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.
In November, University of Georgia School of Law Professor Desirée LeClercq traveled to Atlanta with a group of students as the culmination of their semester-long exploration of international trade.
15 students, including J.D., LL.M., and Graduate Certificate in International Law students, spent the semester examining potential trade and investment opportunities between the State of Georgia and the United Kingdom from an interdisciplinary perspective. They researched and wrote a paper examining key export and import sectors in Georgia and the United Kingdom, and then prepared a hypothetical Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two. The students spent the day in Atlanta presenting to, and fielding technical questions from, three different audiences: representatives from the state of Georgia, transactional and international lawyers from Eversheds Sutherland, and foreign diplomats from the U.K. consulate.
Georgia Department of Economic Development
The group’s first stop of the day was hosted by the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD), the state’s sales and marketing arm, and had in attendance other state representatives.
At the GDEcD, Madina Bekisheva (GCIL student), Sutton Eady (J.D. ’27), Md. Asaduzzaman Jabin (GCIL student), and Jalyn Ross (J.D. ’27) worked together to present their portion of the hypothetical legal instrument. In their presentation, the group argued for greater collaboration and synergies between the state and the United Kingdom to attract, facilitate, and potentially grow trade. Their arguments centered on export and import data from similarly situated states and novel predictive models they had built demonstrating how enhanced collaborations with the United Kingdom could increase trade and job opportunities in Georgia. The students used the model to identify specific sectors in industry, renewable energy, commerce, and agriculture, among others, where Georgia’s economy and workers could benefit.
Eversheds Sutherland
The group’s second stop of the day was the Atlanta office of Eversheds Sutherland, a global law firm specializing in corporate, energy, litigation, tax, and real estate. This firm has a meaningful relationship with the UK, as it is where the Eversheds law firm originated prior to their 1988 merger with Sutherland. The firm’s global headquarters is located in London, and its historic ties to the country are evident in their presence throughout the British legal market. Students Leighlee Mahony (J.D. ’26) and N’Guessan “Clement” Kouame (LL.M. ’24, J.D. ’26) presented. Both students argued that enhanced trade and investment collaboration between Georgia and the United Kingdom could offer reciprocity in sectors, including legal services.
The students were hosted by Jenny Lambert, Partner, and attended by several practicing attorneys in transactional and international work. The students benefitted both from the lunch that Eversheds Sutherland generously provided, as well as in-depth and vigorous questioning by the firm’s attorneys.
British Consulate General Atlanta
The group’s third and final stop of the day was the British Consulate General Atlanta. Students Maya Roper (J.D. ’27), Victor Azure (LL.M. ’26), Wambui Kamau (LL.M. ’26), and Madina Bekisheva (GCIL student) presented the group’s data and modeling to U.K. diplomats and officials. The group again walked the audience through specific trade and industry sectors, with a special focus on battery production for electric vehicles, the Georgia aerospace industry’s advantage, and veterinary medicine.
Student Reflections
“Coming from a non-law background in Computer Science, I learned that successful trade and partnerships do not thrive on innovation alone. They must be shaped by policy and political realities, economic conditions, population needs, national interests, and stakeholder relationships. The Atlanta trip made this clear by showing how quickly trade negotiations can shift based on context, not on the brilliance of the technology or business itself.” – Md. Asaduzzaman Jabin (GCIL student)
“This course was a great blend of theory and practice, requiring intensive and insightful legal research to understand and gather the materials, as well as concise, precise, and clear drafting of the MoU. The most significant site visit for me was the visit to the Georgia Department of Economic Development. It was a great experience to compare our findings with the department’s work and its vision for improvement. It was also interesting to know that people at the GDDE were doubtful about the use of models for the prediction of growth or value from MoUs. It shows how sometimes new technology may face skepticism for its implementation and convince people to advance or improve their old methods.” – N’Guessan “Clement” Kouame (LL.M. ’24, J.D. ’26)
UGA’s Office of Research, in partnership with the Office of the Provost, provides “pre-seed” funding to facilitate the formation of faculty teams and collaboration around critical areas of research expertise or emerging research topics. The goal is to stimulate large-scale research team formation and position UGA faculty groups to be more competitive in attracting resources for collaborative research, including internal UGA seed grants and ultimately, external grant support.
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, International Law and 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.
University of Georgia School of Law Professor Desirée LeClercq was featured in Inside U.S. Trade regarding rapid-response mechanism petitions under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The article titled “RRM ‘black boxing’ spurs solidarity among tri-national labor reps” was written by Margaret Spiegelman and published 10/14/25.
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, International Law and 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.
University of Georgia School of Law Professor Desirée LeClercq recently delivered a presentation for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office’s Trade & Economic Diplomacy Faculty entitled “Growing Employment Through Trade: The Role of Fair Labour Standards.”
LeClercq discussed the evolution of international labor standards, noting how rules once designed to protect workers and improve living conditions are now used by countries such as the United States to enforce rights abroad and reshape global supply chains. Drawing on her experience as director of labour affairs at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and as a legal officer at the International Labour Organization, she illustrated this trend through examples from the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
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, International Law and 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.
University of Georgia School of Law Professor Desirée LeClercq and former U.S. diplomat Christina Hardaway discussed their career trajectories and experiences working internationally in a recent law school panel discussion, “Working in Public International Law and Diplomacy.”
After introducing themselves and outlining their academic and professional paths, LeClercq and Hardaway took questions from the audience. They talked about the importance of soft skills in diplomatic work, how to develop your expertise in domestic affairs to make yourself more marketable overseas, the challenges of living abroad, and detailed both the rewards and complexities of committing to a career in public service.
Hardaway is a former diplomat (Foreign Service Officer) for the U.S. Department of State with a 14-year career spanning Latin America, Europe, and Africa. She most recently completed a diplomatic assignment at the U.S. Consulate General in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, where she advanced U.S. economic, security, and commercial priorities on the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to that, Hardaway served as Deputy Chief of the Political-Economic Section at the U.S. Embassy in Cameroon leading the mission’s economic and commercial portfolio. Her previous assignments include gender and entrepreneurship officer in the Bureau of African Affairs, energy and environment officer at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague, consular officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Monterrey, Mexico, and a detail at the U.S. African Development Foundation.
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, International Law and 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. From 2016 to 2020, she served as a director of labor affairs in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). Before joining USTR, LeClercq worked for nearly a decade as a legal officer at the International Labor Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and served as staff counsel for the chairman of the National Labor Relations Board.
This event was part of the Dean Rusk International Law Center’s ongoing Consular Series, which presents students, staff, and faculty with global perspectives on international trade, cooperation, development, and policy.
University of Georgia School of Law Professor Desirée LeClercq recently organized and funded (through a grant won at Cornell University) a transnational conference of U.S., Mexican, and Canadian labor unions and leaders at Flacso Mexico in Mexico City. Patricia Campos-Medina (WI-ILR Cornell University), Alex Covarrubias (El Colegio de Sonora), and Cirila Quintero (El Colegio de la Frontera Norte) served as conference co-organizers.
This one-day transnational labor conference solicited the views of labor unions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), organizers, and workers on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)’s Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) in light of current geopolitical dynamics. Participants identified current challenges in filing petitions under the RRM, aligned strategic approaches to the 2026 re-negotiation of the USMCA, and discussed ways to work together notwithstanding current tensions in politics and trade. The conference was structured to first discuss the RRM on a technical level before broadening to account for political tensions and joint transnational strategies. It concluded with ways participants could remain organized and collaborate in the future.
LeClercq joined the University of Georgia School of Law in 2024 as an assistant professor. She teaches International Trade and Workers Rights, International Labor Law, International Law and U.S. Labor 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.
University of Georgia School of Law Professor Desirée LeClercq recently delivered a presentation on the future of multilateralism, trade, and worker rights to World Trade Organization officials and researchers in Geneva, Switzerland.
LeClercq received financial support to attend this workshop from the Dean Rusk International Law Center as a Rusk Scholar-in-Residence, an initiative promoting international opportunities for Georgia Law faculty that advance the mission of the Center.
LeClercq joined the University of Georgia School of Law in 2024 as an assistant professor. She teaches International Trade and Workers Rights, International Labor Law, International Law and U.S. Labor 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.
The University of Georgia School of Law’s spring 2025 International Law Colloquium welcomed Professor Katrin Kuhlmann, who presented her working paper, “Micro International Law.” Greg Day, Associate Professor in the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia, served as Kuhlmann’s faculty discussant.
Kuhlmann is the Faculty Director and Co-founder of the Center on Inclusive Trade and Development at Georgetown Law. Her scholarly focus lies in international law, development, inclusive and sustainable international trade law, regional trade agreements, agricultural law and food security, comparative economic law, African trade and development law and corridors, and the interdisciplinary connections between law and development.
Below is an abstract of Kuhlmann’s working paper:
International law has long been viewed as the domain of countries and capitals, not fields or factories, but this overly top-down perspective misses a critical and under-studied part of the picture. Underneath the macro level of standardized legal norms, international law is much more nuanced, with multiple sites of influence, production, design, adoption, and decision-making that scholars have largely neglected but which need to be better understood. Models stemming from legal systems in less powerful states, smaller-scale stakeholder interests, and local solutions are often treated as one-off anecdotes or isolated case studies without broader implications.
Capturing these lessons, cataloging them, and building a methodology around them could be transformational at a time when international law needs a refresh to make it more responsive to a new set of global challenges ranging from inequality to food insecurity to climate change.
This paper presents a conceptual and methodological framework for “micro international law” as a sub-field of international law. Adding a micro dimension to international law would bring it in line with other disciplines that recognize the importance of studying smaller-scale, more granular interventions. It would also make a significant contribution to the international legal field by integrating theoretical and empirical approaches to focus on the impact innovations within domestic legal systems and the interests of individuals have on international law (and the impact of international law on these systems and stakeholders), ultimately providing a framework for designing international law differently to equitably address more specialized needs and positively impact the lives of those international law aims to serve and benefit.
This year, Professor Desirée LeClercq is overseeing the colloquium, which is designed to introduce students to features of international economic law through engagement with scholars in the international legal field. To view the full list of International Law Colloquium speakers, visit our website.
This program is made possible through the Kirbo Trust Endowed Faculty Enhancement Fund and the Talmadge Law Faculty Fund.
University of Georgia School of Law Professor Desirée LeClercq contributed to the annual report published by Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs (ACF) entitled “Getting China Right at Home.” LeClercq authored the article “A Pragmatic Approach to U.S.-China Labor Tensions,” which centers on the importance of the International Labor Organization in improving worker’s rights in China.
Below is an excerpt from the article:
“Tensions with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) concerning its treatment of workers have featured prominently in U.S. trade and diplomatic policies. The new administration must draw lessons from the failure of policies employed to date to entice the PRC to align its labor policies with international legal standards, not least because residual noncompliance in China has impacted domestic interests in the United States. Instead, the International Labor Organization (ILO), as a neutral intermediary, could better engender incremental changes in the treatment of workers.”
LeClercq joined the University of Georgia School of Law in 2024 as an assistant professor. She teaches International Trade and Workers Rights, International Labor Law, International Law and U.S. Labor 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.
exchange of notes 