The 3rd Annual Harvard Law International Women’s Day Portrait Exhibit showcases the astounding contributions of women around the world to the areas of law and policy. The honorees—each of whom were nominated by HLS students, faculty or staff—are powerful voices in their respective fields, whether they are sitting on a high court bench, standing in front of a classroom, or marching in the streets.
The International Women’s Day Exhibit Committee is honored to present our community with the 2016 honorees.
Click on an honoree’s name to view her portrait and a full biography.
HARVARD LAW INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY PORTRAIT EXHIBIT
2016 HONOREES
Partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, specializing in mergers and acquisitions and general corporate and securities matters. Head of D.C. office pro bono program. Member of D.C. office Diversity Committee. Former fellow in the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Fellows Program.
Burmese stateswoman and international icon. President of the National League for Democracy in Burma. Nobel Peace Prize recipient. Holder of the Congressional Gold Medal. Winner of the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
First of two women ever to be named United States Attorney. Former President of the Federal Executive Council. First woman president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. Founder of the Civil Justice Foundation. Founder and first chair of the Iowa Women’s Political Caucus. Named by the National Law Journal as one of the fifty most influential women lawyers and one of the top 10 litigators in America.
Head of Boston’s Federal Public Defender Office, which represents indigent defendants accused of federal crimes in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.
Partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, specializing in corporate and sovereign transactions and the Latin America practice. Highlighted in Latin Lawyer‘s “Women in Law” publication as one of the most inspiring women practicing in Latin American matters; Appointed by President Obama to the Commission on White House Fellowships.
Nicholas Delbanco Visiting Professor of Creative Writing in Poetry at the University of Michigan Helen Zell Writers’ Program. Co-director of the Organic Weapon Arts Chapbook Press & Video Series. Author of “Seam” and “Register of Illuminated Villages” (forthcoming 2017).
British barrister, broadcaster and Labour member of the House of Lords. Advocate for civil liberties and human rights. Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford. President of the Helena Kennedy Foundation. Honorary Fellow of the British Academy. President of the Board of Governors of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Trustee of the British Museum.
Attorney General of the United States; first African-American woman and second woman ever to hold this position. Former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Former Special Counsel to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
The Honorable Allie Greenleaf Maldonado
Chief Judge of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians (LTBB). Co-Chair of the first Tribal State Federal Judicial Forum. Nationally-recognized expert on the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and the Michigan Indian Family Preservation Act (MIFPA).
Former Democratic Alliance Parliamentary Leader. 2015 Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics. Serving from 2011-2014, Ms. Mazibuko became the youngest-ever parliamentary leader and the first black woman in South African history to be elected to Leader of the Opposition.
United Nations Under-Secretary-General. Executive Director of UN Women. Former Deputy President of South Africa, and first woman to hold this position. Former Member of Parliament as part of South Africa’s first democratic government.
Founding Director of the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC). Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. Non-resident Research Fellow at the Stockton Center for the Study of International Law at the Naval War College. Non-resident Research Associate in the Humanitarian Policy Group of the Overseas Development Institute.
The Honorable Lady Justice Njoki Ndung’u
Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. Former Member of the Pan-African Parliament and of the 9th Parliament in the National Assembly of Kenya. Chief of the Burning Spear. Architect of statutes to advance women’s rights, including the Sexual Offences Act 2006 and amendment to the Employment Act 2007. Awardee of “UN Person of the Year” in Kenya in 2006.
Deputy Homeland Security Advisor and Deputy Assistant to the President at the National Security Council. Former Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Assistant Attorney General at the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.
Partner at Covington & Burling LLP. Former Acting Assistant Attorney General at the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Recognized as a “White Collar Crime Trailblazer” by The National Law Journal.
President of Planned Parenthood. Public face of the reproductive rights movement in the United States. Elected to the Ford Foundation Board of Trustees. Former President of America Votes.
Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law. Director of the UCLA American Indian Studies Center. First woman and youngest Justice of the Supreme Court of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Oklahoma. Former litigator at Quinn Emanuel. Co-Chair for the United Nations Indigenous Peoples’ Partnership Policy Board.
Professor of Law and Sociology and Professor of Civil Rights at the University of Pennsylvania. Author of “Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty”. Advocate for reproductive justice in the law. Scholar of the impact of issues in health, social justice, and bioethics on the lives of women, children, and African Americans.
Director of International Programs and Gruber Program on Global Justice and Women’s Rights at Yale Law School. Former Academic Director at the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School. Former staff attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York.
Director of the Fundación Banorte, the corporate social responsibility branch of Banorte Bank in Mexico. Works to merge corporate means with social change to address gender inequality and improve the financial lives of women in Mexico.
Former environmental lawyer and public prosecutor in Brazil. Specialized in Environment and Cultural Heritage Law, developing the legal foundations for agrobiodiversity. Former researcher at the University of Brasília, Center for Sustainable Development; co-founder of the Brazilian civil society organization Instituto Socioambiental. Author of “Agrobiodiversity and the Law”. Ms. Santilli sadly passed away in 2015.
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; third woman and first justice of Hispanic heritage to hold this position. Former Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s office. Former U.S. District Court Judge at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Former Circuit Judge at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Founder and co-director of Small Projects Istanbul, an NGO based in Turkey that provides access to supplementary education services and community support to those displaced by the Syrian conflict.
Democratic Senator from Massachusetts. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Consumer protection advocate and bankruptcy expert, whose scholarship led to the establishment of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Named by Time Magazine as one of the most influential people in the world three times.
Senior Clinical Instructor at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. Former fellow and Clinical Instructor at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center, practicing in the areas of housing law and consumer bankruptcy.