and federalism.
Jim Ransdell, JD ’16, holds an East Asian Studies degree from Centre College, Kentucky. Before law school, he also studied in Japan at Yamaguchi Prefectural University and Kobe University’s School of International Cooperation Studies, where he interviewed international development experts as a Fulbright Research Fellow. He interned at the Legal Resources Centre in Accra, Ghana during the Summer of 2014. Jim speaks Japanese, and intermediate Chinese and German. His research interests include: Rule of Law, Development Economics, Humanitarian Law, and relations among developing countries.
Megan Reif, JD ’17, graduated with highest distinction from the University of Iowa with a Communication Studies major and minors in English and Spanish. During the summer of 2015, she traveled to Durban, South Africa as part of Washington University’s Global Public Interest Law Initiative. In Durban, she interned for the Legal Resources Centre, a constitutional impact litigation NGO. She has also interned for the Center for Children’s Law and Policy in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri. Megan previously served as the Media and Symposium Editor of Washington University’s Global Studies Law Review, and supervised its 16(3) Symposium Issue: Drafting a Convention on Crimes Against Humanity. Her research interests include public international law and international human rights law, as well as American constitutional law and civil rights.
Christian Rose, JD ’21, is a student at Washington University School of Law and the Managing Editor of the Washington University Global Studies Law Review. He worked as a supervised research assistant for the Crimes Against Humanities Research Project during the 2018/19 academic year. Christian is also is on the School’s award-winning Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition team. In the 2020 Rocky Mountain Region competition, he ranked as the 5th best oralist in the tournament and his team won best memorial. Christian graduated with honors from Boston University. Following graduation, he taught middle school math in California for AmeriCorps. He is especially interested in language and effective written advocacy.
Feyga Saksonov, J.D. ’20, was a member of the Crimes Against Humanity Student Research Project at Washington University’s Harris World Law Institute for the 2018/19 academic year, and served as a Student Ambassador during the 2018 ABILA International Law Weekend. She graduated in 2017 from Boston University with a degree in economics and math and spent the summer of 2017 working as a researcher and analyst at a tech company in Boston. Her research interests include immigration and refugee law, data privacy and security, tech regulation, and human rights law.
Joshua Sills, JD ’16, is currently an associate in Davis Polk’s Corporate Department, practicing in the Madrid office. Since joining the firm in 2016, he has completed a rotation in the Capital Markets Group and Executive Compensation Group. He spent his final semester at Washington University School of Law as a Foreign Law Clerk at the Supreme Court of Israel in Jerusalem. At Washington University School of Law, Josh was on the Editorial Board of the Washington University Law Review. Josh is originally from New York City and returned there after graduation to work at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.
Tamara L. Slater, JD ’15, was the 2015-2016 Harris Institute Fellow. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester in May 2010, completing a double major in political science and religion, and her law degree from Washington University School of Law in May 2015. During law school, Tamara explored the intersection of international, environmental, and human rights law. She was also Managing Editor of the Global Studies Law Review, which published her Student Note entitled Investor-State Arbitration and Global Environmental Protection. Tamara has attended two UN Framework Convention on Climate Change conferences, COP 20 in Lima, Peru and ADP 2-11 in Bonn, Germany. Prior to law school, she worked at the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy, a Washington D.C.-based non-governmental organization.
Kristin Smith, JD ’14, is currently the director of the ABA’s Atrocity Crimes Initiative, a group of projects (including the International Criminal Court Project) focused on atrocity prevention, response, and accountability. She also serves as a Staff Attorney for the ABA’s Criminal Justice Section. Prior to the ABA, she worked on issues of gender equality, reproductive rights and justice for sexual and gender-based crimes as a Legal Fellow at the Global Justice Center in New York. She previously served as the 2016-2017 Harris Institute Fellow. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame in 2011, completing a double major in American Studies and Studio Art. During law school, Kristin worked on human trafficking and rule of law issues at the Legal Resources Centre in Accra, Ghana, clerked at the Portland Immigration Court, and worked on international criminal justice issues for the American Bar Association’s International Criminal Court Project. She was a Primary Editor on the Washington University Journal of Law and Policy and a member of the Niagara International Moot Court Team. Her research interests include foreign policy and human rights protection, the intersection of international and federal law, and the role of public opinion in the policymaking process.
Nicole Smith, JD ’19, graduated magna cum laude from Miami University with a double major in International Studies and Psychology, and a minor in German. Nicole wrote her International Studies thesis on how the War on Drugs impacted Latin America. After graduation, Nicole received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Luebeck, Germany. In 2018, Nicole represented the Harris Institute at a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Bogota concerning gun violence in the United States. At Washington University School of Law, Nicole was a co-president and co-founder of the Criminal Law Society. Her research interests include international human rights law, gun violence and trafficking in the Americas, and criminal law.
Zachary Smith, JD ’17, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Wake Forest University. Before enrolling in law school at Washington University, he studied Venetian business economics with Wake Forest University’s Casa Artom program. In an effort to provide legal resources to further human rights around the globe, Zach interned at the Legal Resources Centre in Accra, Ghana in 2015. Although he is currently pursuing a career in intellectual property law, Zach is committed to volunteer work that furthers human rights causes around the world, specifically with regards to the LGBTQ community.
Ihor Stratan, LLM in U.S. Law ’16, is a native Ukrainian, born in Rivne (Western Ukraine). In 2007, Ihor graduated from Rivne Institute of Kyiv University of Law of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences and was conferred the LLB (summa cum laude). In the same year, he worked for two weeks as a legal assistant in Rivne Regional Office of the President of Ukraine. In 2008, he graduated from Kyiv University of Law of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences and was conferred the Specialist’s Degree in Law (summa cum laude) and obtained the qualification of a Lawyer. From 2008 to 2015, he provided legal services in Ukraine, both to Ukrainian and to foreign clients. At Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, his research focused on corporate, contract, commercial, US, EU, and public and private international law.
Derek Van Becelaere, JD ’20, is from Kansas City, Missouri, and graduated from the University of Missouri with a BA in History. At Mizzou, he was a Fellow in the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy. During law school he has worked as a legal intern at Legal Aid in Durban, South Africa, and as a research assistant for the Harris Institute’s Crimes Against Humanity Research Project. Among his numerous research interests are foreign relations, international law, and the Cold War.
RickPaul Singh Vander, JD ’17/LLM in Negotiation Dispute Resolution, graduated from the California State University, Fullerton with an MBA in Finance and a Bachelor’s in Business Management. At Washington University School of Law, Rickpaul served as a member of the Crimes Against Humanity Research Team and the International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court Team and published two papers in the international law field, presenting one of them at the “Business Ethics and Corruption in the Globalized World” conference in Delhi, India in April 2016. During Law School, he interned at Xero, a software-tech firm in San Francisco and he is pursuing a career in International Business Law.
Ke Xu, LLM in U.S. Law ’20, is currently a research assistant to Professor Leila Sadat and the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute. She is also a Master of Laws candidate in International law at Nanjing Normal University (Nanjing, China), expecting to graduate in June 2021. At Nanjing Normal University, she was a team member of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. In the summer of 2019, she worked as a legal department trainee in China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SINOPEC). During her study in China, she participated in the legislation of China (Jiangsu) Pilot Free Trade Zone. Her research interests include international trade law, international criminal law, and international human rights law.
Teresa Yao, JD ’17, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology from Washington University. Previously, she worked at TrustLaw, the legal arm of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, where she connected international non-profits and social enterprises with free legal assistance from leading law firms in global jurisdictions. At Washington University, she was a staff editor of the Washington University Law Review. She was also a legal intern at the ABA Commission on Law and Aging in 2016 and a legal and social work intern at the Legal Services of Eastern Missouri in 2017. Teresa’s interests are in advocating for elderly rights, particularly in legal protections for those afflicted with dementia.
Olivia Youn, JD ’19, is currently an Attorney at Stinson LLP. At Washington Universtiy School of Law she served as an executive board member of the Public Service Advisory Board (PSAB) and a staff editor for the Journal of Law and Policy and was a member of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. Before law school, she worked in family law as a legal assistant and interned with a currency organization in Davis, California to assist small businesses. She graduated from University of California, Davis, with a degree in Communication.
Lei (Iris) Yu, LLM ‘17 in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution, is originally from China. She holds an MBA from Poitier University in France and a Bachelor of Laws (L.L.B.) in China. Before coming to the United States, she practiced law for more than 10 years as an in-house legal counsel in the commercial banking sector with Bank of China and Standard Chartered Bank. She has traveled extensively as a backpacker and explored Europe, Africa, North, South, and Central America, Asia and Oceania. While at Washington University, she worked on fair housing issues with the St. Louis Metropolitan Equal Housing & Opportunity Council and worked as a mediator with the Better Business Bureau. She also embraced volunteer opportunities, volunteering for the 2016 Presidential Debate held at WashU, the American Society of International Law’s 2017 Annual Meeting in DC, the National Bar Association’s 2016 Convention in St. Louis, Baobab People, and the SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital Foundation in St. Louis. She is interested in using her commercial legal experience to work with internationally-focused NGOs in the future.