Past LL.M. Scholars

The Leitner Center supports LL.M. students from the global south through the Vivian Leitner Global South LL.M. Scholars Program. Prior to 2015, the Leitner Center supported students as Leitner LL.M. Scholars.

 

2021- 2022

Estefania Gonzalez (Ecuador)

 

2020-2021

Noah Ephraem Tetteh Adamtey  (Ghana)
Noah Ephraem Tetteh Adamtey joins us from Ghana. His experience includes an internship with the Attorney General’s Department in Kumasi, Ghana and as a research assistant at the African Center of International Criminal Justice. He received his L.L.B from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technolgy, where he served as the Law Student’s Union President. He also a holds a Certificate in Law from the Ghana School of Law.

Samantha Brener (South Africa)
Samantha Brener join us from South Africa where she is a practicing attorney and works on promoting access to education, particularly in poor rural areas of South Africa. Her work has involved a combination of strategic litigation, advocacy and research to achieve the right to basic education for South African learners – a right which is explicitly set out in the South African Bill of Rights. Some of her cases have involved an amicus application supporting a challenge to a government practice of excluding undocumented learners from schools, as well as an ongoing campaign to ensure safe and adequate sanitation for learners in schools (and eradication of dangerous and undignified pit latrines) in the Limpopo province of South Africa. She has worked as student editor for the South African Journal on Human Rights (South Africa’s leading human rights academic journal) and written in both academic and opinion editorial formats. She holds a Bachelor of Science Hons and an LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Hijab Siddiqui (Pakistan)
Hijab Siddiqui joined us from Pakistan, where she has rich experience working in human rights law, through capacity building, research, and policy development, while utilizing film and social media to create awareness on relevant issues. In her work, Hijab has developed and conducted various trainings on international law and human rights for prosecutors, law enforcement, and media officials. She was a member of the core team that worked on developing the National Action Plan for Business and Human Rights in Pakistan for the Ministry of Human Rights of Pakistan. As Research Associate and Communications Lead at the Research Society of International Law (RSIL), Pakistan, she worked on a wide range of projects with stakeholders including the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, the United Nations Development Programme, and the American Bar Association. Hijab holds an LLB (Hons.) from the University of London International Programmes.

 

2015-2016

Maame Efua Addadzi-Koom (Ghana)
Maame Efua Addadzi-Koom joined us from Ghana where she interned with Teens Aloud Foundations conducting interactive outreach work in Ghana, Nigeria, The Gambia, South Africa and Swaziland. She also served as a member the Student Representative Council Legal Affairs Commission. She has published in the areas of International Human Rights, Constitutional Law, International Law, Gender and the Law, Comparative Law and Law, Technology and development. She graduated with a Bachelor of Laws, First Class Honors & Salutatorian, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

Audrey Naana Abayena (Ghana)
Audrey Naana Abayena joined us from Ghana, where she served as legal adviser to the Ghana Permanent Mission to the United Nations. She also served on the Sixth Committee (Legal Committee) of the United Nations and worked with the Legal and Consular Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration in Ghana. She received a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Ghana.

 

Emmanuel Atsu Lodoh (Ghana)
Emmanuel Atsu Lodoh joined us from Ghana where he serves as a Circuit Court Judge with the Judicial Service of Ghana. He served as the Deputy Director of the Judicial Training Institute of Ghana from 2008-2010 and was a member of the editorial committee of the AMJG News Journal. Emmnauel has a Bachelor of Arts, in Political Science and History from the University of Ghana. He received his law degree and a qualifying certificate in Law from Ghana School of Law.

Yaw Owoahene-Acheampong (Ghana)
Yaw Owoahene-Acheampong joins us from Ghana where he  Serves as a Circuit Court Judge with the Judicial Service of Ghana. He served as  Served as a District Magistrate with the Judicial Service of Ghana from 2009-2012 and was in Private legal practice from 2005-2009. He has a qualifying Certificate in Law from Ghana School of Law and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Ghana.

 

2014-2015

George Buadi, Justice of the High Court of Ghana

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Laws and Political Science, University of Ghana

LL.M. in Human Rights and Democratization in Africa, University of Pretoria in South Africa

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

– Served two four-year terms as an elected member of Ghanaian Parliament from 1992 to 2001

Afi Agbanu Kudomor, Circuit Court Judge with the Judicial Service of Ghana

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Laws, Ghana School of Law

Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, University of Cape Coast

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

– Joined the Ghanaian bench in 2008 as a Magistrate

Alexander Tutu Osei, Justice of the High Court of Ghana

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Laws, the University of Ghana

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

– Served as Circuit Court Judge with the Judicial Service of Ghana
– Private legal practice from 2003 to 2010
– Served as the solicitor to the Committee tasked with investigating the Baba Yara Stadium Disaster in 2009
– Taught law at several universities

Mariama Sammo, Circuit Court Judge with the Judicial Service of Ghana

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Laws, the Ghana School of Law

Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

– Served as a Magistrate with the Judicial Service of Ghana
– Participated in the Justice for All Program, which sends Magistrates to prisons to adjudicate on prisoners’ cases that have been delayed.
– Served as an Assistant Administrator in the Judicial Secretary’s Secretariat and a Registrar in the High Court

 

2013-2014

Ali Baba Abature (Ghana)
Ali Baba Abature joined us from Ghana, where he presided over the Family, Matrimonial, and Juvenile Court, and he adjudicated on issues relating to the rights of children, spouses and juveniles, and served as the Deputy Director of Administration in the Ghana Civil Service. Ali was appointed to the Circuit Court, and after receiving his LL.M. at Fordham, he returned to Ghana to adjudicate on human rights cases at the Circuit Court level. He obtained a law degree from Ghana Law School in 2007 and a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Political Science from the University of Ghana (Legon) in 1999.

Abena Adjin-Doku (Ghana)
Abena Adjin-Doku joined us from Ghana, where she  was appointed to the Circuit Court. She was one of five female judges who participated in the Jurists in Residents Program, a five week training and shadowing program sponsored by the Virtue Foundation in New York. Prior to this, Abena worked on access to justice issues in the Ghanaian prison system, served as a Family Tribunal Chairperson on child custody cases, and was a High Court Registrar with the Judicial Service. She obtained her law degree from the Ghana School of Law in 2007.

Wei Liu (China)
Wei Liu joined us from China, where she is a Beijing-based human rights lawyer who focuses on freedom of religion, speech and association. In April 2010, the Chinese government disbarred her for her human rights work. In the face of immense resistance and backlash from the Chinese government, Wei has provided legal services to Tibetans, worked to expose corruption and racketeering in the government, and helped promote a general election campaign for the Beijing’s Lawyers’ Association Congress. She earned a law degree from Liaoning University.

Barbara Tetteh-Charway (Ghana)
Barbara Tetteh-Charway joined us from Ghana where she is a Justice of the High Court. Prior to this, she adjudicated criminal and civil cases as a Circuit Court judge, prosecuted several high profile drug and child abuse cases, served as a State Prosecutor and was appointed by former President John Evans Atta Mills as Legal Counsel to the Ghana@50 Commission of Enquiry, which was set up to investigate allegations of misappropriation of state funds. She obtained a law degree from the University of Ghana.

 

2012-2013

Kabo Godfrey Motswagole (Botswana)
Kabo Godfrey Motswagole joined us from Botswana where he worked for the University of Botswana Legal Clinic. There he provided pro bono legal advice to numerous under-privileged clients including 200 wrongfully terminated employees in one class-action lawsuit. Previously, Kabo worked as an Associate Attorney at Monthe Marumo & Co. and Mosojane Legal Consultancy, and was also a Research Assistant for a High Court Judge, where he conducted comparative analyses of national and international legal standards. In his work as a Research Fellow at Keoagile & Associates he provided legal analysis arguing that the death penalty should not apply in sixteen murder cases, an opinion the courts concurred with in each of these cases. He he obtained his Bachelor of Laws from the University of Botswana in 2011.

Weiming Wu (China)
Weiming Wu joined us from China, where he has focused on advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights.  He first became involved in human rights work during his second year at univeristy, where he volunteered with local NGOs and met human rights activists. After graduation, Weiming joined a local law firm and worked on numerous high-profile cases involving LGBT rights. Weiming also worked at a human rights NGO providing advice on an LGBT legal helpline; conducting research on foreign policies and laws; drafting policy development documents; and developing programs aimed at transforming societal norms and perceptions of the LGBT community. He also co-founded The Shanghai Gender and Sexuality Cultural Center, which aims to promote the LGBT rights movement and to increase an overall awareness of the rights of the LGBT community by providing a safe, equal, and tolerant space. After graduating from Zhejiang University with a B.A. in Philosophy, Weiming went on to Fudan University, where he graduated with a Master’s degree in law.

Leonard Yao Klah (Ghana)
Leonard Yao Klah joined us from Ghana. During his time at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Leonard was the Ghanaian student team leader of the Leitner Center’s 2010 Law and Development in Africa Clinic project on religious and cultural rights in Ghana, focusing on the practice of trokosi (a system of religious atonement which has been criticized as a practice violating human rights). After participating in fieldwork gathering information about the practice, Leonard’s KNUST team planned and designed “Religion, Culture, and Human Rights in Ghana,” a workshop held in August 2011 in Accra. The workshop aimed at finding common ground with a range of stakeholders in order to eliminate the injustices and human rights violations against women which are associated with trokosi in Ghana. He was the founding co-coordinator for the KNUST Law Students for Reproductive Justice from 2011-2012. In addition, Leonard was a Fordham-Ghana Summer Law Program Assistant in 2012. He earned a Bachelor of Laws degree from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and graduated with Second Class Honors – Upper division (equivalent to high honors) in 2012.

 

2011-2012

Cynthia Nimo-Ampredu (Ghana)
Cynthia Nimo-Ampredu joined us from Ghana, where she has been applying her academic training in law to human rights programs and research. While at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology(KNUST), she was the Ghanaian team leader for the Leitner Center’s Spring 2008 International Development Project Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  Her team developed and implemented a project to deliver direct legal services to address women’s inheritance security and marital property rights through the establishment of Ghana’s first clinical legal education program at KNUST. She also interned at the Arapra law Chambers in Cape Coast, Ghana. Her academic research focused on children’s rights to education in the Sene District of Ghana. She obtained a Bachelor of Laws in June 2011. She graduated from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology with a LL.B. degree with Second Class Honors – upper division (equivalent to high honors) in 2009.

Kwaku Agyeman-Budu (Ghana)
Kwaku Agyeman-Budu joined us from Ghana. In the summer of 2010, Mr. Agyeman-Budu was one of ten Ghanaian students chosen to participate in the Fordham-Ghana Summer Law Program.  Since then, Mr. Agyeman-Budu has interned with the Legal Ink Law Firm, and subsequently with the FSB Law Consult Legal Practitioners and Human Rights Advocates in Ghana. His interests have included topics such as political responsibility, land and mineral rights, and education rights. He earned a BA in Political Science with Sociology from the University of Ghana, Legon in Accra, graduating with Second Class Honors – upper division (equivalent to high honors)

Catherine A. Matasha (Tanzania)
Catherine A. Matasha joined us from Tanzania. Ms. Matasha has extensive extracurricular and community organizing experience. She has participated in a number of moot court competitions, including the First and Second East African Human Rights Moot Court Competitions, and the All Africa Human Rights Moot court Competition. She also interned with the Centre for Forced Migration, and was involved in various student organizations, including: the Human Rights Association, Red Cross Society, and the UN-Chapter. Through these avenues, she has helped organize charity walks to assist victims of disasters, such as landslides, has visited prisons and orphanages, commemorated the Rwandan Genocide, and organized a number of symposiums. She is a graduate from the University of Dar es Salaam School of Law, with a Bachelor of Laws degree.

 

2010–2011

Diana Dapaah (Ghana)
Diana Dapaah joined us from Ghana where her practice areas include  Corporate and Commercial law, Wills and Estates, International Law, Land and Labour law, Human Rights Law and applying Alternative Dispute Mechanisms to resolving disputes. Diana is member of the Ghana Bar Association and the New York Bar. Her strong research and analytical skills accounted for her excellence as a Law Clerk and Research Assistant to the Chief Justice of Ghana, Her Ladyship Justice Georgina Theodora Wood from August 2011- July 2012. She is a lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) where she lectures in International Law, Human Rights Law, Company Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), and Contract Law. She also collaborates with Professors from Fordham, St John’s, Pace Universities as well as New York Judges to provide training each summer in Mediation and Arbitration under the auspices of the Marian Conflict Resolution Centre at the Catholic University College, Fiapre-Sunyani. Diana received her Law Degree (LL.B.) in 2008 from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology where she graduated with first class honours. Diana undertook her Barrister-at-Law Professional Law Course from the Ghana School of Law where she was again ranked as a first class student. She has to her credit the best student in Company Law (2010) from the Ghana School of Law. Diana graduated cum laude with a Master’s Degree (LL.M.) in International Law and Justice from Fordham University School of Law.

Christopher Nyinevi (Ghana)
Christopher Nyinevi joined us from Ghana where he is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana where he has taught Legal Writing, Public International Law and African Union Law. He has published a number of law review articles and presented conference papers touching various themes including human rights and criminal justice in Ghana; Africa’s relationship with the International Criminal Court and the interface between Ghana’s domestic law and international rules regulating foreign investments and international business transactions. He graduated from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), with a Bachelor of Laws.

 

Huiyun Tang (P.R. China)
Huiyun Tang joined us from the People’s Republic of China where he was an an associate at the HR &L Law Firm in Shanghai. He also served as an assistant lawyer at the law firm, Shanghai Xuwei, also in Shanghai. He received a Bachelor of Laws from the East China Normal University in Shanghai.

 

2009-2010

Dennis Adjei Dwomoh (Ghana)
Dennis Adjei Dwomoh joined us from Ghana. He was the President of the Local National Union of Ghana Students at the university. During his Presidency he engaged in several activities in protecting student rights in the university which included instituting a legal action against the University. He also assisted in implementing a volunteer program for the improvement of the rural communities of Ghana. His advocacy against influence of political parties at the National student front led to a review of the National student front constitution. He was an intern at Police Training Workshop on human rights and justice and Judicial Training Workshop in Ghana.  In 2008 he was a clerk at the Supreme Court of Ghana. He earned his LL.B. at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and graduated in 2007, where he served as the President of the Local National Union of Ghana Students at the university. After his LL.B. he pursued his Barrister-at-Law Program at the Ghana School of Law where he graduated in June 2009. He was the Secretary to the Student Representative Council of the School.

Ronald Kakungulu-Mayambala (Uganda)
Ronald Kakungulu-Mayambala joined us from Uganda. He is an Associate Professor with the Human Rights and Peace Centre (HURIPEC), and formerly a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the Faculty of Law University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. He lectures human rights in the domestic perspective, consumer law and protection, introducing law and legal methods, equity and trusts to undergraduate students and international environmental law to graduate students at the School of Law. Ronald has previously consulted for international development agencies such as DFID, SIDA, and NORAD and served as a consultant with the International Development Research Center (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada on the African Copyright and Access to Knowledge (ACA2K) Project as Uganda’s Country Researcher. Dr. Kakungulu-Mayambala’s doctoral thesis at the University of Arizona was on Indigenous People, Human Rights, and the African Problem in which Professors James Anaya (United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples) and Robert A. Williams (Director, Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program), James E. Rogers College of Law, The University of Arizona, Tucson, USA, served as his thesis advisors. He received a Bachelor of Laws Degree (Magna Cum Laude) from Makerere University (Uganda) in January 2003, a post-graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Center (LDC) (Kampala) in 2005 and a Master of Human Rights and Intellectual Property Rights Law Degree (with Distinction) from the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund University (Sweden) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Worldwide Academy, Geneva (Switzerland) in December 2006.

Alejandra Ancheita Pagaza (Mexico)
Alejandra Ancheita joined us from Mexico where she served as a Board member of the Project on Economical, Social, and Cultural Rights (ProDESC), a human rights organization based in Mexico City. She has worked for over two decades as a human rights advocate in Mexico, and is one of the leading Latin American voices in the human rights movement. She has spoken in various international forums, such as the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society and the OECD Annual Meeting of National Contact Points, as well as arguing cases before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and national courts. She founded ProDESC, and was the Executive Director until December 2008. In her years as director of ProDESC, and as a litigation specialist in the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center (Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juarez  – Centro Pro) and the Center for Labor Support and Reflection (Centro de Reflexión y Apoyo Laboral – CEREAL), Alejandra worked on strategic litigation and legal defense of human rights defenders and local communities. She has argued cases in the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, the  Inter-American Court, and several national courts. Alejandra has a Bachelor of Laws from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Azcapotzalco in Mexico City. She returned to ProDESC to work on issues of transnational labor rights after she completed her degree here at Fordham. Alejandra is the 2014 Laureate of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, the highest acknowledgement from the international human rights community.

Isidore Tufuor (Ghana)
Isidore Tufuor joined us from Ghana where he was a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). He successfully completed the Bar course at the Ghana School of Law in 2009. His principal area of interest is International Law of Development, an area of law quite critical to addressing many of the third world development issues. He is a graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. He studied French and Law and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, First Class Honors in 2003.  Desirous to pursue a career in law, he later took the LL.B course for postgraduate students in the same university and graduated with a first class honors in 2007. He successfully completed the Bar course at the Ghana School of Law in 2009.

Li Wang (China)
Li Wang joined us from China, where she worked as researcher and coordinator of an anti-discrimination program organized by Peking University and University of Ottawa for two years. There she specialized in promotion and protection of women’s rights. During her studies at Peking University, she participated in various legal aid activities at Peking University Legal Aid Center and Legal Clinic. In addition, she has published several research papers and co-authored one book on Anti-discrimination in China.  Immediately after her graduation from Peking University of China, she worked with the Beijing Branch of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu CPA Ltd. as a tax associate in PPG group, which mainly provides tax consulting services to international law firms.  Her concentration at Fordham Law School is in International Law. She obtained both her Bachelor and Master of Laws from Peking University Law School, where she received a number of scholarships and honors for her academic accomplishments.

 

2008-2009

Enam Antonio (Ghana)
Enam Antonio joined us from Ghana, where she is currently a research fellow at the Institute of Law and Public Affairs. Prior to this, she clerked for Supreme Court Justice William Atuguba.  Enam was called to the Ghana Bar in 2011.  She teaches Public International Law and Legal Writing and Research at the Faulty of Law of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). She has also worked as Clinical Assistant Supervisor on two clinical projects with the Leitner Centre for International Law at Fordham Law School. Her areas of research interest are general international law, international development law and climate change law and policy. She graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and received her Master’s degree in International Law and Justice from Fordham Law School.

Ewura Esi Asmah (Ghana)

 

2007-2008

Yanfei Ran (China)

Yanfei Ran joined us from China, where she was a criminal defense lawyer, prior to her arrival at Fordham School of Law.

Ying Dai (China)

Ying Day joined us from China, where she graduated with a degree in law from China University of Politics and Law.

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Leitner Center for International Law and Justice
Fordham University School of Law
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Emily Smith Ewing
Adjunct Professor
Corporate Social Responsibility Program, Leitner Center for International Law and Justice & Human Rights Compliance, Fordham Law School Compliance MSL Online Program
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