José Alvarez is the Hamilton Fish Professor of International Law and Diplomacy at Columbia Law School. His first book, International Organizations as Law-Makers, was released in 2005. Alvarez was born in Cuba and emigrated to the United States as a child. After law school, he clerked for Judge Thomas Gee of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Alvarez later joined the State Department Office of the Legal Adviser, where he was attorney from 1983 to 1988. Before joining the Columbia faculty in 1999, he was a law professor at Georgetown University, George Washington University, and the University of Michigan.