Mikheil Saakashvili '94 LL.M., President of Georgia, Returns to Columbia Law School
Mikheil Saakashvili '94 LL.M., President of Georgia, Returns to Columbia Law School
New York, May 29, 2013—Mikheil Saakashvili '94 LL.M., president of the Republic of Georgia, paid a visit to campus while in New York City this month. Saakashvili was elected president of Georgia in 2004 and has worked over the years to spur lasting economic growth and peace in his country. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Senator John McCain and former New York State Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, based on his record of winning “. . . popular support for the universal values of democracy, individual liberty, and civil rights.”
After graduating with honors from Kiev University Institute of International Relations, Saakashvili moved to the U.S. to attend Columbia Law School as an Edmund S. Muskie Fellow, where he earned an LL.M. degree. He then went on to study law at the doctoral level at The George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. He also earned a diploma in comparative law of human rights from the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.
In 1995, Saakashvili was admitted to the New York State Bar Association. He practiced commercial law for nearly a year at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler in New York City.
Saakashvili explained during a 2011 interview with the Columbia Law School Magazine that he believed an LL.M. degree would allow him to “see things from another angle."