Announcements
CHRGJ Welcomes New Legal Director Nikki Reisch
October 8, 2014

The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) is pleased to announce that Nikki Reisch has joined our team as the new Legal Director. Nikki joins us with an impressive work history that has focused on social and economic rights, with an emphasis on corporate accountability, economic inequality, and environmental justice. Her research and practice interests also include immigrant rights and the intersection between domestic civil rights issues and international human rights law.

Before joining CHRGJ, Nikki served as a law clerk to the Honorable Marsha S. Berzon on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2012-2013 and to the Honorable Raymond J. Lohier, Jr. on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in 2013-2014.  In 2012, she received her J.D., magna cum laude, from NYU School of Law, where she was a Root-Tilden-Kern Public Interest Scholar and an Institute for International Law and Justice Scholar, and the recipient of the Frank H. Sommer Memorial Award, the David Friedman Memorial Award, and the Jerome Lipper Prizeupon graduation. While at NYU, Nikki interned with CHRGJ, conducting research for the Global Justice Clinic on gender-based violence and human rights in Haiti, and supporting the Clinic’s litigation related to the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program. Nikki also worked as a student advocate in NYU’s Immigrant Rights Clinic, where she participated in federal litigation concerning the constitutionality of U.S. immigration policies and practices and access to information under the Freedom of Information Act. Nikki holds a B.A. in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University.

Prior to studying law, Nikki worked as an advocate with non-governmental organizations monitoring the effects of international financial and development institutions on communities in the Global South.  She spent years conducting research and advocacy related to the human rights impacts of extractive industry and large-scale infrastructure projects, trade liberalization and climate change, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa.

On her appointment, Professor Margaret Satterthwaite, CHRGJ Faculty Director and Co-Chair, stated: “We are thrilled to welcome Nikki back to NYU. Her real-world human rights experience and stellar academic accomplishments make her a perfect fit for the Center. Nikki will take a leading role in shaping and implementing our new initiative on economic and social rights and will be central to the Center’s activities more broadly.”

Nikki replaces Sarah Knuckey, who departed in June to join Columbia Law School as the faculty co-director of the Human Rights Institute, director of the Human Rights Clinic, and the Lieff Cabraser Associate Clinical Professor of Law. Nikki will continue Sarah’s work overseeing the Center’s research and advocacy priorities and will also guide CHRGJ through a programmatic transition to its upcoming initiative on economic and social rights.

Please join CHRGJ in welcoming Nikki Reisch to the NYU Community.

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