When you hear the name Amal Clooney, your mind jumps straight to her husband, George Clooney, and you think no more of her than as being a Hollywood wife. You couldn’t be any more wrong. Amal is so much more than that. Just take a peek at her incredible life story.
Amal Clooney is actually one of the most respected lawyers in the world. She has represented various high-profile clients and fought for human rights for years. Read on to get the specifics.
She was born in Lebanon as Amal Alamuddin
Amal was actually born in Beirut while the Lebanese Civil War had a very short ceasefire. Unfortunately, the ceasefire ended only days after her birth, and soon enough, her family was one of the hundreds of thousands of families that suffered the exodus from Lebanon. She identifies herself with Syrian refugees she got to meet in Berlin. “My own family is from Lebanon,“ she recalled. “They also ran away from a war and were lucky enough to be accepted by a European country in 1982 when the violence there was really bad. Many years later, my family is doing well.”
She graduated from St. Hugh’s College, Oxford
Amal graduated in Jurisprudence in the year 2000, but she was no average student. During her studies, she received an exhibition and awards for excellence. For those who don’t know what Jurisprudence is, it is Oxford’s equivalent to Bachelor of Law degree.
She then proceeded to get her Master of Laws degree from NYU
In the year 2001, Amal joined New York University Law School. She was also a clerk at the International Court of Justice. During her studies in New York, Amal was awarded the Jack J. Katz Memorial Award for excellence in entertainment law.
She knows Sonia Sotomayor (Supreme Court judge)
She worked in her office for one semester as a clerk, but that was not the end of that story. It turns out that they sparked a special kind of friendship as they went on to have an intimate dinner at Harry Cipriani on Fifth Avenue.
She managed to become one of the world’s greatest and best-known human rights lawyers
Amal’s work in international human rights made her famous in the law circles way before she married George Clooney. She represented the Greek government against Great Britain, Yulia Tymoshenko (former Ukrainian Prime Minister), and even the country of Armenia where she fought for international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. All of that and much more incited Columbia Law School to offer her a lecturing job, and in the year 2015, she started lecturing as a senior fellow. She is listed as “Visiting Faculty” and works with the School’s Human Rights Institute.
She represented Julian Assange
Amal represented him to stop the extradition. However, she did not remain a part of his legal team, which could be a good thing in the end as her coworker, John Jones, who did not back out of the case was found dead last year in a case of apparent suicide.
She is a philanthropist
Amal Clooney, along with her husband, founded the Clooney Foundation for Justice in late 2016.
“We believe that justice means fighting for the rights of individuals unfairly targeted by oppressive governments through the courts. But justice is more than what is meted out in courts, it is litigated in communities as well. So advancing the cause of justice also means advancing justice for victims of war; justice for vulnerable children deprived of opportunities to learn; and justice for refugees seeking to rebuild their lives abroad.”
She is a fashion icon
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Ever since she got into the focus of the media, she has never failed to impress with her elegant choices and tasteful clothes. This has prompted various bloggers and journals to write about her every time she shows up in public and the entire world to try and emulate her.
