IntLawDean Koh tapped to lead "L"

President Barack Obama has nominated our colleague Harold Hongju Koh (right) to be the next Legal Adviser at the U.S. State Department.

If approved by the Senate, Koh would succeed John B. Bellinger III, who for the last several years has held the top post at "L," as insiders call State's legal department.

A White House press release issued yesterday noted Koh's many achievements, highlights of which we now detail:

► "Dean and Gerard C. & Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law at Yale Law School' -- indeed, he is 1 of the IntLawDeans whom we've noted in past posts.

► "Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor" (1998-2001), plus prior service "on the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Public International Law."

► Former law clerk to Judge Malcolm Richard Wilkey of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and to Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun.

► Former Attorney-Adviser, Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice.

The list goes on, yet omits important qualifications:

Koh, whose devotion to rights and law is made evident in Storming the Court (2005), a book about litigation that led to the Supreme Court's 1st, and pre-9/11, Guantánamo decision in Sale v. Haitian Centers Council (1993), has been an inspiring colleague and mentor, role model and friend to many of us in the intlaw community.

Heartfelt congratulations!

On the Job! Yale public interest fellowship

(On the Job! pays occasional notice to interesting intlaw job notices) Yale Law School welcomes applicants for the 2-year Robert M. Cover Fellowship, intended for a lawyer with at least 2 years' practice experience who aspires to a career as a law school clinical teacher.
Through teaching, student supervision, scholarship, and other duties, the Fellow will assist work at 2 of Yale's clinics:
► The Worker & Immigrants Rights Advocacy Clinic, which represents immigrants and workers via federal litigation and state and local legislative advocacy; and
► The Balancing Civil Liberties & National Security After September 11 Clinic, in which students engage in direct representation or amicus curiae work on behalf of persons challenging governmental abuses post-9/11.
Deadline is soon: Wednesday, April 1, 2009. To apply and for details, contact Kathryn Jannke, Office Manager at Yale's Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization, at kathryn.jannke@yale.edu.

Guest Blogger: Sadie Blanchard

It's IntLawGrrls' great pleasure today to welcome guest blogger Sadie Blanchard (left).
Sadie is a 2d-year student at Yale Law School, where she serves as a student director of the Lowenstein Human Rights Project and as a Senior Editor on the Yale Journal of International Law. In addition, she's a co-director of the Yale Legal Project Assisting the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. After her first year of law school, she worked as a summer Legal Associate at the Documentation Center of Cambodia.
Sadie's other human rights experience includes: research aimed at establishing a framework within which the right of Cameroonian criminal defendants' to an attorney might be ensured; and work with Kidsave International to move orphans out of institutions and into permanent homes.
She received her undergraduate degree summa cum laude in 2002, with a major in economics and a minor in English literature, from the Honors College at Louisiana State University.
Today Sadie contributes to IntLawGrrls' ongoing Khmer Rouge Accountability series with her guest post below, which analyzes how defense demands for translation of documents is being managed by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

Heartfelt welcome!