Amal Clooney is a Senior Fellow at the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute. She is an international human rights lawyer whose practice focuses on representing women and children who are victims of mass atrocities, political prisoners, and journalists facing persecution. She has represented victims in landmark cases involving genocide, crimes against humanity, and sexual violence, including atrocities committed by ISIS and in conflicts from Darfur to Myanmar. Her work led to the first convictions of ISIS fighters for genocide and she currently represents 868 ISIS victims in a civil case in the Eastern District of New York against a company complicit in ISIS’ crimes. 

Clooney has represented journalists imprisoned for their work around the world and currently represents Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa. She has also been appointed to the United Kingdom’s Team of Experts on preventing sexual violence in conflict, the UK Attorney-General’s senior panel of legal experts on Public International Law, and served as the UK’s Special Envoy on Media Freedom.

She is co-founder of the Clooney Foundation for Justice, a charity that provides legal aid in more than 40 countries and uses AI to increase access to justice. Her work has led to dozens of journalists being set free and thousands of women receiving free legal support when they have been victims of violence or child marriage. She is also a Visiting Professor of Practice in International Law at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government and co-founder of the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice.

Clooney has co-authored leading works on fair trial rights and freedom of speech under international law. Her work has received numerous honors, including from the Committee to Protect Journalists, the American Society of International Law, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Kings Trust, Time Magazine, and the 2024 Legal 500 Award for International Lawyer of the Year. She holds law degrees from Oxford University and New York University School of Law.