Professor Gayl Westerman
PROFESSOR OF LAW
Director, International Programs
B.A. Stanford University
M.S. University of Pennsylvania
J.D. Pace University School of Law
LL.M. Yale University
J.S.D. Yale University
Author, teacher, attorney.
With her husband in medical school and student loans looming Professor Westerman took a path much traveled by female attorneys of her time. “I taught for a long time and worked in educational research, which was a lovely career,” said Westerman. “But at age 38 I chose to attend Pace Law School to get my J.D.” While still at Pace Professor Westerman studied abroad at Emmanuel College in Cambridge, where her interest in International Law and teaching as a career grew. After graduation Westerman attended Yale Law School and obtained her LL.M. and J.S.D. degrees within two years.
Today, Professor Westerman serves as Director of International Programs at Pace Law School and teaches courses in International Law, Contracts, Commercial Law: SALES, Antitrust, and Admiralty. Her bibliography includes three books on Maritime Law.
Most recently, Westerman spearheaded the First Annual Pace International Criminal Court Moot Competition, where law students competed against one another in the context of a hypothetical criminal trial to be argued before the International Criminal Court. The event epitomizes her progressive academic philosophy and empowering teaching style.
With a B.A. from Stanford University, an M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania, A J.D. from Pace, and an LL.M. and J.S.D. from Yale University, Westerman knows the best U.S. education has to offer. “But [legal education] should also be about opening a window on the world and allowing students to witness, or participate in, the process rather than simply taking classes on campus; the traditional U.S. legal education paradigm.
In 1985, with Professor Westerman’s urging, Pace established its London Law Program. Every year since its establishment the program takes students from Pace and over one hundred other law school to University College Faculty of Laws, University of London (UCL) to study for a full sprint semester.
In 1996, Westerman developed the International Summer Internships Abroad program providing students that are proficient in a foreign language the opportunity to work for eight weeks in law firms around the world. Students learn both the legal language and the civil law of the countries they select. Well over one hundred students have worked for prestigious law firms in 25 countries across five continents.
In 2003, Professor Westerman established the Human Rights in Action program, which offers student who exhibit a commitment to the protection of human right opportunities to work at war crime tribunals, humanitarian relief agencies, and rule of law projects in emerging democracies. Last summer one student was accepted as an intern in the United Nation War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. She worked in the office of the prosecutor on the Milosevich trial. Another student worked in the office of the prosecutor at the Rwanda tribunal in Tanzania (ICTR), assisting in the prosecution of the first female defendant charged with the crime of rape due to action undertaken as part of the genocide over ten years ago.
Some of Westerman’s students have even worked to prevent future international crimes. “[Pace Law alumna] Anna Marciano ‘98 interned in Rome the summer that a statute was drafted and adopted that led to the formation of the International Criminal Court,” Westerman recalled. ”Fluent in Italian, Anna, assisted in drafting provisions with two of the most important people in the field.” “Anna returned to Pace this year to help us Judge the first International Criminal Court Moot Competition. So many thing in the Pace program come full circle,” Westerman remarked, “with former students returning to pace to assist current student in a myriad of ways.”