Since 1993, Reginald F. Lewis Fellows have gone on to amazing careers in the legal academy. Among the alumni and alumnae of the program are tenured professors at the top law schools in the United States. The following table provides detailed information about the current work of former fellows.
2022-23 Reginald F. Lewis Fellow
Idriss Paul-Armand Fofana

Idriss Fofana is the Reginald F. Lewis Fellow at Harvard Law School. He is a legal historian whose research examines the relationship between international law and global inequality. His scholarship explores African, Asian, and indigenous engagement with transnational legal regimes through subjects as varied as the state regulation of private property, non-discrimination standards, the law of treaties, and international labor migration.
Idriss is a PhD candidate in History at Columbia University. He earned his JD from Yale Law School and his undergraduate degree from Harvard University. He served as the Judicial Fellow for Judge Abdulqawi Yusuf, then president of the International Court of Justice. Idriss has participated in litigation and advocacy on matters of immigration, citizenship, and national security. He has also worked in the public international law and international arbitration practices of major law firms.
Idriss’s work has appeared in the Journal of the History of International Law/Revue d’histoire du droit international, the Heidelberg Journal of International Law/ Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht, and the Yale Journal of International Law. His research has been funded by the American Society for Legal History, the Fulbright Student Scholarship program, the Council on Library and Information Resources, the Mellon Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council.
Idriss is licensed to practice law in the State of New York.
LEWIS FELLOW | FELLOWSHIP YEAR(S) | CURRENT POSITION |
Chika Okafor | 2021-2022 | PhD Candidate in Economics Harvard University |
Zahra Takhshid | 2019-2021 | Assistant Professor of Law University of Denver Sturm College of Law |
Nikolas Bowie | 2017-2018 | Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law Harvard Law School |
Duane Rudolph | 2015-2017 | Assistant Professor of Law Peking University, School of Transnational Law |
K. Sabeel Rahman | 2012-2014 | Associate Professor of Law Brooklyn Law School |
Abbye J. Atkinson | 2009-2010 | Class of 1965 Assistant Professor of Law UC Berkeley |
Vincent Chiao | 2008-2010 | Associate Professor University of Toronto Faculty of Law |
Eleanor Marie Brown | 2007-2009 | Professor of Law and International Affairs Penn State Law |
Hilary C. Robinson | 2006-2007 | Associate Professor of Law and Sociology Northeastern University School of Law |
Angela M. Banks | 2004-2006 | Charles J. Merriam Distinguished Professor of Law Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law |
Timothy William Waters | 2003-2004 | Professor of Law and Val Nolan Faculty Fellow Indiana University Maurer School of Law |
Gavin Clarkson | 2002-2003 | Owner/Managing Director Native American Capital |
Cristina M. Rodríguez | 2001-2002 | Leighton Homer Surbeck Professor of Law Yale Law School |
Laura Nyantung Beny | 2000-2001 | Earl Warren DeLano Professor of Law University of Michigan Law School |
Stephen M. Rich | 2000-2001 | Maurice Jones, Jr. – Class of 1925 Professor of Law University of Southern California School of Law |
Kenneth W. Mack | 1999-2000 | Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law Harvard Law School |
Lino Mendiola, III | 1998-1999 | Partner, Co-Head of Global Energy Eversheds-Sutherland, LLP |
Marc Spindelman | 1997-1998 | Isadore and Ida Topper Professor of Law Ohio State University Moritz College of Law |
Ralph Richard Banks | 1996-1997 | Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law Stanford Law School |
Alexa J. Smith | 1995-1996 | Director of Major Gifts NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. |
Sydney Patel | 1994-1995 | |
Richard Thompson Ford (Inaugural Lewis Fellow) | 1993-1994 | George E. Osborn Professor of Law Stanford Law School |