About Us

The following are short descriptions only. For more comprehensive biographies and contact details for NYU Law faculty, please visit the NYU Law site at http://www.law.nyu.edu/faculty


Lee C. Buchheit

Lee C. Buchheit is a partner based in the New York office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. Mr. Buchheit’s practice focuses on international and corporate transactions, including Eurocurrency financial transactions, sovereign debt management, privatization and project finance. Mr. Buchheit joined the firm in 1976 and became a partner in 1984. From 1987 to 1990, he was resident in the Hong Kong office; from 1979 to 1982, in the London office; and from 1976 to 1979, in the Washington, D.C. office.

Mr. Buchheit is the author of two books in the field of international law and more than 40 articles on professional matters. He has served as an adjunct professor at the School for International and Public Affairs of Columbia University (1994-97), as a visiting professor at Chuo University in Japan (1997-98), as a Lecturer on Law at the Harvard Law School (2000) and as a Visiting Lecturer in Law at the Yale Law School (2005). Mr. Buchheit is also a Visiting Professor in the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at the University of London.

Donald Donovan

Donald Francis Donovan is a partner with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in New York City, where he concentrates his practice in international disputes before courts in the United States, international arbitration tribunals, and international courts. Based on surveys of other practitioners, he was recently identified as one of the three leading international arbitration practitioners in New York in the Chambers USA Guide (Chambers & Partners 2004) and as one of the seven leading litigators in New York in Dispute Resolution Handbook 2003/04 (Practical Law Company 2003), and he is regularly recognized as a leader in his field in similar publications.

Mr. Donovan has argued international law, arbitration law, commercial law, and other issues before the International Court of Justice, the Arbitral Tribunal Established by the 1930 Hague Agreement, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Fourth, Ninth, and District of Columbia Circuits, and other federal and state courts throughout the country. He regularly handles litigation involving non-U.S. parties in courts in the United States and conducts arbitrations in venues throughout the world. He also regularly serves as arbitrator in international cases.


Richard W. Hulbert

Richard W. Hulbert is senior counsel at Cleary Gottlieb, based in the New York office.
Hulbert's practice has focused on domestic and international litigation and arbitration. He served as Managing Partner of Cleary Gottlieb from 1979 through 1984. Mr. Hulbert is widely published on the various aspects of arbitration and litigation. Hulbert received an LL.B. degree in 1955 and an undergraduate degree in 1951 from Harvard University. He was a Sheldon Fellow in history from 1951 to 1952.

Hulbert is a member of the Bar in New York. He is admitted to practice before the Federal District Courts in New York State, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second and Tenth Circuits, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Hulbert is a member of the American Law Institute and serves on several committees on arbitration. He served as a Vice Chairman of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce from 1994 through 1999.


Ian Johnstone
Fletcher School, Tufts, Boston

Ian Johnstone received his Honours BA and JD from the University of Toronto and his LLM degree from Columbia University. He was volume editor and lead scholar of the Annual Review of Global Peace Operations (2005-2007); Editor of Special Issue of International Peacekeeping journal (2007); Vice-Chair, International Organizations Interest Group, American Society of International Law (2007-08).  Professor Johnstone holds in his portfolio seven years of professional experience at the United Nations, including five as an aide in the Office of the Secretary-General, one in the Department of Peace-keeping Operations, and one in the Office of Legal Affairs. Other positions he has held are Senior Research Associate, International Peace Academy; Warren Weaver Fellow in International Security, Rockefeller Foundation; Judicial Clerk, Ontario Court of Appeal; Member of the Board of Directors, Academic Council of the United Nations System; American Society of International Law. In the Fall 2009 semester, he and David Malone will jointly teach the course Constitutional Law of the United Nations.  


David Malone
IDRC, Ottawa, Canada

In 2008, David M. Malone became president of Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC). He served as Canada's High Commissioner to India and non-resident Ambassador to Bhutan and Nepal from 2006 to mid-2008. Before his assignment in India, he was assistant deputy minister in Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. During this time, he was initially responsible for Africa and the Middle East and subsequently for Global Issues. His portfolio entailed oversight of Canada's multilateral and economic diplomacy. Before assuming his current position as president of IDRC, Dr. Malone held several high-profile roles: president of the International Peace Academy; director general of Policy, International Organizations and Global Issues Bureaus at Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT); ambassador and deputy permanent representative of Canada to the United Nations; and representative of Canada on the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and related bodies. Earlier foreign assignments took him to Egypt, Kuwait and Jordan.

Dr. Malone is a graduate of l'Université de Montréal, the American University in Cairo and Harvard University. He earned a D.Phil. from Oxford University with a thesis on decision making in the UN Security Council. In the Fall 2009, he will jointly teach with Ian Johnstone (Fletcher School, Tufts, Boston) the course Constitutional Law of the United Nations in NYU.


Santiago Villalpando

Santiago Villalpando is a legal officer in the Codification Division of the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations in New York, with a special focus on the work of the UN Sixth (Legal) Committee and the UN International Law Commission (ILC).  He previously worked as a legal officer in the International Court of Justice.  A citizen of Argentina, he has a doctorate in international law from the IUHEI in Geneva, which was published as a prize-winning book in 2005, L’émergence de la communauté internationale dans la responsabilité des Etats (“The Emergence of the International Community in State Responsibility”.)   He has published numerous scholarly articles on international law topics.   He teaches a seminar on "Treaties and Responsibility: Selected Topics in the Current Work of the United Nations International Law Commission," and advises students on ILC internship papers and career matters.

Jake Werksman

Jake Werksman, a prominent international environmental law practitioner and scholar responsible for programs in these areas at the Rockefeller Foundation, is an Adjunct Professor of International Environmental Law at the Law School. He was previously Environmental Institutions and Governance Adviser to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York, and before that was Managing Director of the Foundation for International Law and Development (FIELD) in London. He held the post of lecturer in international economic law at the University of London, and has served as a visiting professor at the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies. Werksman has published widely on the relationship between environmental treaties and World Trade Organization rules, and the enforcement of international agreements. He facilitates student placements at U.N. agencies and other environment and development institutions.


Paul van Zyl
Director, Country Programs
International Center for Transitional Justice

Paul van Zyl has acted as an adviser and consultant to human rights organizations, governments, international organizations, and foundations on transitional justice issues in many countries, including Colombia, Indonesia, East Timor, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. From 1995 to 1998, he served as Executive Secretary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. In that capacity he helped establish the Commission and develop its structure and modus operandi, and he played a central role in policy and strategy development throughout the life of the commission. He has also worked as a researcher for the Goldstone Commission, as a department head at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in Johannesburg, and as an associate at Davis Polk and Wardwell in New York. Mr. van Zyl was recently director of Columbia University Law School's Transitional Justice Program, and now teaches law at both Columbia and New York University Law Schools. He obtained a B.A. and an LL.B. from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and an LL.M. in International Law from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. He completed a second LL.M. in Corporate Law at New York University, where he was a Hauser Scholar.

Congratulations to Miriam Sapiro '86, alumna and until recently a regular Adjunct Professor at NYU Law School, appointed Deputy US Trade Representative under the Obama Administration.