Our Team
Katrin Kuhlmann
President and FounderKatrin Kuhlmann is the President and Founder of the New Markets Lab, a Professor of Graduate and International Programs at Georgetown University Law Center, and the Faculty Director and Co-founder of the Center on Inclusive Trade and Development at Georgetown University Law Center. Professor Kuhlmann is also a Senior Associate (non-resident) with the Global Food and Water Security Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and she serves as a member of the Trade Advisory Committee on Africa of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). She has nearly thirty years of experience in international economic law, law and development, international trade law and policy, comparative law, trade corridors, and regional trade agreements. She is published widely and frequently speaks on these topics, and she has testified before Congress on trade and development issues. Her contributions include both comparative and contextual analysis of international law as it relates to development and methodological and theoretical approaches to international law, such as her forthcoming paper on “Micro International Law” (Stanford Journal of International Law, 2025), which proposes the study of granular, national and sub-national approaches to international legal design and norm setting.
Professor Kuhlmann sits on a number of non-profit boards and advisory boards, including the
Advisory Boards of the Law and International Development Societies (LIDS) at Harvard and Georgetown Law Schools, the Trade and Investment Law Group of the Law Schools Global League, the Yeutter Institute of International Trade and Finance at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the International Advisory Network of the Forum on Trade, Environment, and the SDGs of the Graduate Institute and UN Environment Programme, and the Stakeholder Advisory Board for AI for Food Systems of the University of California Davis. She is also a member of the Bretton Woods Committee and WTO Gender Research Hub and serves on the boards of the Washington International Trade Association, Listening for America, and Malaika Foundation.
She was previously a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, the Yeutter Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Nebraska College of Law - Clayton Yeutter Institute of International Trade and Finance, and a trade negotiator at USTR, and she practiced international law at Skadden Arps and Dewey Ballantine. She has also held leadership positions in several non-profit organizations and think tanks, including positions as a Senior Fellow and Director at the Aspen Institute and a Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund. She holds degrees from Harvard Law School and Creighton University and was the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship to study international economics.
Dhari AlSaleh
Director of ResearchDhari is the Director of Research at the New Markets Lab. Dhari specializes in international trade law, and his work at New Markets Lab focuses on issues relating to regional trade frameworks, sustainable development, climate change, and agricultural trade. Dhari also oversees business development, donor relations, and the Fellowship Program. Before his role as Director of Research at New Markets Lab, Dhari was a Senior Research Fellow at New Markets Lab, a Researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Scholl Chair in International Business, and a research assistant at Georgetown University Law Center. He is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, with an LL.M. in International Business and Economic Law and a Certificate in World Trade Organization and International Trade Law Studies. While at Georgetown University, Dhari was awarded the Thomas Bradbury Chetwood S.J. Prize for academic distinction and was also a fellow at the International Institute of Economic Law and an LL.M. Advisor at the Georgetown Journal of International Law. Prior to that, Dhari received his LL.B. in Common Law from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, where he also worked on immigration issues and conducted research on international economic law, death penalty abolition, and more.
Adron Naggayi Nalinya
Africa Region Agriculture Programs CoordinatorAdron is a trade lawyer and a non-resident Africa Region Agriculture Programs Coordinator at the New Markets Lab. Adron specializes in agricultural law, policy, and regulation. She focuses on agricultural inputs regulation, trade, legal analysis and drafting, intellectual property and licensing, and other issues. She has working experience in over 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. She holds a Bachelor of Laws degree (cum laude) from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, a Master’s in Law (LL.M) degree from Harvard Law School, a postgraduate diploma in legal practice from the Law Development Centre in Uganda, and several certificates, including from Harvard Business School, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), and the Nuremberg Academy in Germany.
Tara Francis
Lead in Trade and Development Initiatives in AsiaTara is the Lead on Trade and Development Initiatives in Asia at the New Markets Lab. Tara specializes in international trade law, and her work at the New Markets Lab has focused on issues relating to regional trade, digital trade, trade and development, capacity building, and implementation. She has also worked on matters relating to agriculture law and regulation. Her experience includes conducting legal research and fieldwork in over a dozen countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. She is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, where she earned both her LL.M. in International Business and Economic Law and a Certificate in World Trade Organization and International Trade Law. Prior to Georgetown, she worked at a banking and finance law firm in India, where she was part of the negotiation and advisory team.
Lauren Robbins
Legal ConsultantLauren is a U.S. licensed attorney and legal consultant at New Markets Lab. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law, where she earned her LL.M. in International Trade and Business Law. Prior to that, she worked as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Arizona and Coordinator at TradeLab, a Geneva-based non-profit focused on international economic regulation. She also received her J.D. from Boston College Law School. Her previous research has focused on international environmental law and climate change, agricultural trade issues, foreign direct investment, food safety, public health policy, and corporate social responsibility.
Connor Ko
Legal FellowConnor Ko is a Legal Fellow at New Markets Lab. He recently earned his LL.M. in International Business and Economic Law from Georgetown Law, with a focus on a Certificate in Securities & Financial Law. Prior to his LL.M. studies, he specialized in Financial Law during his J.D. at Pusan National University Law School in South Korea and earned a B.A. in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His academic and professional experience has been centered around business, economic, and financial law, including a year of associate work in Korea.
Manya Gupta
Legal ExternManya Gupta is an LL.M. Candidate (International Business and Economic Law specialization) and a merit scholar at Georgetown University Law Center. Her areas of interest are international trade and antitrust law. She is working as a research assistant at the Center for Inclusive Trade and Development in a part-time position. She serves as a fellow for the Institute of International Economic Law and as an LL.M. representative for the Georgetown Journal of International Law. She was recently selected as a Fall 2024 Scholar by the Association of Women in International Trade. Before coming to DC, Manya worked as a consultant for the Government of India at the Centre for Trade and Investment Law for five years. She represented India in free trade agreement negotiations on areas including government procurement, state-owned enterprises, and subsidies. She assisted the Indian Government in formulating its stance on discussions at the WTO and drafting domestic laws and regulations consistent with India's WTO commitments. She aims to deepen her knowledge and expertise of international trade and its intersection with development.
Sandra Ahamya
Legal ExternSandra Ahamya is an LL.M. student at Georgetown University Law Center and a qualified Ugandan attorney with six years of work experience. Before the LL.M., Sandra worked with a not-for-profit organization in Uganda defending human rights for two years. Before that, she worked at a corporate law firm in Uganda, where she handled business transactions, commercial contracts, intellectual property rights, data privacy, and regulatory and compliance work streams under the supervision of a partner at the firm. She co-founded and is a director of an engineering procurement and construction firm in Uganda (PSI Engineering Uganda Limited) with the aim of alleviating energy poverty, especially in rural Uganda.
Rohit Pothukuchi
Economic, Law, and Data Senior FellowRohit Pothukuchi established and leads Verdentum.org, a technology platform that helps leading international institutions, UN bodies, and governments track impact on development-sector projects and policies in over 45 countries. Rohit's research interest lies in using economic models, data, and technology to evaluate and drive better policies and laws globally. He started his career with White & Case LLP in New York City and served as a Research Assistant to the Hon. Justice J. Chelameswar at the Supreme Court of India. Rohit is an Affiliate Fellow at the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession and has been a Visiting Scholar at Columbia Law School. Rohit was named in the Forbes 30 UNDER 30 list in 2017 for his legal research efforts. He is a graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Law and NALSAR University.
Ellen Asamoah Ollennu
Legal FellowEllen is a Ghanaian lawyer. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from the University of Cape-Coast, Ghana, an LL.B. from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, a Professional Law Degree (BL) from the Ghana School of Law, and a Master’s Degree in International Legal Studies from Georgetown University Law Center. Upon her call to the Ghana Bar in 2017, she practiced as a Civil Litigator in Accra. In 2021, she set up her practice in Accra. Using the law as a tool to accomplish change, she dedicated her time and skills to the provision of legal services to indigent persons within her community. After graduating from her LL.M. in May 2024, she joined NML through the Georgetown Law Postgraduate Fellowship.
Lynette Ngila
Agricultural Law FellowLynette Ngila is an advocate with a career that spans both commercial practice and in-house counsel roles. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Law (Dip KSL) from the Kenya School of Law and is committed to continuous professional development through various legal studies. Prior to NML, Lynette has gained extensive experience representing agricultural companies in commercial matters. Her legal expertise is particularly focused on agricultural law, where she has helped businesses navigate the complexities of the agricultural sector, offering strategic legal advice on regulatory compliance, contract negotiations, and policy matters.