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Seeking Associate Director for Global Practice Preparation: Georgia Law’s Dean Rusk International Law Center

IMG_7003We’re looking for a self-initiating, globally minded individual to lead the Global Practice Preparation portfolio here at the Dean Rusk International Law Center, University of Georgia School of Law.

The Associate Director for Global Practice Preparation will advance our 40-year-old Center’s mission by developing and administering global practice preparation initiatives, with the support of an administrative assistant and under the supervision of the Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center.

As detailed in the full job notice, initiatives include:

A J.D. is preferred for this position. As detailed in the full job notice, the successful applicant also will have demonstrated experience, practice- or research-based, in global legal education and international law. The successful applicant further will have an ability to travel, as well as a demonstrated self-initiating, entrepreneurial, creative, and collaborative approach to work.

We look forward to filling this vital position as soon as possible, so if you’re interested, don’t delay!

Introducing our LL.M. Class of 2020

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From left, top row:  Arif Iqbal; Esra Aydinoz; Emmanuel Kyei; Gordon Oduor; Kingsley Opia-Enwemuche; Jessica Atatigho; Romario Lee; Cindy Hawkins Rada. Bottom row: Florence Nalukwago; Tahmineh Madani; Rayan Yassin; Hiance Castro; Jie Zhang; Mahbub Islam; Shiyang Liu; Maisha Tahsin. Not pictured: Ashish Joshi, Amir Tanhaei

We are proud to introduce the University of Georgia School of Law Master of Laws (LL.M.) Class of 2020.

The group of 18 includes lawyers from 14 different countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, including: Bangladesh, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Turkey, and Uganda.

They join a tradition that began at the University of Georgia School of Law in the early 1970s, when a Belgian lawyer became the first foreign-trained practitioner to earn a Georgia Law LL.M. degree. In the ensuing four decades, the law school and its Dean Rusk International Law Center have produced over 500 LL.M. graduates, with ties to 75 countries and every continent in the world.

Side by side with J.D. candidates, LL.M.s follow a flexible curriculum tailored to their own career goals – goals that may include preparation to sit for a U.S. bar examination, or pursuit of a concentration affording advancement in their home country’s legal profession or academic institutions.

The application for the LL.M. class of 2021 is now open; for information or to apply for LL.M. studies, see here.

2019 Global Governance Summer School concludes with briefings at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court

THE HAGUE – On this final day of the 2019 Global Governance Summer School, students visited two preeminent international tribunals — the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court — for high level briefings. They were also treated to a visit from Dr. Kaitlin Ball (JD ’14), a Georgia Law alumna who recently finished a PhD at Cambridge and is living in Europe.

The group started the day at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an audience with Hendrik Denys, law clerk to the Honorable Joan Donoghue, the American judge on the International Court of Justice. Mr. Denys, an alumnus of our partner school, KU Leuven, spoke with students about the history of the Peace Palace, the structure and procedure of the Court, and several representative decisions of the ICJ’s jurisprudence. He also provided advice for preparing a career in international law.

In the afternoon, the group visited the International Criminal Court (ICC), located on the dunes near The Hague’s North Sea coast. Student first had a meeting with Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, for whom our summer school’s co-director, Georgia Law Professor Diane Marie Amann, serves as Special Adviser on Children in & affected by Armed Conflict. Bensouda described her own path to practicing international criminal law. While acknowledging the barriers to achieving justice, she expressed the urgency of continuing the effort, on behalf of global society as well as the victims of international crimes.

The second audience at the ICC was with the Honorable Kimberly Prost of Canada, who serves as a Judge in the Trial Division. Judge Prost discussed the history of the Court and the many of the challenges facing it. She also emphasized the important concept of complementarity in regards to the ICC’s relationship to national courts.

Students also had the opportunity to view the confirmation of charges against Al Hassan, who is suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in 2012 and 2013 in Timbuktu, Mali. During the portion of the hearing that time permitted the group to observe, students heard from one of the Legal Representatives of the Victims, who emphasized the impact of the alleged crimes.

All in all, it was a great day, a successful trip, and we look forward to returning next year!

Global Governance Summer School visits the Hague Conference on Private International Law & museum

THE HAGUE — Students spent their second day in The Hague engaged in a mix of legal and cultural excursions.

Students spent the morning meeting with lawyers from the Hague Conference on Private International Law. There, they were treated to an overview of the world organization responsible for cross-border cooperation in civil and commercial matters. Students met with Laura Martinez-Mora, Secretary of the Permanent Bureau, and Frédéric Breger, Legal Officer (left). They provided an introduction to the history and structure of the HCCH, and provided a detailed overview of some of its many conventions, which cover topics including: family law matters such as child abduction, intercountry adoption, child protection, and maintenance obligations; forum selection as other procedural issues such as choice of court, taking evidence abroad, service abroad, and apostille. Finally, they touched upon the newly concluded Convention of 2 July 2019 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters, which Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge, raised during his session on international dispute resolution in Leuven last week. Students were interested to hear about the treaty-making process, as well as the aspects of the treaties, particularly those covering family law, that reinforced human rights treaties, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

From left, Ayman Tartir, Steven Miller, Gamble Baffert, Charles Wells, Emily Snow, Holly Stephens, Lauren Taylor, Briana Blakely, Jessica Parker, and Kathleen Doty.

 

In the afternoon, the group visited Escher in Het Paleis, the museum dedicated to M.C. Escher, set in Queen Emma’s winter palace. There, students took in masterpieces, and thoroughly enjoyed the interactive top floor of the museum. Everyone’s inner child came out to play!

Tomorrow, students will visit the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court before concluding the 2019 Global Governance Summer School.

 

LL.M. students take professional development trip to learn about accountability courts

LLM courthouseLL.M. students at Georgia Law took a professional development trip to the Athens-Clarke County courthouse for an introduction to the local justice system. Organized by Paige Otwell (J.D.’88), Assistant District Attorney, the students were treated to a panel on Accountability Courts.

In Georgia, voluntary participants in these innovative judicial programs plead guilty to the offense with which they have been charged and agree to enhanced supervision, including mental health or substance abuse treatment measures, in exchange for reduced terms of confinement and sometimes shortened periods of probation. For the large majority of the foreign attorneys present, this approach to criminal justice was unfamiliar.

llm courthouse2The students heard from Nicole Cavanagh, Felony Drug Court Program Coordinator; Will Fleenor, Chief Assistant Solicitor General, who discussed DUI/Drug court and Veterans Court; and Elisa Zarate, the coordinator of the Treatment and Accountability Court Program.

The panelists stressed the high level of success of these courts, both in terms of the decrease in re-arrests among participants as well as anecdotal evidence of the positive impact on participants’ lives. Describing the non-adversarial, team approach of the courts to the LL.M. students, Cavanaugh remarked that prosecutors, defense attorneys, and court personnel are “all trying to work together to get people to succeed in the program.”

The LL.M. students will have the opportunity to visit the courthouse again in the coming months to watch a trial.

UK Consul General Andrew Staunton to speak on Brexit at Georgia Law

The Dean Rusk International Law Center at the University of Georgia School of Law will welcome Consul General Andrew Staunton to campus on Tuesday, February 12, 2019. He will give a lecture, “Leaving the EU: Impact on UK-US Relations.”

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Staunton is the United Kingdom’s Consul General in Atlanta. He took up the position in June 2018, after serving for four years as the Deputy Head of Mission and Economic Counselor at the British Embassy in Athens, Greece. He also served as Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Dublin from 2009 to 2013. His time in Greece and Ireland coincided with critical points in each countries respective economies.

A career diplomat since 1987, Staunton has also held posts in China, France, Romania and Canada.

This event is presented as part of the Dean Rusk International Law Center’s Consular Series, which brings to campus perspectives on international trade, development, policy, and cooperation during the 2018-2019 academic year. The Consular Series is co-sponsored by the International Law Society, Georgia Law’s chapter of the International Law Students Association.

This installment of the Series coincides with the Center’s long-standing tradition of celebrating the birthday of another career diplomat – former Secretary of State and our Center’s namesake, Dean Rusk. In honor of Dean Rusk’s 110th birthday, lunch and celebratory cupcakes will be served.

Details here.

Learn about Georgia Law LL.M. degree at Atlanta info session Tuesday, Feb. 5

llm ad_Persons who have completed legal studies overseas are invited to learn about earning a University of Georgia School of Law Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree at a free information session this month at Atlantic Station in Atlanta.

The session will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 5, 2019, and hosted at the offices of Arnall Golden Gregory LLP, 171 17th Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30363 (click here for directions).

The LL.M. is a one-year, full-time degree designed for lawyers who trained in countries outside the United States and wish to study at the University of Georgia School of Law, a 160-year-old institution that is consistently ranked among the country’s top law schools.

Georgia Law LL.M. candidates study alongside J.D. candidates. Each LL.M. student pursues a flexible curriculum tailored to his or her career goals, including preparation to be eligible to sit for the Georgia or other U.S. bar examination. Details about this decades-old initiative may be found at our website and in posts at this blog of the Dean Rusk International Law Center, the law school unit that administers the LL.M. degree.

Among those speaking at the information session will be our Center’s Associate Director for International Professional Education, Dr. Laura Kagel, as well as graduates of the LL.M. degree, who will talk about the student experience at the University of Georgia School of Law.

Other topics to be discussed at the information session include:

  • benefits of obtaining an LL.M.
  • putting together a strong application
  • costs and financial aid
  • career options for LL.M. graduates
  • steps toward preparing to take a U.S. bar examination

Interested persons are invited to register at no cost. Light refreshments will be served.

We look forward to seeing you and answering your questions there!

Atlanta International Arbitration Society to explore skills and cultures in upcoming conference

atlas-logoThe Dean Rusk International Law Center is delighted to serve as a cooperating entity for the 7th annual conference of the Atlanta International Arbitration Society (AtlAS). Next week’s conference will take place on Monday, November 12, and Tuesday, November 13, and will explore the theme “Skills and Cultures: the Road Ahead for International Arbitration.”

The first day of the conference will feature four Tertulia sessions — or roundtable discussions — that will focus on cultural norms in international arbitrations, and how those norms may be distinct in different parts of the world. These conversation will set the stage for the second day of the conference, which will consist of panels exploring the skills useful in today’s multicultural international arbitration practice.

3 photosSpeakers and participants will come to Atlanta from around the world, as detailed in the full program, and will feature keynote remarks by: Ann Ryan Robertson, International Partner, Locke Lord, Houston; David W. Rivkin, Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton, New  York; and Olufunke Adekoya, Partner, AELEX, Lagos.

The conference is bookmarked by two events aimed at young practitioners. On Monday before the Tertulia sessions begin, the AtlAS Young Practitioners Group will present a panel, “Document and Data Management (and Protection) In International Arbitration.” It will feature experts from Accra, Atlanta, Singapore, and Paris. On Wednesday following the conference, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Young Members Group and the Alliance for Equality in Dispute Resolution will co-host “Re-wiring the Brain: Practical Steps to Address Inclusion and Diversity in International Dispute Resolution.” It will feature speakers from Chicago, London, and Washington, D.C.

Three University of Georgia School of Law students will serve as rapporteurs for the conference; we look forward to posting their reflections on the conference in due course.

 

Center’s Laura Kagel to meet with prospective LLMs in Austria, Croatia, and Germany

LLM cover pageLaw students in Austria, Croatia, and Germany will soon have the opportunity to talk with a Dean Rusk International Law Center staffer about pursuing a degree at here at the University of Georgia School of Law.

Later this month yours truly, Laura Tate Kagel, the Center’s Associate Director of International Professional Education, will give a presentation for students at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, and take part in LL.M. fairs in Vienna, Austria, and Zagreb, Croatia. Sponsor of the fairs is EducationUSA, an arm of the U.S. Department of State.

I’ll be on hand personally to discuss the career benefits and special advantages of earning the Master of Law, or LL.M., degree at Georgia Law. (See prior posts about our current LL.M. students, as well as our hundreds of LL.M. alums, here.)

If you’d like to schedule to meet with me, please email LLM@uga.edu, and you can register for the fairs via the links below.

Monday, November 12, Mainz: 18:00-20:00, Johannes Gutenberg University, Department of Law and Economics. Email LLM@uga.edu for more details.

Wedne1sday, November 14, Vienna: 16:00 – 18:00, University of Vienna, Juridicum Dachgeschoss, 10-16 Schottenbastei, 1010. Register to attend online.

Friday, November 16, Zagreb: 18:00-20:00 at the Sheraton Hotel, Ul. kneza Borne 2, 10000. Register to attend online.

Hope to see you there!

The Carter Center’s Laura Olson to speak on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Picture1The Dean Rusk International Law Center at the University of Georgia School of Law welcomes Laura Olson, Director of the Human Rights Program at The Carter Center, to campus next Tuesday, November 6. She will give a lecture, “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 70.”

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Olson has been with The Carter Center in Atlanta since July 2017. She previously held high ranking positions within the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and the Department of State. Olson has also served as legal advisor to the International Committee of the Red Cross, supporting the ICRC Delegations in Washington DC, Geneva, and Moscow.

Sponsoring her talk with the Dean Rusk International Law Center is the International Law Society, Georgia Law’s chapter of the International Law Students Association.

Details here.