Georgia Law Professor Desirée LeClercq speaks at the Texas International Law Journal symposium

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Desirée LeClercq presented as part of the Texas International Law Journal symposium titled “Critical Perspectives on AI: Security, Governance, Labor and the Environment,” held in February at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law.

LeClercq joined the University of Georgia School of Law in 2024 as an assistant professor. She teaches Contracts, International Trade and Workers Rights, International Labor Law, U.S. Labor Law, and Public International Law. She also serves as a faculty co-director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center and as the faculty adviser for the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law and the Labor and Employment Student Association. 

Buddy Parker presents “Follow the Money: Recovering the Proceeds of International Crime” at Georgia Law

The University of Georgia School of Law’s International Law Society recently hosted former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney Wilmer “Buddy” Parker in an event entitled “Follow the Money: Recovering the Proceeds of International Crime.”

After being introduced by Georgia Law student Andrei Niveaux (LL.M. ’26), Parker reflected on the shifting landscape of global asset recovery throughout his fifty plus years of experience in the field. He talked about his professional background and career trajectory litigating high profile criminal cases for both the United States Department of Justice and as a private defense attorney. Parker’s talk spanned the history of asset recovery and discussed contemporary issues in fraud, money-laundering, and forfeiture matters.

Parker entered Government service in 1978 in Washington, D.C., as a Trial Attorney with the Criminal Section of the Tax Division of the Department of Justice. He participated in investigations and prosecutions of tax and related frauds across the country. In 1983, Parker transferred to the U.S. Attorneys office for the Northern District of Georgia. During his tenure as an Assistant United States Attorney in Atlanta, Parker participated in hundreds of investigations and prosecutions of complex financial activities involving money laundering/fraud and racketeering, and international narcotics trafficking. Parker became a supervising Assistant U.S. Attorney managing cases as well as maintaining his own trial calendar. From his investigations in the Atlanta U.S. Attorneys office, he became one of the pioneers of U.S. money laundering prosecutions with their attendant forfeitures. Through the international aspects of these investigations, he became a recognized expert on money laundering and U.S. forfeiture law, making numerous presentations throughout Europe, North America and the Caribbean.

Since 1997, Parker has primarily represented individuals and corporations in far-reaching criminal investigations and prosecutions throughout the United States and internationally. He has also represented individuals in complex civil litigation. He has represented both public and private corporations, lawyers, accountants, corporate officers, bankers and other professionals in various mail and wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud, healthcare fraud, tax fraud, money laundering, immigration, public corruption, commercial bribery, RICO and forfeiture investigations and prosecutions. He has also participated in investigations before the Serious Fraud Office (United Kingdom) and acted as a consultant to European lawyers in international matters.

Georgia Law Professor Walter Hellerstein presents at Court of Justice of the European Union Conference

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Emeritus Walter Hellerstein presented as part of a panel on taxable persons and related issues in VAT law at the Court of Justice of the European Union Conference held at the Vienna University of Economics and Business in Austria during March.

Hellerstein is the Distinguished Research Professor & Francis Shackelford Distinguished Professor in Taxation Law Emeritus. He is a recipient of the National Tax Association’s Daniel M. Holland Medal for outstanding lifetime contributions to the study and practice of public finance, is widely regarded as the nation’s leading academician on state and local taxation. He has authored numerous books, textbooks, and law review articles, and has practiced extensively in the field. Hellerstein is currently a Visiting Professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, and he remains actively involved in his scholarship, consulting, and, in particular, his work as an academic advisor to the OECD.

Georgia Law Professor Desirée LeClercq and student N’Guessan Kouame (LL.M. ’24, J.D. ’26) publish on labor rights in West Africa

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Desirée LeClercq and student N’Guessan (Clément) Kouame (LL.M. ’24, J.D. ’26) published “Modern Slavery Thriving in the Shadows of West Africa: Why Coubaly v. Cargill Furthers Legal Barriers to Labor Rights Accountability” in International Labor Rights Case Law.

LeClercq joined the University of Georgia School of Law in 2024 as an assistant professor. She teaches Contracts, International Trade and Workers Rights, International Labor Law, U.S. Labor Law, and Public International Law. She also serves as a faculty co-director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center and as the faculty adviser for the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law and the Labor and Employment Student Association. 

Georgia Law Professor Christopher Bruner discusses corporate responsibility for algorithmic harm at Osgoode Hall Law School (Canada) 

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Christopher Bruner presented on “Fraud, Manipulation, and Accountability in the Age of AI” in February as part of the panel discussion “When AI Hurts: Corporate Responsibility for Algorithmic Harm,” hosted by Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Canada.

Bruner is the Stembler Family Distinguished Professor in Business Law at the University of Georgia School of Law and serves as a faculty co-director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center.

Georgia Law Professor Diane Marie Amann participates in American Society of International Law online roundtable on peace law, policy, practice

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Emerita Diane Marie Amann recently joined four other international lawyers in an American Society of International Law online discussion entitled “Peace law, policy, practice: A Women’s History Month roundtable.”

Amann served as co-organizer and co-moderator along with Jaya Ramji-Nogales, who is the Sheller Family Professor in Public Law at Temple Beasley School of Law. Also on the panel were Megan Donaldson, an Associate Professor at University College London Faculty of Laws; Annelise Riles, Professor of Law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law; and Anna Spain Bradley, MacArthur Foundation Chair in International Justice & Human Rights and Faculty Director of the Promise Institute of Human Rights at UCLA School of Law.

Together, they explored a variety of issues related to peace. These included: imagining peace, as an ongoing, relational, community-grounded practice committed to ending both violence and its socioeconomic causes; histories of peace movements and the challenges those movements have faced; foundations of peace law and the role of law in peace-building; and strategies for centering peace in the present moment. A video of the event is available here.

Host of the roundtable was the American Society of International Law Women in International Law Interest Group (ASIL WILIG), on whose Executive Committee Professor Amann serves.

Amann is Regents’ Professor Emerita and Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law Emerita at Georgia Law, and served for many years as a Faculty Co-Director of our Dean Rusk International Law Center. She is currently a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science Law School.

Georgia Law Professor Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge presents on emerging issues in international arbitration at Duke University School of Law

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge presented “NextEra: The ‘Next Era’ of the Chromalloy Conundrum” as part of the Conference on Emerging Issues in International Arbitration at the Duke University School of Law during February.

Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge holds the Talmadge Chair of Law. From 2015 through 2024, he served as dean of the University of Georgia School of Law. He is the author of the book Arbitration and the Constitution and co-author with Gary Born of the book International Civil Litigation in United States Courts. His works have been published by the Yale University Press, the Oxford University Press and the Cambridge University Press, and his articles have appeared in a diverse array of journals such as The University of Chicago Law Review, the Vanderbilt Law Review and the Journal of International Arbitration. He also regularly advises parties on matters of international dispute resolution (litigation and arbitration).

Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins presents “The Erosion of Arms Control, Multilateralism, and the Rule of Law”

The University of Georgia’s Benson-Bertsch Center for International Trade & Security hosted Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins this week as part of their ongoing Global Decisions Series. Ambassador Jenkins presented a talk entitled “The Erosion of Arms Control, Multilateralism, and the Rule of Law”, where she discussed the role of norms and international law in upholding and rebuilding the global world order.

Two Georgia Law students, Patrick Clarke (J.D. ’28) and Madisson Grant (J.D. ’28), met with Ambassador Jenkins at a lunch hosted by the Dean Rusk International Law Center following the talk. Three UGA undergraduates who are current fellows in the Richard B. Russell Security Leadership program—Emily Hwang, Claire Scafidi, and Abby Wright—participated in the lunch as well. The students spoke with Ambassador Jenkins about her career in public service and their interests in international affairs and international law.

Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins served as the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs from 2021-2024, during which time she was appointed to lead the Department of State’s implementation of AUKUS, a trilateral security partnership among Australia, the UK, and the US. She is currently the Shapiro Visiting Professor in International Affairs at George Washington University and the Compton Visiting Professor of World Politics at the University of Virginia. Ambassador Jenkins is the founder and Executive Director of WCAPS (Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security, and Conflict Transformation). She served in the US military for 22 years as a Staff Sargent in the Office of the Judge Advocate General in the U.S. Air Force and as an Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Virginia, an LL.M. in international and comparative law from the Georgetown University Law Center, an MPA from SUNY Albany and a JD from Albany Law School.

Special thanks to Professor Maryann Gallagher, Director of the Security Leadership Program, and to Mandy Dixon, International Professional Education Manager at the Rusk Center, for their coordination and logistical support of this event.

Georgia Law finishes eighth in Jessup international law moot court regional

Pictured above are: (l. to r.) Caleb Grant, Morgan Pfohl, Nathan Whisamore, Emma Hopkins, Jacob Levy, Lionel Rubio, and Marion Kronauge.

Congratulations to University of Georgia School of Law students Morgan Pfohl (J.D. ’26), Emma Hopkins (J.D. ’27), Jacob Levy (J.D. ’27), Lionel Rubio (J.D. ’27), and Nathan Whisamore (J.D. ’27), whose team finished eighth after four preliminary rounds in the first U.S. Super Regional Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.

During the tournament, they competed with 91 other teams, and will now advance to the international tier of the competition in Washington, D.C. later this month. Georgia Law student Marion Kronauge (J.D. ’26) served as a student coach, while Caleb Grant (J.D. ’23) served as the alumni coach. Taher Benany, Associate Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center, also served as a coach for the team.

The Jessup competition is the world’s largest moot court tournament that typically fields teams from roughly 700 law schools in 100 countries and jurisdictions around the globe. Georgia Law’s past performances in Jessup competitions can be found here.

Georgia Law Professor Diane Marie Amann presents on Nuremberg trial at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Emerita Diane Marie Amann recently presented “Athenia, or the Nuremberg Trial at Midpoint” at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Amann focused on events 80 years ago this spring, when the landmark Trial of Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal was at its halfway point. The British prosecution team’s evidence against German naval officers, as well as certain witnesses called by the French and Soviet prosecution teams, were featured.

Lauterpacht Centre Fellow John Barker chaired the lunchtime lecture, which may be viewed on YouTube or listened to via Spotify, Apple, and Captivate podcasts.

Amann, who is Regents’ Professor Emerita and Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law Emerita at Georgia Law, served for many years as a Faculty Co-Director of our Dean Rusk International Law Center. She is writing a book on lawyers and other women professionals at the first Nuremberg trial.