Jayne Huckerby (LL.M. '04), former CHRGJ research director, will lead Duke Law's first international human rights clinic

Jayne Huckerby (LL.M. ’04), former research director of NYU Law’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ), will join Duke Law School in July to launch its first international human rights clinic.

Huckerby, a prominent human rights lawyer, is an expert on the effects of U.S. counter-terrorism on women and currently serves as a human rights adviser to UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

Leading the CHRGJ’s research efforts from 2006 to 2011 and teaching in the International Human Rights Clinic and Global Justice Clinic from 2009 to 2011, Huckerby oversaw the development of cutting-edge human rights initiatives at the intersection of scholarship and practice. One key project she led was A Decade Lost: Locating Gender in U.S. Counter-Terrorism, the first global study of how the U.S. government’s counter-terrorism efforts impact women and sexual minorities.

“I take from my experience at NYU Law a strong appreciation of the role of students and academic institutions in supporting and shaping human rights movements and practice,” said Huckerby. “In implementing the pedagogical and service objectives of the new International Human Rights Clinic at Duke Law, my experience of being part of growing the human rights program at NYU Law will be invaluable.”

“Jayne Huckerby represents a rare combination of deep engagement with the most central practical problems confronting the world of human rights with powerful pedagogical skills,” said Philip Alston, John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law and faculty director and co-chair of CHRGJ. “Her work at NYU demonstrated very clearly that she has the knowledge, experience, skills and enthusiasm to be a superb clinical teacher.”

Meg Satterthwaite, professor of clinical law and faculty director at CHRGJ, co-taught several semesters of the Global Justice Clinic with Huckerby. She noted that Huckerby’s large-scale program on gender and counterterrorism resulted in “concrete policy change, a shift in the discourse, and invitations by many of the government agencies she studied to train the agencies’ staff. That’s unprecedented.”

Huckerby attended NYU Law as a Vanderbilt Scholar and received the David H. Moses Memorial Prize upon graduating first in her class. She was also graduate editor on the Journal of International Law and Politics.

At Duke Law, Huckerby will join the faculty as an associate clinical professor of law.

“Jayne Huckerby is the perfect person to develop this new clinic,” said David F. Levi, dean of Duke Law, in a statement. “She is highly regarded both as a practitioner and as a teacher. She is dedicated to her work and to her students, and I am confident that in short order Duke Law School will be known for the excellence and impact of this new clinic.”

Posted on March 19, 2013