Rule of Law Defenders

Scott Cummings is the Robert Henigson Professor of Legal Ethics at the UCLA School of Law and the founding faculty director of the UCLA Program on Legal Ethics and Democracy, which promotes empirical research and innovative programming on the challenges facing lawyers in the twenty-first century. He is also a long-time member of the UCLA David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy. In 2021, he was selected as the Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the European University Institute and a fellow at the Stanford Center for the Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences to study the role of lawyers in strengthening the rule of law. He was awarded a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship to study the role of lawyers in democratic backsliding.

His recent books explore how innovative legal mobilization produces transformative social change. Among the publications he has authored or co-authored are the forthcoming Lawyers and Movements: Legal Mobilization in Transformative Times; Making Public Interest Lawyers in a Time of Crisis: An Evidence-Based Approach; and the first public interest law textbook, Public Interest Lawyering: A Contemporary Perspective.

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Jill Morrison serves as the Executive Director of the Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship Program at the Georgetown University Law Center, as well as its Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa Program. She also co-teaches The First Thousand Days, a Global Health Law course focusing on laws and policies impacting the developmental period from a fetus’s conception through birth until the age of two; and she worked with a group of students to develop a Reproductive Justice curriculum for Georgetown’s Street Law program.

In addition to her work at Georgetown, she spent thirteen years at the National Women’s Law Center, where she developed legal theories to protect and advance access to comprehensive reproductive health services, and to protect the rights of vulnerable pregnant and parenting women. Prior to that, she served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Sterling Johnson Jr., of the Eastern District of New York; spent a year at the Women’s Law Project as a Philadelphia Bar Foundation Fellow; and was in private practice with Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll.

In 1957, Charles Rhyne, president of the American Bar Association (ABA) — the world’s largest voluntary organization of lawyers and judges — envisioned a special day for celebrating the ideals of our legal system.

A year later, embracing this vision amidst a global Cold War characterized by freedom’s rule of law versus communism’s rule by law, President Dwight D. Eisenhower established “Law Day” as one of national dedication to rule of law principles. In 1961, Congress made May 1 the official date for celebrating it.

This year’s Law Day theme, “The Rule of Law and the American Dream,” highlights the fact that the rule of law — the idea that no person is above the law — is indispensable to the human right to live free and pursue ones dreams.

That’s why cylindr and the Alliance for American Rule of Law teamed up this year on a Voices for the Rule of Law campaign: To give rule of law defenders (lawyers, journalists, citizen-advocates) a Law Day forum to declare what the rule of law means to me. Their compelling answers can be found in this special Law Day edition of cylindr’s Rule of Law Defenders podcast — recorded both in-studio and remotely.

Have a listen. Share the episode. Let us know what you think in the comments and say what the rule of law means to you. And let’s save our democracy — for the better.

#TreatPeopleRight

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Catherine Hanssens has specialized in HIV and sexual health legal and policy issues since 1984, and is a seasoned litigator, legislative lawyer, community organizer, and policy advocate.

A long-time activist for personal autonomy in sexual, reproductive, and healthcare decision-making, she is Founder and Executive Director Emerita of The Center for HIV Law and Policy (CHLP) which, under her leadership, was the first organization in the U.S. to challenge and organize against state and federal laws that rely on HIV status as a basis for criminal liability.

She continues to consult with state and national organizations and researchers on projects related to the criminalization of sex and identity; the application of federal disability law in criminal justice settings; reproductive health and rights; non-profit leadership; organization creation and working with fiscal sponsors, succession planning, and fundraising for new/grassroots organizations.

She also has decades of experience as a drafter of state and federal bills and legislative analysis; and is expert on the needs of LGBTQ people and those living with HIV in the criminal legal system, having written and advocated widely on those issues.

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Elise Groulx Diggs is Door Tenant at 9 Bedford Row Chamber in London; Honorary President of the International Criminal Bar; criminal defence lawyer; legal advisor on international criminal law; and an accredited mediator. She is ranked by Chambers & Partners Global Guide as an Eminent Practitioner in the field of Business and Human Rights and was President of the International Criminal Defence Attorneys Association (ICDAA) for more than 15 years. She is regarded as “an innovator” and “a top expert in the field” and been hailed for her “unflagging commitment to business and human rights;” for her depth of expertise about the multiple forms of hard and soft law across the world related to that dynamic field; and her “extraordinary network of contacts in the public and private sector that give her unparalleled access to thought leaders around the globe.” She advises NGOs, governmental bodies, and corporations on human rights due diligence, legislation drafting, and the development of frameworks for policy implementation. She is also active in various research projects designed to promote corporate social responsibility and tackle issues of modern slavery.

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Desirée Cormier Smith is a co-founder and co-president of the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice. She is also an inaugural Senior Fellow in the newly launched Human Rights & US Foreign Policy Fellowship at the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School and an inaugural Alcee L. Hastings Global Futures Fellow at Howard University’s Ralph Bunche International Affairs Center. From 2022 until 2025, she served as the US Department of State’s inaugural Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice. Previously, she served as the Senior Advisor in the Department of State’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs, and worked at the Open Society Foundations as the Senior Policy Advisor for Africa, Europe, and Eurasia. Before that she was the Senior Director with Albright Stonebridge Group’s Africa Practice, where she advised and assisted private and social sector clients on growth strategies across the African continent. She began her career as a State Department Foreign Service Officer with assignments in Mexico, South Africa, and Washington, DC.

Jessica Stern is also Co-Founder and Co-President of the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice and an expert in gender, sexuality and human rights with more than two decades of leadership across government, civil society, multilateral institutions, philanthropy, and academia. She also serves as an inaugural Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights, where she is pioneering new fellowships on global LGBTQI+ equality and inclusive foreign policy. She is the first LGBTQI+ rights expert to hold a senior fellowship at the Kennedy School. From 2021 to 2025, she served as US Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons, where she directed US foreign policy to combat discrimination and violence worldwide. As Special Envoy, she represented the United States bilaterally, mobilized government coalitions, and oversaw policies and programs disbursing millions in foreign assistance. Previously, she served as Executive Director of Outright International, one of the world’s largest global LGBTQI+ rights NGOs. At Columbia University, she teaches the first and only course on LGBTQI+ rights and public policy at the School of International and Public Affairs; and she lectures at Leiden University’s Summer School on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in International Law, the premier academic intensive for students and practitioners in the field.

Jessica So is an international human rights lawyer and advocate with more than a decade of global experience leading high-impact initiatives, including eight years based in Myanmar, Lebanon, and Jordan. She’s an expert in trial monitoring, fair trial rights, and fundamental freedoms, with deep experience in cross-cultural lawyering, managing multi-stakeholder programs, and conducting research in challenging environments.

Most recently, she served as an International Legal Advisor at the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights, where she led programs focused on trial monitoring, press freedom, and environmental defenders. She has authored or co-authored more than 15 reports published by leading international organizations.

Sasha Filippova serves as Senior Staff Attorney at the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), where she focuses primarily on accountability for human rights violations; gender justice, including sexual and gender-based violence; and governance. A US-based human rights non-profit organization, established in 2004, IJDH is a partnership of human rights advocates in Haiti and the US dedicated to tackling the root causes of injustice that impacts basic human rights in Haiti.

Prior to joining IJDH, Sasha served as a Senior Legal Fellow with the Center for Justice and Accountability, where she worked on litigating a crimes against humanity claim; and as a Legal Advisor and Fellow with the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative, where she focused on confronting gender-based violence and promoting women’s empowerment around the globe.

She started her legal career as an associate at the A&O Shearman law firm, where her practice included international dispute resolution, public international law, and human rights. While there, she served as one of the lead counsel in a successful lawsuit against the Syrian government for its extrajudicial killing of war correspondent Marie Colvin, and advised clients on a variety of legal and policy matters, including interstate territorial disputes and UN Security Council reform.

Shibani Shah is a lawyer and international development professional with more than a decade of experience advancing rule of law and anti-corruption reform in conflict-affected and transitional areas. She has led multi-million-dollar USAID and State Department funded initiatives across Kosovo, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Vietnam, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, serving in senior roles with the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative and USAID. Her work has ranged from shaping national legal aid frameworks and drafting legislation to improve access to justice, to advising on transparency in post-war reconstruction in Ukraine. She is also one of the many thousands who were affected by the Trump administration's destruction of USAID.

Andrew Solomon is a seasoned justice innovator and rule of law influencer with a passion for disrupting bureaucracy and dismantling barriers to change. For three decades, he has led in designing cutting-edge programs, building partnerships, and facilitating locally-led initiatives to close justice gaps, strengthen trust in justice institutions, and empower people and communities as an international donor, development practitioner, and lawyer.

His specializations in people-centered and open justice and court excellence have been shaped by his employment with such organizations as the American Bar Association, the American Society of International Law, the Brookings Institution, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Before founding the Rule of Law IDEAS Co-Lab, he served for over a decade as a Senior Rule of Law Advisor at the now dismantled United States Agency for International Development (USAID), where he led or contributed to the design of more than two dozen rule of law programs — from Serbia and Kosovo to Georgia to Somalia and Ethiopia, to El Salvador, to Uzbekistan and the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos-totaling roughly $500 million in foreign assistance awards. While at USAID, Andrew also led the development of the agency’s first-ever Rule of Law Policy and numerous technical tools and resources.

He currently serves on the boards of the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative and International Association for Court Administration (IACA). He is also a past board member of the Justice Action Coalition, a multi-stakeholder and donor platform to catalyze people-centered justice reforms around the world, representing the United States government.