ABILA is thrilled to announce the International Law Weekend 2026 Organizing Committee.

Brady Mabe is a legal adviser with the International Committee of the Red Cross in the delegation to the United Nations, in New York, with previous field- and US-based experience in public international law, international human rights law, and the law of the use of force.

Jess Peake is the Director of the International and Comparative Law Program at UCLA School of Law. Jess teaches courses on Human Rights and War Crimes, Digital Investigations and the Law of War, and the War on Terror. She launched UCLA Law’s Digital Investigations Lab and co-founded the University of California Digital Investigations Network. Jess serves on the Board of Directors of the International Law Students Association and has served on several committees of the American Society of International Law.

Lisa Reinsberg is the Executive Director of the International Justice Resource Center (IJRC), an organization she founded with the goal of making human rights protections more accessible and transparent for advocates and victims. Lisa has diverse experience in human rights advocacy, litigation, and research. Prior to founding IJRC, she was an attorney with Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts.

William Aceves has served on the ABILA Board for many years and was recently elected a Vice-President of the organization. He teaches at California Western School of Law in San Diego, where he also serves as the Chief Justice Roger Traynor Professor of Law. Aceves works at the intersection of civil rights and human rights and has published extensively in these fields. He has also represented several human rights and civil liberties organizations as amicus curiae counsel in cases before the federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

Natasha Amlani is a counsel at Perkins Coie LLP who helps online services navigate global content regulations including in the EU, Brazil, South Korea, and Turkey. Natasha also helps online communications providers address child safety, trust and safety, and cross-border data disclosure issues.

Sumudu Atapattu is a teaching professor and Director of the Global Legal Studies Center at the University of Wisconsin Law School. She is affiliated with UW-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, Global Health Institute and the Center for South Asia, and is the Executive Director of the Human Rights Program. She serves as the Lead Counsel for Human Rights at the Center for International Sustainable Development Law and is a board member of the Center for Economic and Social Rights. She has published widely in the fields of international environmental law, climate change and human rights, environmental justice, and sustainable development.

Amity Boye is a longstanding board member of ABILA. She is President-Elect and has also served as Secretary and Vice-President. Amity operates at the crossroads of the non-profit and private sectors, advising global institutions on their strategic and mission-driven endeavors. For thirteen years, she served as Chief of Staff to the Chair of global law firm White & Case. She also has an active pro bono practice in the areas of criminal justice and international law.

Christine Carpenter is an international lawyer, and currently a Gates Scholar and PhD Candidate in International Relations & Politics at the University of Cambridge. Her research explores challenges new and emerging technologies pose to international legal systems, and the impacts of global digital inequality on pursuits of international justice. She is an experienced practitioner in both public and private international law, and serves on the International Law Association’s Committee on AI & Technology. She holds a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a master’s in International Relations from the University of Cambridge.

Harout Ekmanian is an Associate in the International Litigation and Arbitration Department of a leading international law firm and has joined the Organizing Committee in his personal capacity. He regularly represents parties in inter-State, investor-State and commercial arbitration, as well as counsels States in cases before the International Court of Justice and other international courts and tribunals.

Rebecca Hamilton is a Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law and an Executive Editor at Just Security. She was American University’s 2025 Scholar/Teacher of the Year, a 2024 U.S. Fulbright Scholar, a Visiting Professor at UCLA Law, a 2020 Council on Foreign Relations Fellow, and a 2019 Pulitzer Center grantee. Previously, she served as a lawyer in the prosecutorial division of the International Criminal Court. Prior to academia she was a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post.

William N. Kent is an Attorney Advisor – International with the Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) in the Office of General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he leads the Bangladesh, Indonesia, Maldives, and Sri Lanka portfolios on the Asia Pacific Team. While working with CLDP, Mr. Kent has also worked on various areas of international law across Central Asia, Egypt, and Afghanistan. Prior to joining CLDP, Mr. Kent worked at the U.S. International Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service, and U.S. Department of Energy. Mr. Kent also served as an officer in the U.S. Army where he led a 65-soldier platoon through a 15-month deployment to Iraq. Mr. Kent holds a J.D., LL.M. in International Business Transactions, and Certificate of International Law from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. He also holds a Master of Arts in Middle East Studies from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Mr. Kent is admitted to practice law in the State of New York.

Kuenley Lhaden Gyaltshen is an International Fellow with White & Case LLP, New York. Kuenley works on cross-border matters in Energy, Infrastructure, Project and Asset Finance (EIPAF) and international arbitration. She supports structuring and execution of complex infrastructure financings and assists with investor–state and commercial arbitrations through comparative legal research across jurisdictions. Prior to joining White & Case,  Kuenley worked as the Strategic Intelligence Hub Officer with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Regional Bureau for Asia-Pacific in Thailand and Bhutan, focusing on international development and establishment of Bhutan’s first National Legal Aid Center and its governing framework. Kuenley was the first and only Bhutanese student at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where she earned an LLM in May 2025. She holds a Bachelor of Laws and Post Graduate Diploma in National Law from Jigme Singye Wangchuck School of Law in Bhutan in 2022.

Tim McKenzie is a Senior Associate in King & Spalding LLP’s International Disputes Group, advising individuals, corporations and States in international arbitration and public international law matters. He previously worked for several years at the International Court of Justice, clerking for two former Vice-Presidents of the Court and Judge ad hoc Charles Brower.

Nema Milaninia is a partner at the global law firm Freshfields LLP, where he focuses on high-stakes investigations, regulatory defense, and strategic risk management, with a particular emphasis on emerging technologies. Earlier in his career, he served as one of a select group of U.S. nationals to prosecute cases of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and later shaped U.S. policy on AI, cybersecurity, and international law as a senior advisor in the Biden-Harris administration.

J. Janewa Osei-Tutu is a Professor of Law at the University of Miami School of Law. She writes about international intellectual property, human rights, and intangible cultural heritage. Prior to joining academia, Osei-Tutu worked as a Canadian Department of Justice Legal Counsel where she advised the Government of Canada on domestic and international intellectual property matters, including for international organizations and as part of international trade negotiations. She serves a co-chair for the ABILA International Intellectual Property Committee.

Paola Patarroyo is a Legal Officer at the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs in New York City. She previously worked in international dispute settlement in Colombia and the United States, including regional human rights cases, international investment, and commercial arbitration.

Victoria Pochtar is an independent international law and arbitration counsel and New York–qualified attorney whose career spans government service and private practice. A former career diplomat, she has represented her country in high-stakes international proceedings and multilateral negotiations, including before the United Nations and the European Union. In addition to her practice, Victoria teaches international law at St. John’s University School of Law, chairs the International Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association, and serves on the Board of the NYU Law Alumni Association, where she earned her LL.M. in 2021.

Dr Klara Polackova Van der Ploeg is an Associate Professor at the Stetson University College of Law. She is a dual-qualified attorney-at-law (State of New York; Czech Republic) and holds a PhD in international law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland with highest distinction (summa cum laude avec les félicitations du jury).

Olga Pototskaya focuses her practice on complex commercial disputes and international arbitration. She has extensive experience assisting clients across industries through all aspects of litigation and the international dispute resolution process, including discovery, written pleadings, and merit hearings. She is particularly experienced in international commercial arbitration under ICC, ICDR, AAA, and UNCITRAL rules.  In addition to her international matters, Olga has experience defending class actions, product liability cases, and antitrust lawsuits.

Rajika L. Shah is the Director of the Justice for Atrocities Clinic (LJAC) at LMU Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and a Visiting Associate Clinical Professor. LJAC seeks to hold perpetrators of mass atrocity crimes and serious human rights abuses legally accountable, and works toward reparations for victims and survivors. She also teaches on Creighton University’s Nuremberg to The Hague summer study abroad program. She currently serves on the Editorial Board of ASIL Insights and on the Executive Committee of the Lieber Society.

Tara Van Ho is an Associate Professor of Law at St. Mary’s University in Texas. Her research interests lie at the intersection of Business & Human Rights, international economic law, armed conflict, and post-conflict transitional justice. She has previously advised the U.N. Working Group on Business and Human Rights, was co-Director of the Essex Business & Human Rights Project, and co-Director of the Global Business & Human Rights Scholars Association.

Beatrice A. Walton is an Associate at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, where she practices in the Litigation Department and the firm’s International Dispute Resolution and Public International Law Groups. Her practice focuses on representing states, commercial parties, and international organizations in a range of international fora, as well as in U.S. courts. Since fall 2023, she has also served as a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School.

Elisabeth Wickeri is Executive Director of the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School and Adjunct Professor of Law. Elisabeth teaches courses in public international law, comparative legal frameworks, and carries out fieldwork, research, and writing on legal developments in Asia.

Freya Doughty-Wagner is ABILA’s Chief Operating Officer, the Regional Director for North America for the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment, and a climate justice consultant.

Laurie Farid is ABILA’s Program Officer focusing efforts on CLE programming. Prior to joining ABILA, Laurie was the Academic Affairs Director at California Western School of Law.

Julia Liston is ABILA’s Membership Officer and Director of Bar Support and LLM Program Fellow at Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

Leila Nadya Sadat is the James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law at Washington University and visited at Yale Law School from 2021-2024. She served as Special Adviser on Crimes Against Humanity to the International Criminal Court Prosecutor from 2013-2023 and is on the registered list of experts for the Moscow Mechanism of the OSCE. She has received multiple awards for her work including, most recently, the Goler T. Butcher Medal from the American Society of International Law. She is Chair of the International Law Association (American Branch), a member of the American Law Institute and the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, has held leadership positions in many other learned societies, and is a member of the board of editors of the Journal of International Criminal Justice. She recently joined the Advisory Council of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy, and the board of EyeWitness to Atrocities.

Michael P. Scharf is ABILA’s President, Associate Dean for Global Legal Studies at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, the Joseph C. Hostetler—BakerHostetler Professor of Law and serves as Managing Director of the Public International Law & Policy Group, a Nobel Peace Prize-nominated NGO.