W&L's Franck Named to Leadership Positions with International Organizations
Prof. Susan Franck, professor of law at Washington and Lee University, has been named to the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law (ASIL).
ASIL’s mission is to foster the study of international law and to promote the establishment and maintenance of international relations on the basis of law and justice. The organization’s officers and council members are elected by members and include a who’s who of international law.
“It is an honor to serve on the Executive Council,” said Franck, who began working with ASIL when she was a young practitioner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, DC after being encouraged, both by practitioners and scholars, to participate in the organization. She has served on several ASIL committees and notably served as the co-chair of the International Economic Law Interest Group.
“Over time, I have been privileged to serve ASIL and its members in different capacities, and I have always been impressed with how ASIL seamlessly integrates theory and practice to make international law an integral part of the modern practice of law.
The Executive Council is made up of 24 members, nine officers, and four honorary officers. The Council has charge over the general interests of the Society, whose 4,000 members from nearly 100 nations include attorneys, academics, corporate counsel, judges, representatives of governments and nongovernmental organizations, and international civil servants. The Council oversees adoption of regulations, appropriation of money, issuance of publications, formation of committees, and more.
Franck is also chair-elect of the Academic Council for the Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA). She currently serves as vice-chair and will assume her new leadership role this June. The Academic Council is made up of the top academics in the field of international. Key projects of the ITA Academic Council include the preparation of programs, publications and education videos, along with organizing the joint ITA-ASIL annual conference in Washington, D.C.
Franck joined the W&L faculty in 2008. Her teaching and scholarship relates to international economic law and dispute resolution. She has presented her research to major government and international organizations including the U.S. Dept. of State, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the International American Development Bank (IADB), the International Centre for Settlement if Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the United Nations Commission on Trade and Investment (UNCTAD).
Franck’s current empirical research into factors that impact outcomes in investment treaty arbitration and dispute resolution has garnered significant attention and was featured in a recent Wall Street Journal article detailing controversy over President Obama’s international trade agenda. In 2014, Franck was elected the American Law Institute, the most prestigious law reform body in the U.S.
Before entering the legal academy, Franck practiced in the area of international economic dispute resolution on both sides of the Atlantic. From 1999-2001, Professor Franck was an associate in Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering’s International Group in Washington, D.C. where she was involved with various proceedings, including international trade disputes, commercial litigation regarding defaulted sovereign debt and one of the first investment treaty arbitrations against the Czech Republic. From 2002-2004, Professor Franck was a senior associate in the International Arbitration Group at Allen & Overy in London, England, where she represented investors and sovereign states in arbitrations involving breaches of investment treaties and underlying commercial agreements.
Franck received her B.A., summa cum laude, in Psychology and Political Science from Macalester College in 1993 and her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Minnesota in 1998. Professor Franck received a U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Grant to study international dispute resolution at the University of London where she received an LL.M. with merit.
