Melissa Durkee
Associate-in-Law
| Office: |
Jerome Greene Hall, Room 511
435 West 116th Street
New York NY 10025
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Education- J.D., Yale Law School, 2004
- B.A., Philosophy and English, summa cum laude, Westmont College, 2000
Research Interests- International Law
- Environmental Law
- Jurisprudence
- State Behavior and Lawmaking
- Corporations
- Civil Procedure
- Property
- International Human Rights
BiographyMelissa J. Durkee comes to Columbia Law School from the New York office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, where she practiced international litigation and arbitration. At Cleary, Melissa represented domestic and foreign entities in matters involving complex commercial disputes under federal and international law. Selected matters include worldwide sovereign debt litigation on behalf of the Republic of Argentina, an ICC arbitration involving corporate control of Brazil Telecom, and litigation challenging an attempted high-stakes hostile takeover valued at $40 billion. Melissa also brought a habeas corpus suit on behalf of a Guantánamo detainee, securing the detainee’s release as one of the first two Algerians returned home. Melissa acquired extensive experience drafting briefs and conducting motion practice in federal and state courts at all levels. She also published articles in practitioners’ journals on areas of evolving commercial law. Prior to her work at Cleary, Melissa clerked for Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and for Judge Sidney H. Stein on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Melissa is admitted to the bar in New York and California.
PublicationBeyond the Guantánamo Bind: Pragmatic Multilateralism in Refugee Resettlement, in 42 Colum. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 697 (2011).
