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OUR TEAM
Katrin Kuhlmann, President and Founder
Katrin Kuhlmann is President and Founder of the New Markets Lab and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. She is also a Fellow with the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) at the Aspen Institute, through which she chairs the ANDE Legal Working Group, and a Senior Advisor at the Corporate Council on Africa. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Harvard Law and International Development Society and was a 2012-13 Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow at Harvard Law School. She also serves on the boards of the Washington International Trade Association and the Malaika Foundation.
Katrin Kuhlmann, President and Founder
Katrin Kuhlmann is the President and Founder of the New Markets Lab, a non-profit law and development center, a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, and the Yeutter Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Nebraska College of Law - Clayton Yeutter Institute of International Trade and Finance. Professor Kuhlmann is a Senior Associate with the Global Food Security Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and also 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 several occasions.
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 Yeutter Institute of International Trade and Finance at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the Bretton Woods Committee, and the Trade Policy Forum. She is also a board member of the Washington International Trade Association, Listening for America, and Malaika Foundation.
She was previously a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School 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.
To get in contact with Katrin Kuhlmann, email mail@newmarketslab.org
Director of Research
Tara Francis is the Director of Research at New Markets Lab based in Washington, DC. She is a lawyer from India, specializing in international trade, banking, and finance law. 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. At Georgetown, she worked at TradeLab Clinic where she engaged in advising a tech start-up set up a social cryptocurrency platform and she also worked part-time as a Teaching Assistant to Professor Joost Pauwelyn at Georgetown 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.
International Legal Specialists
Adron Naggayi Nalinya, International Legal Specialist
Adron is a non-resident International Legal Specialist with the New Markets Lab based in Uganda. Her prior legal experience includes intellectual property, environment, energy, human rights, and health. Her work at NML is focused on a number of aspects of international law and development, including agricultural law and regulation, land tenure, financial services, and legal issues impacting emerging businesses. She is a Ugandan lawyer who holds a Master's in Law (LLM) degree from Harvard Law School and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.
Maria Florencia Abregu, International Legal Specialist
Maria Florencia is an International Legal Specialist at the New Markets Lab, based in New York. She currently focuses on issues related to harmonization of regional regulations linked to trade, agriculture and development in Southern Africa. Her interests include trade facilitation, digital trade and e-commerce, development, dispute settlement and trade remedies. Her prior experience includes working as a legal advisor to the Undersecretary of Foreign Trade of Argentina, where she focused on the Argentine import and export regimes, compliance with WTO legislation, trade remedies cases, and trade in services. She also worked as a legal intern at the Appellate Body Secretariat of the World Trade Organization, where she focused on dispute settlement matters.
Maria Florencia is fluent in Spanish, English and French. She obtained her LL.M. in International Legal Studies and WTO Certificate from Georgetown University Law Center, where she graduated with distinction. While at Georgetown, she worked at the TradeLab clinic in a project focused on digital trade. She also holds a law degree from the University of Buenos Aires. She is a fellow of the Institute of International Economic Law at Georgetown University, and is admitted to the Buenos Aires Bar.
Vikram Naik, International Legal Specialist
Vikram is a Non-Resident International Legal Specialist with the New Markets Lab. His previous experience includes providing legal consultancy to varied clients including governments, industry associations and large corporations on all aspects of international trade and investment, customs, and dispute resolution, with a focus on trade remedies, market access issues, and non-tariff barriers. Vikram holds a Masters in International Business and Economic Law and a Certificate in WTO Studies from Georgetown University, and is an admitted attorney in India. While at Georgetown, he was awarded the Thomas Bradbury Chetwood, S.J. Plaque for his academic distinction and was a fellow at the Institute of International Economic Law at Georgetown University. He has also been an adjunct professor teaching intellectual property in India.
Olamide Omolaja, International Legal Specialist
Olamide is a Non-Resident International Legal Specialist and consultant based in West Africa for the New Markets Lab. He previously worked as a Public Policy Advisor at the International law firm Dentons and was an associate at two of Nigeria’s leading commercial law firms. Olamide’s work experience includes advising a state government in Nigeria on its partnership with an international energy company for the construction and development of an independent power plant. He has conducted extensive legal research and issued opinions on diverse areas of law including Land and Property Law, Corporate Law and Finance, Labor and Employment Law and Diplomatic Immunity and Privileges. Olamide holds an LLB from Lagos State University and an LLM in Financial Services from Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Mushfiqur Rahman, Senior Legal Fellow
Mushfiqur Rahman is a Senior Legal Fellow at New Markets Lab based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is contributing to NML's ongoing trade and sustainable development project, examining the nexus between international trade law and sustainable development from the perspective of small and medium enterprises, as well as, supporting the development of NML's library of law and development tools. Mushfiqur graduated from Georgetown University Law Center with an LL.M. in International Business and Economic Law and a Certificate in International Arbitration and Dispute Resolution. His academic work centered around international economic law and international investment law. Mushfiqur also holds a double degree in Law and Business Administration (Finance) from the National University of Singapore, and has been a keen advocate for the rights of Bangladeshi migrant workers in Singapore during his undergraduate years.
Legal and Digital Team
Rohit Pothukuchi, Economics, Law, and Data Senior Fellow
Rohit 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.
Legal Fellows
Brian Chen, Legal Fellow
Brian Chen is a recent J.D. graduate from Georgetown University Law Center where he served as a Senior Editor for Volume 52 of the Georgetown Journal of International Law and a Fellow for the Institute of International Economic Law. At Georgetown, Brian consulted for TradeLab Statistics as part of a consortium of economists, lawyers, and policy specialists on Bangladesh trade facilitation matters and for the Harrison Institute for Public Law on counseling developing countries in mitigating exposure to investment arbitration claims during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, Brian was a Chinese Taipei Staffer to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council, where he advised the CEOs of Acer, Inc., Taiwan Mobile, and AppWorks on leveraging international public policy to grow their businesses and to promote economic development in Taiwan. He was also an International Trade Paralegal with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Washington, DC, where he counseled States and Fortune 500 clients on cases including WTO and investor-state dispute settlement, export controls and sanctions compliance, and anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations. Before law school, Brian earned his M.A. from King's College London and his B.A. from the University of Virginia.
Kuladeep Medasani, Legal Fellow
Kuladeep Medasani is a Legal Fellow at New Markets Lab based in Washington, D.C. He is an Indian trained lawyer specializing in international trade law and international investment law. Kuladeep graduated from Georgetown University Law Center with a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Business and Economic Law with a certificate in International Trade Law and World Trade Organization Studies. He obtained his Bachelor of Business Administration and Bachelor of Laws (B.B.A., LL.B. Hons.) from Jindal Global Law School in Delhi, India. His academic work is focused on international economic and investment laws.
Summer Fellows
Virginia Upegui Caro
Virginia is a Colombian attorney with experience in the private and public sectors. She graduated from Georgetown University Law Center, earning a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree in International Legal Studies and a Specialization Certificate in International Human Rights Law. While at Georgetown, she focused her coursework on exploring the intersections between international environmental law, human rights, and sustainable development. Before joining the NML team, she served three years as a judicial law clerk at the Constitutional Court of Colombia. While working at Court, she drafted various judicial decisions on individual human rights cases and gained experience performing legal research on international human rights instruments, domestic regulations, and constitutional case law regarding social and economic rights. She also has experience in private practice, where she worked at a law firm in Bogota advising national and international clients from diverse industries. Virginia is fluent in Spanish, English, and French.
Eunice Nabakwa
Eunice Nabakwa is a trained attorney from Uganda with experience in land tenure, resource governance, and gender equity. She is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center where she earned her Master of Laws in international studies and a certificate in Human Rights. At Georgetown, she was a Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa Fellow. She also holds a Master of Laws-General Studies and a Bachelor of Laws from Makerere University. Her LAWA thesis focused on accounting for women’s contribution towards property acquisition in marriage. She has spent nine years working with the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Uganda. Her work focused on developing and reviewing laws and policies on land, building capacities of land management institutions, implementing land laws, developing land registration tools, and supervising the processes of land registration. She has also used the law to advance marginalized women in her community.
Deepashikha Godbole
Deepashikha is a new member of NML joining the summer fellows. After several internships in diverse streams, litigation piqued her interest and after graduating in 2019, she practiced in the areas of Civil, Real Estate, Constitutional and Policy litigation in the Bombay High Court for two years. After an LLM in Georgetown and a short stint at the IMF in policy area, NML provided her with an opportunity to work, She was immediately intrigued and began work with advisory handbooks and policy formulation at NML. Deepashikha finds the breadth of work carried out at NML with limited resources is quite astonishing. .
Gloria Ngumi
Gloria Ngumi is a recent LL.M graduate from Georgetown University Law Center where she was a Leadership & Advocacy for Women in Africa Fellow and a Gender+ Justice Initiative fellow. She is a Kenyan human rights lawyer specializing in intersectional research on trade and gender equality. Previously, Gloria worked at an AgTech startup implementing food security solutions in Kenya, and at the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights where she focused on public interest litigation touching on national population registration systems, forced eviction, environmental justice for indigenous communities and business & human rights issues. Gloria earned her LL.B from the University of Nairobi and her Postgraduate Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law.
Davou Pam
Davou Kim Pam is a Legal Fellow at New Markets Lab based in Toronto, Canada. His areas of interest include international trade law, international investment law, digital trade, international dispute resolution, and regional economic integration. He holds a Master of Laws (LL.M) in international trade & foreign investment law from the University of Ottawa. His LL.M dissertation examined the treaty provisions creating the dispute settlement mechanism in some of the Regional Economic Communities of Africa and other major trade agreements with a view to recommending a more suited DSM for the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement. He has over the years gained experience in litigation and business law from leading law firms in Lagos, Nigeria.
Sara Griffiths
Sara Griffiths was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. After relocating to the United States for high school she went on to graduate magna cum laude from Miami-Dade College and thereafter transferred to American University and completed her undergraduate education at the School of International Service. While there she earned a bachelor’s degree in International Studies with concentrations in Identity, Race, Gender and Culture and Peace, Global Security and Conflict Resolution with a regional focus in Latin America and the Caribbean. Now an incoming third year student at Georgetown University Law Center, she has particular interest in the legal spheres of international human rights, public international law, and development law.
Alejandro Solano Meardi
Alejandro is a Legal Fellow at New Markets Lab, where he focuses his work on the intersections between trade and technology, like digital trade. As a former Corporate Associate, he has a deep understanding of the foundation of legal drafting and transactional work. He also gained important international litigation and arbitration experience while working at two international law firms and is fluent in English and Spanish. Alejandro is a U.S.-trained attorney. He holds a J.D. degree from American University Washington College of Law and an LL.M. degree in Technology Law and Policy from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was Articles Editor for the Georgetown Technology Law Review. Lastly, he obtained a B.S. degree in Business Management from the Pennsylvania State University.
Summer Interns
Ayushi Das
Ayushi is currently entering 12th grade at a Northwood High School in Southern California. Throughout school, she has had a clear interest in law, public policy, and grassroots activism work demonstrated through her involvement with local education efforts and programs. She is extremely grateful for the opportunity to intern with NML and has learned significant details about agricultural law, patents, and the research NML does. After graduating she hopes to pursue a Bachelor degree in Sociology and eventually attend Law school to fulfill the type of work done at NML.
