Amal Clooney was elected to an Honorary Fellowship in recognition of her outstanding contribution to human rights and law.
Amal is a barrister who specializes in international law and human rights described in the legal directories Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners as ‘a brilliant legal mind’ who is ‘in a league of her own at the Bar’. She frequently represents victims of mass atrocities, including genocide and sexual violence, before national and international courts. Her contributions have been recognised by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the American Society of International Law, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, the Kings Trust and Time Magazine. Most recently, in 2024, she won the Legal 500 Award for international lawyer of the year.
Amal has acted in many landmark human rights cases in recent years including the world’s first trials in which ISIS members have been convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity. Amal also represents over 800 Yazidi victims in the first civil case in a U.S. court seeking to hold ISIS financiers responsible for complicity in terrorism. She has represented Armenia in a case involving the Armenian genocide and was counsel to over 100 victims of crimes against humanity in Darfur, in the first trial against a senior Sudanese leader at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Amal also represents political prisoners around the world and has helped to secure the freedom of journalists arbitrarily detained for their work across the globe. Her work has included defending Reuters journalists who uncovered evidence of genocide in Myanmar, journalists covering protests in Egypt and a leading investigative journalist exposing corruption in Azerbaijan, all of whom were released following her work. She currently represents Nobel laureate Maria Ressa, who faces decades behind bars for her work as a journalist in the Philippines.
In 2016, Amal co-founded the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which provides free legal aid in defence of free speech and women’s rights in over 40 countries. Its work has led to dozens of journalists being set free and thousands of women receiving free legal support to defend their rights, including their rights to freedom from abuse, economic discrimination and child marriage. In 2022, the Foundation partnered with the Obama Foundation’s Girls Opportunity Alliance and Melinda French Gates to advance gender equality and reduce levels of child marriage worldwide. The Foundation also provides a fellowship program to help young women lawyers across Africa launch careers in human rights.
Amal is also a Professor of Practice in International Law at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and an Honorary Fellow of St Hugh’s College, Oxford. She has co-authored the leading textbooks The Right to a Fair Trial in International Law and Freedom of Speech in International Law, published by Oxford University Press. Amal holds law degrees from Oxford University and New York University School of Law and prior to joining the London bar, she practiced as a litigation attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York.
Amal Clooney read Law at St Hugh’s in 1996 where she received an exhibition scholarship and the prestigious Shrigley Award given for excellence in law studies. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Jurisprudence in 2000. The following year she entered New York University School of Law to study for the Master of Laws (LL.M) degree.
