- Faculty
- Adjunct Faculty
- Supporting Faculty
- Visiting Faculty
- Visiting Scholars/Professors
- Administration
Faculty & Staff
Faculty
Director
Veronica Taylor
Professor of Law
Director, Asian Law Center
Professor Taylor is a specialist in commercial law and society in Asia, contracts and regulation. She also has a strong interest in law and development. Her work on Asian Law includes co-founding the Australian Journal Asian Law (Sydney: Federation Press), a key journal for scholars and practitioners in the field, and editing Asian Laws Through Australian Eyes (Sydney: LBC, 1997). A graduate of Monash University in Australia (B.A. Hon. 1986, LL.B. 1988) and the Asian Law Program at the University of Washington (LLM 1992), Professor Taylor joined the faculty in February 2001 as Professor of Law and Director of the Asian Law Center. Prior to moving to UW Professor Taylor was an Associate Director of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Professor Taylor has near-native fluency in Japanese and has been a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law a number of times. She has been a consultant to the United States Agency for International Development and AusAID and has worked in Armenia, Australia, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Vietnam and the US. She continues as an Associate of the Australia-Japan Research Centre at Australian National University.
Core Faculty
Jonathan Eddy
Professor of Law
Project Manager, Afghanistan Legal Educators Project
Professor Eddy joined the faculty in July 2005. After graduating from UW (JD '69), Jon began his career teaching commercial law in Ethiopia under Ford Foundation sponsorship and held faculty positions at a number of distinguished law schools. He has practiced commercial law for over 20 years, most recently as a partner in a major Seattle law firm. Since 2001 Jon has undertaken development work for USAID in Indonesia and the Philippines, focusing on anti-money laundering efforts, and for a U.S. Department of Commerce project on commercial law reform in the Arabian Gulf. At the Law School, Jon will teach and serve as Project Director for the Afghanistan Legal Educators project.
Clark Lombardi
Assistant Professor of Law
Professor Lombardi works in the area of Islamic law, comparative law, development law and has a particular interest in the broader intersection of law and religion in different legal cultures. He is a graduate of Columbia Law School (1998), where he was a James Kent Scholar and editor-in-chief of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. He also has a Ph.D. in Religion (Islamic Studies) from Columbia University (2001). Prior to beginning his graduate studies, Professor Lombardi worked for two years in Indonesia. After his studies, he clerked for Judge Samuel Alito of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He then worked as an associate with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York where he represented sovereigns, including the government of Afghanistan, in complex commercial matters and issues of commercial law reform. While in private practice in New York, he also held a position as adjunct lecturer at Columbia University School of Law where he taught Islamic legal and constitutional theory. Professor Lombardi teaches U.S. Federal Courts, Legal Analysis, Comparative Law Seminar and the Doctoral Research Seminar.
Dongsheng Zang
Assistant Professor
Professor Zang’s academic interests include international trade law, legal theory, and comparative law (with a focus on the role of law in social transformation in China). He holds an S.J.D. and LL.M. from Harvard Law School, in addition to his LL.M. from Renmin University ( Beijing) and LL.B. from Beijing College of Economics. His doctoral dissertation, “One-way Transparency: The Establishment of the Rule-based International Trade Order and the Predicament of Its Jurisprudence,” was awarded the 2004 Yong K. Kim ’95 prize. He was a research fellow at the East Asia Legal Studies at Harvard Law School during the 2004-05 academic year.
Adjunct Faculty
John (Jody) Chafee
Mr. Chafee is a commercial attorney at Starbucks Coffee Company and was formerly a principal at Riddell Williams law firm in Seattle. He focuses on technology, corporate and securities transactions. He received his B.A. in Asian Studies from Dartmouth College, cum laude, in 1985. He has a Masters of International Studies in Japan Area Studies (1988) and a J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law (1991). Mr. Chafee was formerly with the Seattle firm of Lane Powell Spears Lubersky and served as a foreign legal consultant with Miyake Hatasawa and Yamasaki in Tokyo, Japan. He is proficient in written and spoken Japanese and is admitted to the Washington State Bar. He teaches International Contracting and is co-authoring a text on Law, Development and State-Building with Professors Taylor, Ramasastry and Bergling.
Frederick (Rick) Guinee
Professor Guinee has an A.B. from Bowdoin College and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law (1988). Since 2002 he has taught international contracting in the Law School and business negotiations and general business law in the University of Washington's Graduate Executive MBA program at the Business School. Prior to teaching at UW, Professor Guinee practiced for many years in Tokyo (Nishimura & Partners) and Washington, D.C. (Arnold & Porter). His practice has focused on cross-border business transactions, international securities offerings, and representing foreign sovereign entities in litigation in U.S. courts. He is admitted to practice in Washington, the District of Columbia and Virginia. In Japan, Professor Guinee was admitted as gaikokuhō jimu bengoshi.
Susan Whiting
Associate Professor of Political Science
Professor Whiting specializes in Chinese and comparative politics, with particular emphasis on the political economy of transition. She is also Adjunct Associate Professor in the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. She has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan (1995) and a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Yale University (1986). Her first book, Power and Wealth in Rural China: The Political Economy of Institutional Change, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2001. She has contributed chapters on property rights and fiscal reform to numerous edited volumes. She has done extensive research in China and has worked on studies of governance and fiscal reform under the auspices of the Ford Foundation and the Asian Development Bank, respectively. Professor Whiting’s current research interests include the resolution of economic disputes and the use of the courts in China, the politics of fiscal reform, and the development of extractive capacity in transition economies. She teaches Law, Development, and Transition, a course offered jointly in the Department of Political Science, the Jackson School of International Studies, and the Law, Societies and Justice Program.
Saadia M. Pekkanen
Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor, Jackson School of International Studies
Professor Pekkanen’s teaching and research interests are in international political economy and international trade law, with a particular focus on the WTO. Her regional focus is on Japan, as well as East Asia more broadly. She received her masters in international affairs from Columbia University (1988), her doctorate in political science from Harvard University (1996), and did her graduate legal training at Yale Law School (2004). She is primarily interested in the ways that the presence of law and legal processes affects relations between and within states. Professor Pekkanen has authored numerous journal pieces on international trade and international trade law. Her books include Picking Winners? From Technology Catch-up to the Space Race in Japan (Stanford University Press, 2003), a co-edited volume entitled Japan and China in the World Political Economy (Routledge, 2005), and a manuscript entitled Japan’s Aggressive Legalism: Law and the New Foreign Trade Politics.
Supporting Faculty
Richard O. Kummert
Professor of Law
Professor Kummert teaches courses in business organization taxation, corporate law and business planning to second and third year students and serves as faculty advisor to the Washington Law Review. He has a B.S. from Illinois Institute of Technology, a C.P.A. from the University of Illinois, an M.B.A. from Northwestern University and an LL.B. from Stanford University. Professor Kummert practiced as an associate at the Los Angeles firm of O'Melveny & Myers for three years before joining the faculty in 1964 and is a member of the California bar. Professor Kummert has taught US-Japan Corporations and Comparative Corporate Governance in the Asian Law Program since its inception.
Anita Ramasastry
Associate Professor of Law
Co-Director, Shidler Center for Law, Commerce, and Technology
Professor Ramasastry joined the faculty in 1996. Her research interests include commercial law, banking and payments systems, law and development and comparative law. She has a B.A. and a J.D. from Harvard University and an M.A. from the University of Sydney. Professor Ramasastry served as a staff attorney at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, an associate at the firm White & Case in Budapest, Hungary, and assistant professor of law at the Central European University in Budapest. She was the symposium editor for the Harvard International Law Journal and has clerked for Justice Alan B. Handler of the New Jersey Supreme Court. Professor Ramasastry has been the recipient of several University teaching and public service awards. She is a commissioner and Chair of the Washington State delegation to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and the official reporter for the Uniform Money Services Act. She has been a consultant to the United States Agency for International Development, the European Commission and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. She is a visiting faculty member at the Central European University and the University of Melbourne. She is a member of the New York and New Jersey bars.
Toshiko Takenaka
Professor of Law
Director, Center for Advanced Study & Research on Intellectual Property
Associate Director, Intellectual Property Law and Policy LL.M. Program
Professor Takenaka is a graduate of the Asian Law Center (LL.M. and Ph.D.). Professor Takenaka joined the faculty in 1993 and teaches Patent Law, Comparative Patent Law, Intellectual Property Seminar and Intellectual Property Innovation in Science and Technology. After receiving a Bachelor of Law degree in 1981 from the Seikei University, Tokyo, Professor Takenaka pursued a successful career in patent prosecution and management with Texas Instruments Japan Ltd., where she served as a patent prosecution specialist. In 1986, she passed the Japanese Patent Attorney (Benrishi) Bar and worked as an associate for Yamasaki Law and Patent Office. She was a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Domestic and International Intellectual Property in Munich, Germany and a visiting professor at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. Currently she serves as an executive council member for the Intellectual Property Section of the Association of American Law School and as a member of the IP culture promotion committee sponsored by Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation.
Jane K. Winn
Professor of Law
Co-Director, Shidler Center for Law, Commerce & Technology
A graduate of Harvard Law (1987), Professor Winn teaches commercial and technology law courses and is the Co-Director of the Shidler Center for Law, Commerce & Technology. She is also a Visiting Fellow of the University of Melbourne School of Law, teaching in the e-Law program there. Professor Winn is a member of the American Law Institute and a board member of CALI - Computer Assisted Legal Instruction. From 1987 to 1989 she practiced law at the New York office of Shearman & Sterling. She is co-author of the treatise Law of Electronic Commerce (4th ed. 2001) and the casebook Electronic Commerce (2002). Her current research interests include electronic commerce law developments in the U.S., EU and greater China.
Visiting Scholars/Faculty
download PDF directory of 2006-2007 Visiting Scholars and Professors
Administration
Alice Kraus Stokke
Assistant Director
Ms. Stokke graduated from Connecticut College with honors in Asian Studies and Asian and European History. She obtained her J.D. from the University of Virginia in 1989. She has worked as a commercial law associate in private practice, in commercial banking at Bank of America, as business manager for an environmental consulting firm and as in-house counsel at a commercial real estate holding company. She is admitted to the bar in Connecticut and Washington. Ms. Stokke joined the Asian Law Center in 2003 and brings many years of administrative experience and a strong interest in Southeast Asia to the Center.
Dana Raigrodski
Assistant Director (International)
Ms. Raigrodski received her LL.B. degree from Tel Aviv University and her LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees from Tulane Law School. She has practiced law for the Israeli Defense Forces Military Advocate General Staff Command in Tel Aviv, serving as a military prosecutor and legal counselor. She also served as an adjunct faculty member at Baton Rouge College and has several publicationson on Theory of Law. Her research interests also include Law and Development and International Human Rights. Ms. Raigrodski coordinates international collaboration for the Law School, oversees the Visiting Scholars program and directs the Summer Institute in Transnational Law and Practice. She is admitted to the bar in New York.
Mie Murazumi
Asian Law Program Coordinator
Ms. Murazumi graduated from the University of Oxford in England with a B.A.in physics. She served as a diplomat for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan for twelve years, including an overseas posting in Paris, France. She received her J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law in 2001 and is a member of the Washington bar. Ms. Murazumi joined the Asian Law Center in 2003.
Claire O'Brien
Secretary Senior
Ms. O’Brien graduated from the University of Washington with a B.A. in Anthropology. She has worked as a background investigator for the U.S. government and as an office manager at the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She also volunteers as a Citizenship and ESL teacher for the Refugee Women’s Alliance. Ms. O’Brien joined the Asian Law Center in 2005.
