Renwei Diversity

‘Nobody is Above the Law’ – Amal Clooney

“It’s silly, no? / When a rocket ship explodes / And everybody still wants to fly?  / Some say a man ain’t happy / Unless a man truly dies, oh, why?” – Prince

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Amal Clooney (Photo credit: J. Merritt)

Last week, the Lebanon-born and U.K.-raised barrister Amal Clooney held her first speaking engagement in the United States. Although it was her first official speaking engagement here, she has spent a significant amount of time in America. She obtained her LLM from NYU School of Law, interned for then-Judge Sonia Sotomayor at the Second Circuit, worked for a couple years at Sullivan & Cromwell (on the infamous Enron case, among other matters), and spent last spring as a visiting professor at Columbia Law School.

After practicing law internationally at the highest levels for the past fifteen years, Clooney made her first-ever visit to Dallas to speak at a sold-out event, which raised more than $1 million to combat international human trafficking. Even though her list of feats is rather impressive, she still feels like she has quite a bit more to accomplish. So what can we learn from the famed human rights lawyer’s most recent speaking engagement?

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Renwei Diversity

Why George Takei And Lawyers Across America Keep Me Optimistic About The State Of Our Nation

“Raise a glass to freedom / Something they can never take away / No matter what they tell you / Raise a glass to the four of us / Tomorrow there’ll be more of us.” — Lin-Manuel Miranda, “The Story of Tonight,” Hamilton

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“How do you get this 20th century antique off the ground?” (A publicity photo from “Start Trek IV, The Voyage Home.”)

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend George Takei’s presentation in Dallas about his experiences growing up in an internment camp, advocating for marriage equality and LGBT rights, and acting in the Star Trek franchise.

It had been several months since I last heard him speak in San Diego, but it was clear that he remained ever optimistic about our democratic experiment. The cosmic observer and former lieutenant commander and captain of the USS Enterprise repeatedly reminded the audience that our country was founded by fallible men with noble ideas. And that a people’s democracy is at its best when its citizens are engaged and involved.

On Monday, Google honored the late Fred Korematsu on his 98th birthday through its daily Doodle. Some scholars, like Stanford Professor David Alan Sklanky, contend that Korematsu’s case justifying the use of Japanese internment is “not good law,” even though unfortunately it has never been overruled.

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Renwei Diversity

Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’ Think Piece For Professionals

“I’m going to keep on running because a winner don’t quit on themselves.”
– Beyoncé

On Saturday, Beyoncé dropped her latest visual album to support her new 12-track record, Lemonade. The narrative arc follows a form of the Kübler-Ross model. Her journey from isolation to community and anger to redemption is sorted into chapters: Intuition, Denial, Apathy, Reformation, Forgiveness, Hope, and Redemption.

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Beyonce breaks Instagram record with twin-pregnancy announcement.

During the Redemption phase of the video, Jay Z’s grandmother Hattie — on stage at her 90th birthday — shares with the audience, “I had my ups and downs, but I always find the inner strength to pull myself up. I was served lemons, but I made lemonade.”

Whether Beyoncé was addressing her parents’ problems, her personal journey, or a multigenerational tension with society, one thing was certain: she’s discovered a fiercerecipe for Lemonade. Beyoncé’s sixth album is an ode to battling hardship, withstanding adversity, and triumphing over tragedy. It is a celebration of life, self-realization, and empowerment. As Beyoncé tells us in her video:

Take one pint of water, add a half pound of sugar, the juice of eight lemons, the zest of half a lemon. Pour the water from one jug then into the other several times. Strain through a clean napkin.

Grandmother, the alchemist, you spun gold out of this hard life, conjured beauty from the things left behind. Found healing where it did not live. Discovered the antidote in your own kit. Broke the curse with your own two hands. You passed these instructions down to your daughter who then passed it down to her daughter.

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