The late Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the United States Supreme Court spent a lifetime flourishing in the face of adversity. A lawyer, professor, scholar, jurist, and champion of civil rights, Justice Ginsburg’s landmark legal work inspired an entire generation. Join us in this event to celebrate the life and legacy of an icon.
This session is organized in collaboration with the International Association of Women Judges.
Sandie Okoro is the principal advisor and spokesperson on all legal matters for the world’s leading development finance institution. She heads the Legal Vice Presidency of the World Bank where international development legal experts provide legal services essential to World Bank activities and operations. Prior to joining the World Bank, Ms. Okoro had been General Counsel for HSBC Global Asset Management, Deputy General Counsel of HSBC Retail Banking and Wealth Management, and Global General Counsel at Barings.
Honorable Lady Justice Martha Koome is a Judge in the Court of Appeal with 32 years experience as an Advocate and Judge. As an Advocate she has specialized in human rights defense of persons charged with politically instigated offences, such as treason and detention without trial. She also represented women in pursuit of property rights in precedent setting cases that subsequently informed the constitutional review and other legislations. Judge Koome was chairperson of the Federation of Women Lawyers FIDA that advocated and defended human rights of women and children including their reproductive health rights. Currently, she is the head of criminal division in the Court of Appeal and Chairperson of the National Council on Administration of Justice Special Taskforce on Child Matters. The taskforce is reviewing laws, policies and all structures and systems pertaining to children.
Judith Resnik is the Arthur Liman Professor of Law at Yale Law School and the Founding Director of the Arthur Liman Center for Public Interest Law. She teaches courses on federalism, procedure, courts, prisons, equality, and citizenship. Her scholarship focuses on the relationship of democratic values to government services such as courts, prisons, and post offices; the roles of collective redress, class actions, and arbitration; contemporary conflicts over privatization; the relationships of states to citizens and non-citizens; the forms and norms of federalism; and equality and gender. In 2018, Professor Resnik received an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, a two-year award to enable her to complete research and write a new book, Impermissible Punishments. The book explores the role played by incarcerated individuals in reconceiving the boundaries of state punishment and the impact of the 1960s civil rights revolution on the kinds of punishments that governments can impose on people convicted of crimes. In 2018, she also was awarded an honorary doctorate from University College London.
Katherine Meighan is the General Counsel of IFAD and a member of the Executive Management Committee (EMC). She also oversees the management of a team of lawyers who deliver results on IFAD's operations, funding, governance and corporate matters. Ms Meighan has over 25 years of experience in development finance and international institutional matters. At IFAD, she has led complex legal initiatives including amending IFAD’s Articles to enable lending to the private sector, structuring new financial instruments such as a unique impact investment fund for small-holder farmers, and leading the legal work to attain IFAD’s historic credit rating (as the first UN fund to be rated). Before joining IFAD, Katherine Meighan was Assistant General Counsel and Manager at the International Finance Corporation (IFC). There, she led the legal work globally for Financial Institutions, Treasury, and restructuring/litigation. She also served as legal counsel to the Budget and Audit Committee of the Board. During her 17 years at IFC, she was based in Buenos Aires, Istanbul and Washington. Previously, Katherine Meighan practised law with a global firm in Washington and Paris focusing on international transactions and capital markets work for financial institutions. Katherine Meighan holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Economics and French from the College of William & Mary, where she is a member of the Advisory Board of the International Center.
Anne Goldstein has been the Human Rights Education Director of the International Association of Women Judges since 1994. She designed the IAWJ’s Jurisprudence of Equality Program (JEP) and has led JEP training programs in Central and Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, Ms. Goldstein spent three years as an attorney with the United States Department of Justice and two years at the Washington, D.C. office of Hogan and Hartson before entering the non-profit world. An expert on international law and women’s rights, she has taught undergraduate and law school courses on women and the law, transnational family law, and comparative and international law of women’s rights at Georgetown University and George Washington University in Washington, DC, and at the joint Oxford-George Washington summer program in human rights in Oxford, UK. Harvard Law School selected her as a Wasserstein Fellow for the 2011-12 year; the Wasserstein Public Interest Fellows Program brings outstanding public interest attorneys to Harvard Law School to counsel students about public service. The Program recognizes exemplary lawyers who have distinguished themselves in public interest work and who can assist students who are considering similar career paths.
Daniela Kraiem is the Interim Senior Director of Career and Professional Development, the Director of the Women and the Law Program, and a Practitioner-in-Residence at American University Washington College of Law. In the Office of Career and Professional Development, she leads a dedicated team devoted to connecting students and alumni with professional development and employment opportunities across all legal sectors. As Director of the Women and the Law Program, Professor Kraiem collaborates with the students, faculty and staff to integrate gender into all aspects of legal education. When she is not teaching courses in gender and domestic policy, gender and international and comparative law, and advanced legal writing, she fundraises for and coordinates grant-funded projects that connect the WCL community with the legal needs and concerns of women and LGBTQ persons. She supports WCL’s comprehensive gender and law curriculum, including the newly launched LLM in Gender, International, and Comparative Law. Prior to joining the Washington College of Law, Professor Kraiem represented labor unions and employees as an Associate at McCarthy, Johnson, and Miller in San Francisco, California.
