A: No, not really, I went to law school later. I actually moved right after I graduated from college to Prague to be involved with the process of democratization in Eastern Europe. It was an amazing time, with change happening before your eyes, so I worked for several years in Prague. Some of my motivation for the human rights work that I do now stems from excitement around the democratic revolutions in Eastern Europe. After Prague, I went back to graduate school and continued to study Eastern Europe and completed a master’s degree in international affairs (IR). That was a two-year degree — so still not in law school!
After the IR degree and some more work overseeing democratization projects in Eastern Europe, I finally went to law school to gain some practical tools. I wanted to work on promoting social justice in the international framework. Looking back, I think there were always elements of the legal work that I do now in both my studies and international work. But it certainly wasn’t a straight path.
I really enjoyed law school. I knew during law school that I didn’t want to become a corporate lawyer. Many who start law school without real world experience don’t know exactly what they want to do afterwards. It’s very easy to get trapped in business law because that’s where a lot of jobs are and it’s very straightforward. It’s the beaten path, you make a lot of money, and there are many attractive aspects to corporate law. But I knew I would never be a corporate lawyer. I did work at a big law firm after law school to gain experience, but it was never in my mind that I would stay and climb the ladder. I was there until I could figure out how to do meaningful international work with my law degree.
A: The clinic is now in its third year. We do really interesting and great work. I work closely with the students on specific legal cases or human rights related reports. We partner externally and have had excellent partners thus far. In the first year we partnered with the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was an amazing opportunity for the students to support the ICC’s ongoing investigations and cases.
The other big project from the first year was with the Cambodian Tribunal, working on the case of two Khmer Rouge leaders. We worked on a portion of the appeal judgment for the Supreme Court Chamber of the Tribunal focused on enslavement as a crime against humanity. We’re eagerly awaiting the Tribunal’s final judgment to see what role enslavement plays in the final judgment.
This year we’re working on two anti-corruption projects because I am now also the director of the Allard Prize for International Integrity, which is one of the world’s leading anti-corruption prizes, administered here at the Allard School of Law. To tie in work that would help with the anti-corruption focus of the Allard Prize, the clinic focused on two anti-corruption projects. One was an analysis of the proposal for an international corruption court. Right now there is a big advocacy push to develop this court. We also partnered with Transparency International on a grand corruption case against a former president, who is alleged to have stolen many millions from his country. Our task was to help construct the legal case and figure out the best venue to file the case.
The clinic students are highly motivated in part because the work is so compelling. As a result, students do a tremendous amount of work — often more hours than they get credit for. It’s gratifying to work with them as I can see them become very concerned and then motivated to correct injustice, often trying to figure out how they can remain involved with international justice and human rights issues after law school.
A: I’m often asked for career advice. I make a point not to be overly zealous in selling human rights-type legal work, because I recognize it’s not for everyone. It can be difficult.
One piece of advice I give to those who do want to pursue a human rights career, is that you will need to think more creatively about job options than those headed to big law firms. The corporate law world offers a hierarchical and predictable track, while the human rights world is more horizontal. Those who are open-minded and willing to live with some uncertainty are likely to be happier in the human rights world than those who are looking for predictable career outcomes.
I encourage students to think about what they are really, really interested in and then to build their own portfolio that includes work that will lead them to where they want to go. It does require more thinking.
A: My work in The Hague was very absorbing because the cases I was working on were determining responsibility for some of the world’s most serious crimes. The Yugoslav Tribunal, like most international criminal tribunals, considered cases of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Given the severity and magnitude of the cases, it was hard not to find them significant.
Victims would come forward and talk about their entire families, sometimes their entire towns, being massacred. There is obviously a lot of emotion involved with such traumatic events. You really feel motivated to do what you can to help. Some witnesses were threatened, some recanted their testimony due to fear and a few were victims of mysterious “accidents” before testifying. Once you work on cases of such gravity, it’s not easy to go back to doing “normal” law — helping with a business transaction, say, or drafting a trust.
My work in The Hague was very absorbing because the cases I was working on were determining responsibility for some of the world’s most serious crimes.
