Henkin-Stoffel Fellow and Leebron Fellows Selected
Columbia Law School is pleased to announce the selection of the second Henkin-Stoffel Human Rights Fellow and David W. Leebron Human Rights Fellow. We are very excited about this year's Fellows and hope you agree that they are poised to be outstanding human rights lawyers.
Elizabeth (Liz) Vladeck '06 received the Leebron Human Rights Fellowship. Liz will spend her fellowship at the Kaliningrad Human Rights Center in Kaliningrad, Russia providing legal assistance to Russian dockworkers seeking to act collectively and exercise their rights. Liz will train and educate workers and unions on the legal tools available to them and represent workers in legal proceedings under the labor code and the laws governing trade unions, before international bodies. Liz has a long history of involvement with both the local and global labor movements. As an undergraduate, Liz led the Harvard chapter of United Students Against Sweatshops through a living wage movement on campus which resulted in significant wage increases for Harvard workers. As the Communications Associate for Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First), Liz assisted on labor campaigns through the organization's role in the Fair Labor Association. As a Board Member of New York Jobs for Justice, Liz helped grow the organization's staff and budget and helped formulate a campaign focused on the city's greengrocers. Liz also held Organizer positions at both UFCW Local 1500 and the AFL-CIO's national office. At Columbia, Liz has worked closely with Professor Mark Barenberg, and her internship supervisor at the Communications Workers Union to gain a practical understanding of how laws on both the local and global levels operate to affect worker's rights. Liz also founded the CLS student group SLAP (Student Labor Action Project) for which she helped Columbia University campus workers reform and reenergize its union. Liz spent both summers in law school as a Human Rights Intern in Russia at the Russian Center for Social and Labor Rights in Moscow and at the Russian Trade Union of Dockworkers in Kaliningrad. Liz speaks fluent Russian and has traveled there extensively over the past eight years.
Misti Duvall '06 received the Henkin-Stoffel Human Rights Fellowship. She will be working on environmental issues in Asia. Growing up in rural Appalachia, Misti was acutely aware of the human effects of pollution, environmental degradation and irresponsible development. At Columbia, Misti enrolled in the Environmental Law Clinic, and then became a Teaching Assistant for Professor Ed Lloyd, where she represented local community groups and nonprofits in matters such as the investigation of a heavily polluting facility in an overburdened neighborhood and pollution caused by combined sewage overflows in NYC. Misti spent her 1L summer working on similar issues at Riverkeeper, and her 2L summer working on a project at EarthRights International. She also held an internship at the Open Society Justice Project where she prepared reports on racial profiling in European countries and international standards of pretrial detention. In addition to participating in a pro bono project representing low income tenants facing eviction, and being an Articles Editor for the Journal of Environmental Law, Misti also took many international human rights courses to complement her understanding of various global legal issues.
About the Fellowships
The Henkin-Stoffel Human Rights Fellowship was created in admiration of Professor Louis Henkin's leadership in the field of human rights and recognition of Columbia Law School as a center of excellence in human rights education. This fellowship consists of two one-year placements with one to be located in the developing world. The David W. Leebron Human Rights Fellowship honors our former Dean's commitment to providing young graduates with meaningful experiences in human rights law. It provides a $40,000 stipend to a Columbia Law School graduate to work in human rights law either in the United States or abroad.
The Henkin-Stoffel and Leebron selection committees consisted of Peter Rosenblum, Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein Associate Clinical Professor in Human Rights, Ellen Chapnick, Dean for Social Justice Initiatives, Harlene Katzman, Dean of the Center for Public Interest Law at Columbia Law School, Margaret Ladner, Director of the Human Rights Advocates Program at Columbia University, and Elisa Slattery '04, Staff Attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights International Division (and former TMF Fellowship recipient). Professor Louis Henkin sat on the Henkin-Stoffel selection committee.
For more information, contact Harlene Katzman, Dean of the Center for Public Interest Law, at (212) 854-4152.
###