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Barbara Olshansky is IJN's Legal Director, a beloved colleague, and a kind, powerful advocate for human rights.
The Stanford press release follows:
Barbara
Olshansky to Join
Stanford Law
School as
the Leah Kaplan Visiting Professor in Human Rights
STANFORD, Calif., July 9,
2007—Stanford Law School today announced the appointment of Barbara
Olshansky as the Leah Kaplan Visiting Professor in Human Rights. Olshansky will
lead a clinic in international human rights and teach a seminar in
international law during the 2007-2008 academic year.
Olshansky is known for her groundbreaking work on the 2004 Rasul v. Bush case, in which the Supreme
Court of the United States
overruled a lower court ruling and found that American courts have jurisdiction
over claims brought by Guantánamo detainees who are foreign nationals. The case
was the first major test of whether the executive branch had exceeded its
powers in asserting Guantánamo
Bay was outside the
jurisdiction of any court. Subsequently, Olshansky led the Guantánamo Global
Justice Initiative at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York City, a litigation and advocacy project
“dedicated to challenging rendition, arbitrary detention, and
interrogation under torture committed as part of the United States’ global
‘war on terror.’”
“Barbara Olshansky has proven herself to be a
visionary lawyer with the talent and tenacity to achieve remarkable results,
particularly in the area of international human rights,” said Lawrence C.
Marshall, David and Stephanie Mills Director of Clinical Education and Associate
Dean for Public Interest and Clinical Education. “We’re
excited to work with her next year to explore ways in which the clinical
program can further enhance its role in teaching students to practice in this
area.”
Prior
to her appointment to the Global Justice Initiative, Olshansky served as
CCR’s deputy legal director, where her docket included class action
lawsuits concerning immigrants’ rights, prisoners’ rights, Native
American rights, the environment, public health, and race discrimination in
employment and education. In 2005, the Stanford Public Interest Law
Foundation honored Olshansky as Public Interest Lawyer of the Year.
“The
work of people like Barbara Olshansky is ultimately work that holds up a mirror
to us and makes us confront ourselves. It’s people like Barbara who force
us to be our best selves,” said Stanford Law School Dean Larry Kramer.
At Stanford Law School,
she will lead a clinic that will focus on human rights and the rule of law in
developing nations, as part of the Stanford Legal Clinic, the law
school’s clinical education program.
“I
am very excited about being given this amazing opportunity to work with the
students and faculty at Stanford
Law School,”
said Olshansky. “I cannot think of a better place in which to help
prepare the next generation of people's lawyers for their role in the
continuing fight for justice and progressive social change. The law
school's—and the University's—commitment to furthering human rights
and development around the world provides the best possible foundation for this
work at a time when leadership with integrity is most sorely needed.”
Olshansky earned a JD from Stanford Law
School in 1985 and majored in
intellectual history and political science at the University of Rochester.
While a student at Stanford
Law School,
she helped establish the East Palo Alto Community Law Project to serve low-income
residents. She clerked for two years for former California Supreme Court Chief
Justice Rose Bird; served for five years
as a union and plaintiff's employment discrimination lawyer at Vladeck,
Waldman, Elias & Engelhard, P.C. in New York; joined the Environmental
Defense Fund where she argued cases involving toxic contamination; and then
joined CCR, the nonprofit legal organization founded in 1966 to represent civil
rights demonstrators in the South.
About Stanford Legal Clinic
Stanford Law School runs a variety of clinics that litigate
in a number of specialized fields, including immigrants’ rights,
community law, cyberlaw, environmental protection, and educational advocacy.
The clinics operate cohesively as a single law firm—the Stanford Legal
Clinic (SLC)—and provide pro bono representation to the public. Clinical
courses are structured as supervised settings that teach students: how to work
with clients and colleagues, how to address the ethical dilemmas that arise in
practice, and how to apply legal concepts taught hypothetically or in the
abstract in the classroom to a real world, client representation situation.
About Stanford
Law School
Stanford Law School is
one of the nation’s leading institutions for legal scholarship and
education. Its alumni are among the most influential decision makers in law,
politics, business, and high technology. Faculty members argue before the
Supreme Court, testify before Congress, and write books and articles for
academic audiences, as well as the popular press. Along with offering
traditional law school classes, the school has embraced new subjects and new
ways of teaching. The school’s home page is located at http://www.law.stanford.edu
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