People
IILJ Scholars in JD & JD-LL.M. Programs
IILJ Scholars Program - Details and Application Information
For Graduate Scholars, see separate listing.
The Institute for International Law and Justice each year selects a small group of outstanding JD students as IILJ Scholars. The Program provides carefully tailored individualized mentoring and opportunities to this group. Scholars work closely with the Law School's permanent and global faculty members in international law on joint research projects. They participate in the development of ideas and scholarship with other IILJ JD and Graduate Scholars from around the world, and with Visiting Fellows and Researchers. They are carefully selected to draw upon, and enrich, an exceptionally fertile and energetic intellectual community.
IILJ Scholars take part in IILJ events throughout their time at law school. The third year students, together with IILJ Graduate Scholars in the LL.M.-J.S.D. program, typically participate also in a weekly IILJ seminar on international law research and scholarship, designed to assist them in producing far-reaching research papers for eventual publication.
Scholars are selected either before coming to Law School, or at the end of their second year. Many stay at the Law School for a 4th year, in the IILJ's J.D.-LL.M program.
NYU 's pioneering J.D.-LL.M. program for prospective academics and international law specialists is believed to be the only one of its kind in international law in the U.S.
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Congratulations to IILJ Scholars on Clerkship Results. All eight of the IILJ Scholars who applied for federal clerkships in the Summer-Fall 2007 process were successful. Full details.
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First Year Scholars Second Year Scholars
Third Year Scholars LL.M. Scholars
Brian Abrams
Brian graduated with a Masters in Law and Diplomacy in 2006 from the Fletcher School at Tufts University where he focused on security studies and public international law. Following Fletcher, Brian worked on proliferation and illicit finance issues at the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. In 2005, he interned in the Political-Military Bureau of the U.S. State Department and worked on the establishment of the Global Peace Operations Initiative, a G-8 program to develop global peace and stability operations capacity. Brian graduated magna cum laude from Tufts University in 2001 with a double major in History and Political Science. He has also held positions at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the International Institute of Boston, the Human Rights Documentation Exchange, Foley & Lardner LLP, and Goodwin Procter LLP. As an IILJ Scholar, Brian's interest is focused on international law regarding the use of force and legal issues surrounding the involvement of regional organizations in peace and stability operations.
Tess Bridgeman
Tess received a Masters of Philosophy in International Relations in 2006 at Oxford University where she studied for the past three years on a Rhodes Scholarship and worked with the Global Economic Governance Programme. In 2003-2004 Tess was a John Gardner Fellow at the World Bank Inspection Panel – an accountability mechanism established to provide recourse for communities harmed by Bank-funded projects. She graduated from Stanford in 2003 with Distinction in Human Biology, an interdisciplinary program combining natural and social sciences, and is a 2002 Truman Scholar. Stanford's Class of 2003 recognized her for "continuous dedication to merging a vision for social justice with organized action towards change.” Tess conducted health and development work in California and Latin America throughout college, beginning as a volunteer with Amigos de las Américas in Paraguay in 1998. In 2000, she co-founded the non-profit organization Puente a la Salud Comunitaria to address community development, food security, and women's health issues in Oaxaca, Mexico. As an RTK and IILJ Scholar at NYU Law, Tess will continue working on accountability of international institutions and other issues related to human rights and development.
Ted Cardos
Ted Cardos grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and in 2002, graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Missouri, with degrees in Philosophy and Political Science. He then moved to South Africa for two years, where he completed a post-graduate course in Film and Television Production at the Cape Town International Film School. While there, Ted represented CTIFS at an international TV competition with a project about the discrimination of the disabled, and worked on documentaries about homophobia in African society and the stigma of AIDS in South Africa. After film school, Ted worked in Frankfurt, where he wrote a film script about Apartheid, which was bought by a German TV company. Back in the States, he was Assistant Director on the TV show, "Elimidate". Looking for a new challenge, he took an internship on the "Africa and Human Rights Subcommittee" in the House of Representatives. Most recently, Ted worked in Lithuania on a BBC news feature about the expansion of the EU visa zone and its effects of Belarusian bargain hunters.
His focus as IILJ Scholar includes human rights and corruption issues.
Nikhil (Niki) Dutta
After graduating Magna Cum Laude in chemistry and Physics from Harvard in 2002, Niki worked in the Peace Corps in Kazakhstan for two years, and later worked in Azerbaijan for the American Bar Association's Central and Europan Law Initiative on anti-corruption and rule of law initiatives, acquiring reasonably fluent Russian during that time. He completed the two-year Masters of Public Affairs program at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton immediately before starting at NYU Law School, where he is particularly focused on law and development issues. He works closely with Professor Kevin Davis in the IILJ's Financing Development project.
David Jacobson
David earned his B.A. in History from Columbia University in 2006. He is primarily interested in transatlantic approaches to the Middle East, and has a background in U.S., German, and Middle Eastern history and politics. He spent 2006-2007 as a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in Washington, D.C. With the Institute's Stein Program on Terrorism, Intelligence, and Policy, David conducted research on terrorist groups and state sponsors of terrorism, U.S. and European security interests, and counterterrorism and sanctions programs. David has worked for a number of governmental and nongovernmental organizations, including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's historical research division, the Anti-Defamation League's Government and National Affairs Office in Washington, and the Investigative Project on Terrorism in Washington. Most recently, David has been a Research Fellow at the American Jewish Committee's Berlin office, examining EU approaches towards Iran and changing perceptions of the state of Israel within Germany. David has studied in both Germany and Israel and speaks fluent German and Hebrew. He spent the academic year 2000-2001 as a student in Jerusalem and 2005-2006 studying European History at the Free University in Berlin. As an IILJ Scholar, his interest lies on legal issues pertaining to the relationships between the U.S., EU, and Middle Eastern states.
Do Hyun Kim
After high school in Paris, Do Hyun returned to Korea and graduated first in her class at the Ewha Women's University - her thesis there on Korea's legislation against human trafficking was published in Harvard's Korea Policy Review. She then worked for the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, where she was actively involved in negotiation of the South Korea-US Free Trade Agreement. As an IILJ Scholar, she focuses particularly on the implications of international economic law for development agendas and for East Asian security and cooperation.
(Sophy) Qian Wang
Sophy went to Fudan University in China in1996 and earned a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 2000. Three years later she received a M.Phil degree in philosophy from the University of Hong Kong. Professor Chad Hansen supervised her M.Phil thesis “Comparative Studies of the Justification of Punishment.” In the same year she began her Ph.D study at the Philosophy Department at Tulane University in New Orleans. Professor Bruce Brower directed her dissertation “John Rawls’s Ideas on Human Rights”, which she defended just before she started law school. She looks forward to exchanging ideas with professors and students at NYU.
IILJ Scholars - Second Year
Seth Gurgel
Seth grew up in Lake Mills, Wisconsin and attended Lakeside Lutheran High School. He graduated from Marquette University in May of 2002 where he majored in English Literature and Political Science. At Marquette, he was a Wisconsin State Scholar and a member of Marquette's Burke Scholar Program, a public service scholarship program. While in Milwaukee, he coordinated various service and social justice organizations dedicated to seeking solutions to hunger and homelessness issues through service. As coordinator of the student organization JUSTICE, Seth organized numerous panel presentations and teach-ins on diverse topics, most notably the UN Oil-for-Food Program in Iraq and the United States response to terrorism. Upon graduating, he received the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Senior Award, the College's highest award. After graduation, Seth volunteered with the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE), an Americorps teaching program administered by Notre Dame. Seth taught ninth and eleventh grade English at Bishop Kenny High School in Jacksonville. In July 2004, he graduated from Notre Dame with a Master's of Education and a much greater understanding of air conditioning's influence on the recent settlement of the South. In the fall of 2004, Seth began teaching English and studying Chinese at Hangzhou Teacher's College, in Hangzhou, China. Seth worked for two years in China, where he began studies on roles and limits of law in China's rapid change, which he has continued at NYU as both IILJ and Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar. He is actively involved in a project on Criminal Justice in China directed by NYU Professor Jerry Cohen.
Matt Haar
Matt is a 2006 graduate of Brown University, where he majored in Economics and Political Science. He also spent a year studying at Pembroke College, Oxford. Matt has worked at the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S. Department of Transportation), Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, and currently holds an elected position as a Dickenson School Trustee in his home town of Southwick, MA. While at NYU Matt focuses on relationships between international trade, economic development, and international institutions. He spent Summer 2007 working with Professor Kevin Davis on the IILJ's Financing Development Project.
Binish Hasan
Binish came to NYU from the Honors Program of the US Department of Justice Anti-Trust Division in Washington DC. She graduated form Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in 2005. A native speaker of Urdu, and proficient in Arabic, she seeks to integrate a focus on women's rights with wider studies of international economic law and international legal institutions. In Summer 2007 she worked in ACEH Indonesia on a UNIFEM Project on anti-discrimination legislation.
Sandra Mayson
After graduating summa cum laude from Yale University with a B.A. in Comparative Literature, Sandy Mayson worked for two years at a leading NGO focused on oceans and fisheries issues. In the year before coming to Law School, she taught English in France, and spent several months in Chile preparing radio documentaries on artisanal fishing and other socio-political issues. At NYU she is focusing on integrating work on legal theory with current international policy problems, particularly relating to natural resource use and human rights. She is co-organizer of a major conference at NYU Law School on climate change and human rights. In Summer 2007 she worked in Lima, Peru with an NGO on indigenous people's rights and environmental issues.
Margarita O'Donnell
Margarita graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. from Columbia University in May 2006, where she majored in Political Science. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and awarded the Charles A. Beard Prize for Best Paper in Political Science for a paper she wrote on disarmament and peacekeeping. During her senior year, Margarita interned with the International Center for Transitional Justice, researching extra judicial disappearances and working on the creation of a truth and reconciliation commission in Morocco. She also interned for the United Nations Association of the USA as a Model United Nations Trainer, the Office of the Public Advocate for the City of New York and Congressman Jose Serrano (NY-16). Margarita grew up in Switzerland, Costa Rica, Brazil, France, the Philippines and Venezuela. She graduated from Colegio Internacional de Caracas in Venezuela. Since graduating, Margarita has been employed as a paralegal with the Federal Defenders of New York. In this position she was involved in every stage of the criminal defense process, including assisting clients in being released on bail, interviewing witnesses, reviewing evidence and obtaining sentencing mitigation. She also second-sat two trials. As an IILJ and Root-Tilden Kern Scholar, Margarita is combining her interests in criminal justice, human rights and international law. In Summer 2007 she interned with CODESEDH, a leading human rights NGO in Argentina working on prosecutions related to the "Dirty War".
Pamila Pengra
Pamila graduated with honors from the University of California at Berkeley in 2005, with a degree in Linguistics and a minor in Arabic. She spent the following year in Egypt, studying Arabic language and culture at the American University in Cairo as a recipient of the Center for Arabic Studies Abroad fellowship. While living in Cairo, Pamila worked as a translator with several human rights organizations. In summer 2006 she studied Russian at Moscow State University. She returned to Cairo in Summer 2007 to work for the Cairo Housing Rights and Land Use Network. Her primary interest lies in the intersection between language and the law, particularly as regards multinational agreements and treaties.
Jennifer Wheeler
Jennifer graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University in 2005. At Gallatin she presented a colloquium on the application of Orientalist discourse to current conflicts in the Middle East. Jennifer has lived in Thailand, Nepal, Ecuador and Belarus where she worked on human rights, education and sustainable development projects. In 2003 she interned for the Global Citizen Initiative as a Youth Advocacy Coordinator, and in 2005 she interned for the United Nations Association of the USA. At the UNA-USA Jennifer worked with the American NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court researching the role of the ICC and the United Nations in addressing global human rights crises. In Summer 2007 she interned in the IILJ's Program with the United Nations International Law Commission, working with ILC member Paula Escarameia and researching the development of international law in regulating cybercrime. Jennifer’s interests include sustainable development and international criminal accountability.
IILJ Scholars – Third Year
Alexis Blane
After graduating from Duke University in 2002, Alexis went to Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, and received a Masters of Philosophy from Oxford in 2004 for work that focused on the interrelation of liberalism and conceptions of empire in British travel writing from the 1930s. As an undergraduate, a summer spent working in Kosovo on refugee management and social therapy programs kindled her interest in the intersections of national and international law. As an IILJ Scholar she has written a paper on theories of punishment in 16th and 17th century Latin international law texts, and a note on sovereign immunity in national courts as an obstacle in investor-state arbitration. She has served as Managing Editor of the Journal of International Law and Politics, and has worked in the IILJ's project with the Permanent Mission of Palau to the UN. She spent the summer at the end of her second year working in law firms in London and New York. During 2008-9 she will be a clerk to Judge Allyson King Duncan, 4th Cir.
Christen Broecker
A 2005 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Christen received highest honors in Peace, War and Defense and International Studies. While at UNC, she participated in a summer field research seminar on international organizations and the Balkan wars in Vienna, Austria, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. She then studied French language, politics, and art in Paris for a semester before working as a summer intern for the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe in Washington, D.C. Christen's work in the Balkans and with the CSCE inspired her senior honors thesis on theoretical models of externally-directed state-building. At NYU she has focused on state-building, transitional justice, and international security law. With a fellowship from NYU's CHRGJ she spent the summer after her first year of Law School in Monrovia, working at the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and returned to Liberia to deepen this research for her LLM thesis. She also worked in the IILJ's project with the Permanent Mission of Palau to the UN, and in a major law firm.
Anna Cavnar
A 2001 graduate of Indiana University, Bloomington, Anna Cavnar studied economics and French. Following graduation, she spent two years in the Republic of Moldova as a Peace Corps Volunteer in NGO development. Her main project involved assisting two grassroots organizations, a youth center and a women’s business association, with grant writing, project design and management etc. Concurrently with law school, Anna has pursued a Masters in Public Affairs at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, concentrating in international development. Her research has focused on the international law of food aid, integrating international trade law with economic and social rights. She has been a research assistant for Professor Kingsbury in the IILJ's United Nations Foundation-supported project developing international law materials on UN issues for use in law schools around the world. She also worked during much of her joint degree in the IILJ's project with the Permanent Mission of Palau to the UN, and spent a summer at a leading law firm in Paris. She will hold a clerkship with Chief Judge Kimba Wood, USDC, SDNY in 2009-10.
Mitra Ebadolahi
A 2002 graduate of UCLA, Mitra Ebadolahi received her BA in international development studies and history after studying abroad in Cuba for four months in 2000 and returning to Havana in 2002 to conduct field research for her undergraduate thesis on the impacts of international tourism on developing countries. She then received a Fulbright Scholarship to attend the London School of Economics, where she completed an MSc degree in Politics of the World Economy in 2004. At the LSE, Mitra graduated first in her class and received the department's award for best dissertation for her paper on the Political Economy of Human Rights. As an IILJ Fellow, Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow, and Filomen D'Agostino Scholar at NYU Law, Mitra has specialized in international and domestic human rights, particularly economic and social rights. She is now the Senior Notes Editor for the *NYU Law Review*, writing her own Note on strengthening the judicial enforceability of economic and social rights in South Africa. She spent her 1L summer on a CHRGJ fellowship at the Constitutional Litigation Unit of the Legal Resources Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, and her 2L summer at the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project in New York City. Mitra participated in the NYU Law International Human Rights Clinic in 2007, working on Freedom of Information Act requests and enforced disappearances in the War on Terror. For 2008-09, Mitra will return to Los Angeles to clerk for Judge Margaret Morrow, USDC, Central District of California.
Andrew Friedman
Andrew graduated from the University of Georgia in 2005 with high honors and a B.B.A. in International Business. He was an intern for the Center for International Trade and Security, where he investigated natural resource dispute resolution guidelines and their application to the Spratly Islands conflict. Prior to coming to Law School, he traveled extensively in Spain, Israel, Austrasia, and particularly in Eastern Asia, and began to learn Japanese. As an IILJ Scholar, he has continued to focus his interest in East and South-East Asia, participating for a semester in an NYU exchange program in Japan, before returning to the region for further study after completing his JD. He worked with Professor Kevin Davis in the IILJ's Financing Development project, and on the practical design of microfinance and solar energy financing projects for the Government of Palau.
Leslie Gold
Leslie Gold graduated summa cum laude with her Bachelor’s degree in International Studies in 2005 from American University with a minor in French and was inducted as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She studied both in Brussels, Belgium and in Beijing, China. While in Brussels, she worked for American Electronics Association Europe, an interest group for firms in the high tech industry. While in Beijing, she interned for Lehman, Lee, & Xu, a Chinese law firm. In Washington, she interned for Representative Diana DeGette of Colorado, for the Embassy of France, and for Half the Planet Foundation, a disability-related non-profit organization. She also served as a junior law clerk for Judge Inez Smith Reid of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Over the summers, she held jobs at both the United States Department of Labor and the United States Department of Agriculture. Her research interests include supranational aspects of the European Union. While an IILJ Scholar, she served on the NYU Law Review, and worked at a major law firm in London.
Jennifer Hainsfurther
Jennifer Hainsfurther graduated summa cum laude from Duke University in 2005 with a double major in Political Science and Women’s Studies. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, she won the Ole R. Holsti Award for American Foreign Policy and International Relations for her political science honors thesis. While at Duke, Jennifer studied in London and Paris, and published a paper, “The Global AIDS Crisis: How to Ensure Access to Essential Medicines in the Developing World,” in the Pi Sigma Alpha Journal of Politics. She also interned for Senator John Edwards in Raleigh, N.C. and Washington, D.C. and worked on Barack Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign. As an IILJ Scholar, Jennifer has written papers analyzing the anti-democratic potential of international precommitments and examining the CEDAW Convention as a guarantee of women migrant workers’ human rights. Jennifer held a CHRGJ fellowship at a women's rights NGO in Malaysia during her 1L summer, and split her 2L summer between a law firm an d the US State Department Legal Adviser’s Office. An articles editor of the NYU Law Review, she also worked with Professor Benedict Kingsbury on the IILJ's UN Curriculum project. She will be clerking with Judge Harry Edwards, DC Cir., during 2009-10.
Alexandra Khrebtukova
Alexandra Khrebtukova graduated summa cum laude from UC Berkeley in 2003, with degrees in Philosophy and Rhetoric. During her time at UC Berkeley, she completed an extensive volume of scholarship work, including a graduate-level thesis on the ontology of power within the construction of social reality. She has also studied in Russia and Italy. Her interest in the broad implications of different perspectives for the field of international law as a whole led her to pursue an opportunity to work with Professor Martti Koskenniemi, then Chairman of the Study Group on the Fragmentation of International Law, at the International Law Commission in Geneva during the summer of 2006. At NYU Law, she is also a member of the International Law Society, the NYU Mock Trial Team, the Moot Court Board, and the NYU Philip C Jessup International Law Moot Court Team.
Tammy Shoranick
A 2005 honors graduate of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, Tammy Shoranick studied international relations, law and economics. Her honors thesis paper was based on the dichotomy between state sovereignty and humanitarian intervention within the United Nations conflict resolution system. During her time at Carleton University, Tammy worked as a research assistant at Health Canada where she provided policy advice to advance the health status of First Nations and Inuit people. In addition, she acted as a volunteer for the Canadian Council for International Law. As an IILJ Scholar, Tammy worked with a human rights NGO in Uganda, and contributed to a paper on Sudanese Special Courts related to the atrocities in Darfur, as well as serving as Developments Editor of JILP.
Catherine Sweetser
Catherine Sweetser graduated magna cum laude from Yale College in 2005 with a double major in Political Science and International Studies. Her senior essays focused on peacekeeping in Burundi and the repercussions of politics in the AU, as well as the formulation of a statistical variable for international interest in a conflict. In summer 2006, after her 1L year, she performed post-conviction work for prisoners claiming to be innocent with the Innocence Project, and also worked with Professor Benedict Kingsbury on accountability for abuses by peacekeepers. In summer 2007, she held a CHRGJ Fellowship at the Legal Resources Centre in South Africa, working particularly on the consequences for constitutional rights of international investment treaties, as well as on refugee rights and sex discrimination cases. In her college summers, Catherine taught English at the Center for Exchange and Solidarity in El Salvador, worked on tenant law and Holocaust reparations cases at Bet Tzedek Legal Services in Los Angeles, and interned at the Center for Reform in London, England. A member of the NYU Law Review, she also joined the Furman Program in Fall 2006. She is interested in pursuing an academic career in global administrative law and human rights.
Bryant Walker Smith
Bryant's interests range from the local to the global. A 2003 graduate of the University of Wisconsin's civil engineering program, he has emphasized environmentally-sensitive community development as a transportation engineer and civic leader in Madison. He has also worked in global project finance as a Linklaters summer associate in London, interned for the Austrian government as a Center on Environmental and Land Use Law Fellow in Vienna, deconstructed windows in Copenhagen, and studied engineering in Munich. At NYU Law, Bryant has served as president of the International Law Society, vice president of the Asia Law Society, and a managing editor of the Journal of International Law and Politics. His current research includes the international response to climate change and the relationship among trade, development, and the environment.
IILJ Scholars - LL.M.
Chris Bradley
Chris Bradley graduated, summa cum laude, in 2001 from Princeton University with a degree in Classics. His senior thesis dealt with the role of public rhetoric in the political structure of the late Roman Empire. Chris came to NYU from the English faculty at Oxford University, where he received an M.Phil. with distinction and was accepted into the doctoral program. His doctoral research is focused on the interaction of medieval theology, church organization, and various practices of religious resistance and dissent in medieval England. He has built on this expertise in law school by working extensively on matters of law and religion; one of his papers deals with relations between British international law doctrine and the beliefs and practices of missionaries in Victorian Britain. He is currently serving as editor-in-chief of the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics; while at NYU he has also been involved with the drafting of an amicus brief by the World Organization for Human Rights USA, and he was co-chair of NYU's Unemployment Action Center. During 2008-9 he will be a clerk for Judge Patrick Higginbotham, 5th Cir.
Tara Mikkilineni
Tara graduated from UC Berkeley in 2002. Before law school she worked at the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection and received her Masters in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics, where she wrote her thesis on transitional policies associated with ejido reform in Mexico. Tara spent her 1L summer at the UN International Law Commission in Geneva as an assistant to Commissioner William Mansfield and split her 2L summer between a San Francisco firm and the State Department's Office of the Legal Advisor. She is an articles editor on the New York University Law Review and is currently participating in the International Environmental Law Clinic researching the trade impact on developing countries of genetically modified organisms. Tara is interested in the relationship between rule of law reform and transitional justice, and in the status of quasi-state actors under international law. She will be serving as clerk for Judge Emilio Garza, 5th Cir, during 2008-9.
Zoe Salzman
A summa graduate from Concordia University in Canada, Zoe worked with refugee protection and criminal justice NGOs in Montreal. While at NYU, she spent summers working on immigrants rights issues and on civil liberties issues in anti-terrorism contexts. She has been extensively involved with the NYU Center for Human Rights and Global Justice in work on treatment of detainees. She served as Senior Notes Editor of the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics. Her scholarly writing includes papers on private military companies, and on problems concerning the international law of self-defense against attacks by armed bands in the International Court of Justice's DRC v. Uganda decision. During 2008-9 she will hold a clerkship with Judge Sterling Johnson.
