Pursuing a Career in International Law:
Strategies for Success

Speakers

Mélida N. Hodgson practices in the area of International Trade and Investment Policy. She has played a central role in the development of the new generation of investment and government procurement provisions in U.S. trade and investment agreements, and participated in the defense of the United States in investment arbitrations brought under North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Chapter 11. Ms. Hodgson also acted as lead counsel for the United States in dispute settlement arbitrations arising out of international trade agreements before the World Trade Organization. She recently appeared on Bloomberg TV's Evening Edition (December 17), and provided comments on the WTO gambling dispute between the U.S. and Antigua.

Before joining Miller & Chevalier, Ms. Hodgson served as Associate General Counsel for the Office of the U. S. Trade Representative (USTR), where she negotiated bilateral and multilateral trade and investment agreements on behalf of the United States, including agreements with the Andean countries, Australia, Chile, the Central American countries and the Dominican Republic (CAFTA-DR), the Southern African countries, Singapore and Thailand. Ms. Hodgson was the chief counsel responsible for the U.S.-Panama Free Trade Agreement. In addition, she was integral to the development of the new U.S. Model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) and was the lead USTR counsel for the first BIT negotiated under the new model, with Uruguay.

Prior to serving with the USTR, Ms. Hodgson was a Trial Attorney for the U. S. Department of Justice, where she played an integral role in developing governmental strategy and policy and in defending the United States in banking litigation arising out of the savings and loan crisis. She began her legal career as an associate at the New York office of Shearman & Sterling where she practiced international commercial litigation.

Ms. Hodgson was recently appointed to the United States roster of persons eligible to serve as panelists in disputes brought under Chapter 19 of the NAFTA. She serves as Vice-Chair of the ABA International Section’s International Trade Committee and Co-Chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) International Section’s International Investment and Development Committee.

Ms. Hodgson is a member of the New York State Bar, the District of Columbia Bar, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Court of International Trade, and the U. S. Court of Federal Claims. She earned her law degree from the New York University School of Law, where she was an editor of the Journal of International Law and Politics, and a Ford Foundation Junior Fellow in International Law at New York University’s Center for International Studies. Ms. Hodgson is fluent in Spanish.

Elizabeth L. Young is the interim director for the Immigration Law Clinic at George Washington University’s School of Law for the 2007–2008 academic year. While a student at GW Law, she was the executive guide editor of the George Washington International Law Review, and attended the GW–Oxford Summer Program in International Human Rights Law. She also spent a year working in the Law School’s Immigration Clinic, and was the 2004 recipient of the Richard C. Lewis, Jr. Memorial Award for Clinical Excellence. Professor Young worked for three years at the San Francisco Immigration Court as an attorney advisor through the Department of Justice Honors Program. At the Court, her duties included writing final orders, analyzing and presenting changes in federal law to the immigration judges, supervising judicial law clerks, and managing the Court’s intern program.

Christopher J. Le Mon is a lawyer in Washington, D.C. who has written on issues in international law and politics. He served as a law clerk to Judges Thomas Buergenthal and Vladlen S. Vereshchetin at the International Court of Justice from 2003-2004. He earned a J.D. from New York University School of Law, where he was a Junior Fellow studying civil wars and international law and institutions with Professor Thomas M. Franck.

Julia Fromholz - As Advocacy Counsel in Human Rights First’s Washington, DC office, Julia Fromholz is responsible for devising and executing strategies to influence U.S. law and policy on a variety of international human rights issues, with a special focus on combating genocide and crimes against humanity, and protecting human rights defenders at risk around the world.

Prior to joining HRF, Julia worked with local human rights organizations in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, focusing on monitoring and reform of the criminal justice system. She has published pieces on the Khmer Rouge tribunal and the rights of defendants, monitored trials, and designed an advocacy campaign to challenge excessive pretrial detention. Before moving to Cambodia, Julia clerked for Judge William Fletcher on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and practiced law at Keker & Van Nest in San Francisco, where she represented clients in complex civil litigation and federal and state criminal matters.

Julia graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude and earned her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), where she served as editor in chief of the California Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif.

Saira Mohamed is an attorney-adviser with the Office of the Legal Adviser at the State Department, where her work focuses on human rights and refugees. Prior to joining the State Department, she clerked for Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Saira received her JD in 2005 from Columbia Law School, where she was Executive Articles Editor of the *Columbia Law Review*, recipient of the David Berger Prize in International Law, and a James Kent Scholar. She also received a Master of International Affairs from Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs.