Our Team
Katrin Kuhlmann
President and FounderKatrin Kuhlmann is the President and Founder of the New Markets Lab, a non-profit law and development center and a Visiting Professor of Law and the Faculty Co-Director of the Center on Inclusive Trade and Development at Georgetown University Law Center. Professor Kuhlmann is also a Senior Associate with the Global Food 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 over twenty years of experience in international economic law, law and development, international trade law and policy, comparative economic 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.
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 member of the Bretton Woods Committee 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.
Tara Francis
Director of ResearchTara is the Director of Research at the New Markets Lab.Tara specializes in international trade law and her work at the New Markets Lab focuses on issues relating to inclusive trade, regional trade, digital trade, trade and development, capacity building and implementation. She has also worked on matters relating agricultural law and regulation. Her experience includes conducting legal research and field work 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.
Adron Naggayi Nalinya
Senior International Legal SpecialistAdron is a trade lawyer and a non-resident Senior International Legal Specialist 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 Masters’ 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 Nuremburg Academy in Germany.
Laura Valencia Cossio
International Legal SpecialistLaura Valencia Cossio is a Colombian attorney with six years of professional experience in private and multilateral institutions. She holds a bachelor's degree in Law with a minor in Economics from Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, and recently earned an LL.M. in International Business & Economic Law from Georgetown Law. Her academic and professional work has been centered around international economic law and development, with a focus on development finance, trade and investment law, international cooperation, and sustainable business development.
Ameir Abdulameir
Legal ExternAmeir Abdulameir is a Resident Legal Extern at New Markets Lab, based in Washington, DC. Currently in his last year of the J.D. program at Georgetown Law, he is pursuing a Certificate in WTO and International Trade Studies. At Georgetown Law, he holds the position of Co-President of the Georgetown Society for Trade, Investment and Development and is a Fellow at the Institute of International Economic Law. Prior to joining NML, he gained experience through internships at the IMF and IDB Invest Legal Department.
Dhari Alsaleh
Legal ExternDhari is a fellow at the Institute of International Economic Law and an LL.M. student at Georgetown University Law Center, specializing in International Business and Economic Law and WTO Studies. An LL.B. graduate with honors from the University of Warwick, his undergraduate research focused on Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) and decolonizing international law with a focus on international institutions and financial organizations.
Carlos M. Pedraza Peña
Legal ExternCarlos M. Pedraza Peña is currently an LL.M. student at Georgetown University Law Center, emphasizing in International Business and Economic Law student, with an emphasis in Securities & Financial Law. He graduated from Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia, obtaining a doble degree in Political Science and law. He wrote a thesis relating to the nascent regime of Human Rights and Corporate Governance throughout its application and interpretation in the Colombian regime.
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.