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Amal Clooney in Altuzarra for the New Friends New Life Wings Luncheon in Dallas 14.04.2016

nati3873

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Picture via Shelly Slater

Amal Clooney took her first trip to Dallas to stand up for those sold into slavery throughout the world.

She spoke before a sold-out crowd at the annual New Friends New Life luncheon on Thursday at the Hilton Anatole.

The event raised more than $1 million for the anti-trafficking organization, which offers counseling, housing and other services to 1,400 formerly trafficked teens and women every year.

Amal Clooney discussed international human trafficking, crimes against journalists and how her passion makes her good at her job. The conversation was moderated by WFAA-TV (Channel 8) anchor Shelly Slater.

Though the conversation occasionally drifted to the topic of Clooney’s husband, actor George Clooney, she remained focused on the fact that 27 million people are enslaved throughout the world.

Clooney said that if nonprofits can make a difference to just one woman, the work is worth it.

“A lot I’m hearing about what New Friends New Life does is giving hope, bringing hope to them just to show you’re there,” she said. “It’s about being resilient and not giving up.”

Clooney said her passion motivates her work in human rights.

“The reason I’m doing the cases I do is because I’m emotional about them,” she said. “I don’t think a woman should apologize for that any more than a man should.”

Clooney said she doesn’t believe in starting a career with a long-term plan. It’s better to see where the work takes you, she said. But she praised a student from Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School for already knowing what she wants to do.

“I’ve offered her an internship just as soon as she gets her law degree,” Clooney joked.

The student, Samantha Casas, has worked on anti-trafficking projects and spoke before Clooney. Casas emphasized the importance of helping victims of sexual trafficking.

“Without an organization like New Friends New Life, they may never know what it means to be educated, to be loved, to be free,” said Casas, who wants to follow in Clooney’s footsteps.

Amal Clooney said knowledge about the issues is important, which is why she said she works so hard to free journalists imprisoned in countries with few free-speech protections.

“We need them to be able to tell us what’s happening in the world,” she said.

That information, Amal Clooney said, has kept her from supporting businesses or countries that allow slavery of women.

–> Source  The Dallas Morning News

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Amal Clooney quotes :

Her first trip to Texas was slightly more stressful.
“When I was coming here, I thought about my first-ever trip to Texas. It started when I first began working as a lawyer in New York … I got a call from the assigning partner who said, ‘Yeah, have you ever heard of Enron?’ The next day, my clients were on the front page of The New York Times, and I was working for the next two years in Houston. That was my introduction to Texas, so it’s nice being here in Dallas under much more pleasant and less stressful circumstances.”

Public life has changed dramatically since her high-profile wedding
Despite the luncheon’s heavy topic, Clooney spoke often with a sense of humor.
“As a barrister, sometimes here in America I am asked, ‘What’s it like working in the coffee industry?'”
She relayed stories then of living under an entirely new — and often bizarre — microscope. Like the snarky time Vanity Fair posted a photo of her wearing a traditional barrister’s wig next to George Washington and asked Who Wore It Best?
“Fortunately, I won … purely on the basis that I have better teeth,” she joked.

There has been a defining moment for her work.
When she was 24, she assisted Judge Patrick Robinson on trial against former president of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, who was accused of war crimes and genocide.
“It showed that no one is above the law, and since then, other heads of state have been brought to trial,” she said. “It set a new stage of international justice that hadn’t been met in 50 years.”

Her most dangerous work has been “worth it.”

Clooney discussed cases that took her on immensely dangerous journeys throughout highly insecure areas that required immense safety measures, but she says it is the “extraordinary survivors” there that drive her work.
“Around 2005, I was in Beirut in a compound with four check points and at the fourth, there was a massive crater the guard could climb into to inspect the undercarriage of vehicles for bombs,” she said, describing one of the most treacherous. “I was there for my 30th birthday and people would ask, ‘So, you left a job in a New York … in a law office … for this?'”

—> More quotes and source here

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Part of the event was live on Periscope

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https://www.instagram.com/p/BEMa5sSF0Tt/

 

 

 

Style Files

Amal Clooney wore a blouse by

ALTUZARRA

Carnegie Silk Blouse

CHF 929.75

available here at Saks Fith Avenue

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and

ALTUZARRA
Serge Straight-Leg Pants

CHF 1449.17

available here

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Amal’s earrings by

AKONG LONDON

Amsterdam Earrings

£195.00

http://akonglondon.com/shop/amsterdam-earrings

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1460668105-NM_14Clooney5_50021051_630285 1460668229-NM_14Clooney2_50020795_306419 CgBOXy1UsAAUzqm c4ICijdzzzk CgBNJkAUMAA9IiQ CgB5uXVUUAAu_by CgBAvqaUAAE-JO6 CgBNLXcUkAAOXhN CgBN8uOUsAAPLF- CgBo9alUEAAVb5l CgBxeatUkAAmQt7

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Pictures The Dallas Morning News / Twitter

Published by nati3873

37 thoughts on “Amal Clooney in Altuzarra for the New Friends New Life Wings Luncheon in Dallas 14.04.2016”

  1. Now we know what was in that Altuzzara bag:-) She looked lovely and the quotes show both her passion and also a peek into a great sense of humor not often seen or quoted by the media.

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  2. I find some of Amal’s quotes so true and appropriate – namely that sometimes achieving what one sets out to do takes time and needs patience. Also that we can set out on a career path with a certain idea/vision of where to go and then life just takes you on its own route and doors of opportunity open along the way and you end up doing something different not anticipated but still very content with where life took you ….

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  4. Since Amal hasn’t done a one-on-one profile of her life pre-Clooney in a major magazine or network (and I’m glad that she hasn’t at the moment, as it may distract from her work), I am so pleased to see her comments in this conference. It gives us such a great perspective of her life before as a junior lawyer, the risks she has taken and continues to take, whilst keeping her sense of humour. So many comments from George and other sources like Crawford, Damon and Murray say that she is funny but until now, we haven’t really seen it. Yay! I am hoping for the day when she will finally give a full interview about her life to give us more insights. Thanks Nati for the update.

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  5. She can’t have worked on the Milošević trial when aged 24. That would have been 2002/03 – in 2002 Amal was just graduating from NYU Law went to work in a three year stint at Sullivan Cromwell where she did the two year mentioned in another quote defending Enron. Her move to working at The Hague didn’t happen until she was at least 26/27 years old.

    Amal’s timeline is often all over the place with embellishments and additions which don’t add up.

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    1. So you know Amal’s timeline better than Amal herself? Whatever it is, I don’t think embellishments and additions are even needed if you look at what she’s accomplished in her career so far. I can only hope I will achieve as much!
      It’s nice to read her comments about her personal and professional life before her marriage. She’s never been this open in public before so it’s a nice change.

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      1. If you look @ Amal’s bio at the Doughty Street Chambers website, you will see that she didn’t pass the NY bar until 2002 and the U.K. equivalent until 2010. In the professions-like apprenticeships in the trades-there is a long period of foundation skill building. Every professional person goes thru this; it’s not critique.

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    2. OxRed:
      I suspect this ‘detail’ goes above the heads of most folks reading about her in the gossip columns. I recall reading a rather terse public observation by the British Minister of Justice, Edward Faulks QC, who said ” prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney only gets high profile cases because she is married to Hollywood actor George Clooney.” He made other comments as well, but the drift was clear–from someone in the same (legal) profession. When one embellishes-especially in a profession-I think it’s fair game for other professionals to call that person out.

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  6. OxRed: I don’t know about you but most people do not remember exact years they did something when they have a very busy life as Amal appears to have, especially with the constant travel around the world which has got to affect memory until you are fully rested. So, I do not judge her this way. She got her law degree in England and came to the US for a master’s degree. You can practice with the law degree without having the master’s degree.

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    1. She needed to get the LLM (which takes one year to complete) because just an undergraduate law degree would not allow her to practice here in the US. I don’t know how it works in the UK, but her undergraduate law degree generally is not enough for practicing here in the US. Many of the LLMs I know were already lawyers practicing for years in other countries and they still need to get an extra degree to sit for the bar exams here.

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  8. OxRED: I was relieved to read the quotes from Amal that she does not read any comments made by people. She would be astounded at the number of people who criticize her and state with certainty that they know that she has had breast, chin, eye, nose, and ear surgery … and about her supposed embellishments of her resume. None of us actually know if she has done anything with her resume. Someone else may be changing the dates and content..

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    1. Oh dear, not this again? Sure. They mysteriously disappearing Instagram posts also happened because she or “her people” do not read the comments either.

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  10. She is beautiful, intelligent , outgoing personality,Amal,has a heart that she shares with her friends’ and. family. . George is one luck guy to have this lady in his life. I wish them both many years of happiness.

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  11. Why on earth are so many people on this blog critical of so much about a person you do not know? Why on earth do you care so much? Amal means nothing to you.

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  12. OxRed: the Milosevic trial ran on until 2005, Amal probably caught the tail end of it! I don’t think she is lying, but she is doing what all of us have at some point done at interviews or on our CVs – mentioned working on something when our contribution was frankly very trivial given our age and experience at the time. I know I did it in the early days – and Chambers were well aware that this is something juniors do! The difference is that Amal is talking to the public, not insiders, who know very little about this fairly specialist world (and why should they?) and it leads to hyperinflation.

    The truth is, Amal – at the time of her marriage – was an incredibly junior lawyer with some decent work to her name, but nothing remarkable. She was certainly not the most talented human rights junior in her year of call. Not even close. Since marriage, she has done very little work, and is quickly been outpaced by juniors much younger than her. There are plenty of talented juniors at the London bar who a) have better qualifications than Amal, b) have, despite being at the bar for fewer years, made much more headway on human rights work, and c) still appear for clients in their own right in British or international courts (something Amal has not done since getting married).

    I admire her for raising the profile of human rights work, and for inspiring students to study law. But those young wannabe barristers should know that the most effective barristers are those who spend many hours honing their craft, actually appearing in courts, and in doing so apply and change the law.

    Amal is now not so much a barrister, but a celebrity campaigner. It is disingenuous for her to pretend that she is continuing to ‘work’ in the conventional sense, and wholly disingenuous of her to deny that her marriage has meant she simply cannot truly practise as a barrister anymore. That is not to say that she isn’t having impact – she used her profile and marriage to help this organisation to raise $1m for a good cause – fantastic! – but it’s not exactly what barristers do…

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    1. Hmm. Actually I have just re-read those quotes and understand OxRed’s points better. Agreed it is impossible she was on Milosevic at the age of 24. Probably a few years later. Also, the Beirut experience would have been 2008 and not 2005 (she did say ‘around’ but how difficult is it to substract 8 years from 2016…?) Conveniently, February 2005 (the date she claims to have been in Beirut but was *not* her 30th Birthday), is the date of the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon. Dangerous times. But the date she was in Lebanon, by her own account, is February 2008. Peaceful times. How do I know this? Because I was there myself in March 2008. Immediately before the war began in May. It was perfectly safe.

      Sure, as in all middle eastern countries, which I frequent often, there are plenty of checkpoints and security levels are very high. But I can’t see why being checked by security during peacetime in a volatile part of the world is oh so dangerous. Any tourist to the region could attest to being checked in this way and thousands are.

      It’s hyperbolic, designed to coo American audiences many of whom have only imagined the Middle East but never been to see that it is relatively safe in parts.

      Interestingly, one of Amal’s colleagues, in her year of call, spent many years working for the UN in Afghanistan during the War. Now *that* is what you call dangerous. He still actively brings Afghan cases against the UK government to this day – and wins.

      Amal does not need to inflate her CV or talk about the sacrifices she makes for human rights. It is unnecessary, especially when it only serves to undermine her credibility (which I hadn’t personally doubted until this point – I’d always thought it was the media and GC who didn’t understand the profession).

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    2. I’m a law student, graduating this year. Obviously you come across very intelligent and accomplished legal professionals during your studies so I’m used to hearing about it. Even if she only caught the tail end of the Milosevic trial and even if she was only one of the assistants to a Judge in that trial, I’m still impressed by that and I do not tend to hyperinflate things. It’s not easy to get work in international courts/tribunals or organisations. And from what I’ve seen and heard, she’s had the opportunity to work on some pretty big cases, even as a junior barrister (which is only an indication of years of call). They wouldn’t have let her work on them, if they thought she didn’t have potential. Ok, she possibly got the timeline a bit wrong (or the author of the article) but the fact still is that she did this work before her marriage. I don’t see why this should be downplayed. After all, we don’t know every single case she takes on or has taken on.

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      1. As I said, it is wonderful that she inspires many young law students. I am not saying her qualifications are in any way unimpressive – they are, if you are currently applying for pupillage. But they are neither novel nor remarkable among her peers. They are things students do to reach the goal of pupillage. Pupillage is sought for practice. And so forgive me but I am more interested in seeing how her practice develops rather than being impressed by stints at international courts.

        Good luck to you post-graduation! If you do wish to practice, get all the experience you can. It will help you on your way. But at a certain stage of call you will only impress by referring to cases you have actually contributed to in a meaningful way to assist your client and possibly change the law. That is after all, the ultimate goal.

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  14. Yes, now we know what goodies were in that bag haha. I love what she was wearing- however- I think it would have been more fitting to wear this to the UAE conference and wear what she wore in UAE to this woman luncheon. She looks great and doing great

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      3. To follow up on this issue and provide some balance…I seem to recall that the invitation/promotional information for the New Life fund raiser referred to Amal as a philanthropist. I found this curious as the only mention I have ever seen regarding her philanthropy was her very recent establishment of a 2 year scholarship for Lebanese girls at an Armenian college and this is being cosponsored with the 100 Lives organization that her husband is active in. I think this is unfortunately an example of embellishment. On the other hand, she and her husband are clearly contributing extensively to the campaign of a U.S. presidential candidate and that is not philanthropy.

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      4. Amelie: Unless you are privvy to Amal’s tax returns you have no idea who or what amount Amal has donated to any cause so to use the word embellishment is harsh at best.

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      5. Jackson:

        Blogs are a place for commentary. And, commentary consists of a combination of fact, gossip, supposition etc. (Blogs are also meant to be fun!) Because bloggers are not required to do ‘Freedom of Information’ checks on everything they post, I think the criteria used is whether it is reasonable. For example, I have not verified whether Amal actually graduated from Oxford or NYU School of Law, nor verified her professional licenses, but it’s reasonable to assume that these are facts given information in the media domain. I have no issue with using the same criteria for the issue of her philanthropic activity.

        You know in ancient China and Tibet, there were royal guard dogs who guarded the doors of the palace. They were quite small and fiercely loyal and their role was to yap away to warn of any threats to the Emperor….your posts remind me of this…

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  18. Lovely fluid fabric on this peach blouse! Great with white pants and really like the pop of yellow. Very classy and richly nice with the high heels. 🙂 I also really like the group photo of her in the center surrounded by a beautiful group of professional women. Really nice group photo! 🙂

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  19. Amalie: Surely you jest. Reread your post. It is authoritative and judgmental. We do not know anything about who she gives money to or how much. Philanthropy can be private or public. That was and is my point.

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