BC Law alumnae Debra Perlin ’11 (pictured, with Dean Vincent Rougeau) was honored on February 25 at a dinner celebrating the 2015-16 class of United States Supreme Court Fellows.
Perlin, the 2015-2016 Fellow assigned to the Supreme Court of the United States within the Office of the Counselor to the Chief Justice, joined the Program from the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, where she is a Justice Advisor in the Office of Criminal Assistance Partnerships’ Justice Team. According to the SCOTUS website, Perlin conducts assessments of foreign judicial systems in order to bring them into compliance with internationally recognized standards; teaches seminars to Foreign Service officers and other staff on comparative international law; and briefs foreign judicial delegations on the American criminal justice system. She was also a contributing author to the INL Guide to Gender in the Criminal Justice System; INL Guide to Anticorruption Assistance; and the forthcoming INL Guide to Law Enforcement Assistance.
After graduating from Brandeis University summa cum laude with a B.A. in International and Global Studies and Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Perlin earned a J.D., with honors, from BC Law, where she received first place in the 2011 National Religious Freedom Moot Court Competition as well as the 2011 Drinan Award for Public Interest Law. Prior to joining INL, Perlin was a Presidential Management Fellow with the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the U.S. Department of State, and at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of the Principal Legal Advisor.
The US Supreme Court Fellows Program is one of the most prestigious fellowships in the country. There are four placements each year: the Supreme Court of the United States, the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, the Federal Judicial Center, or the United States Sentencing Commission. The program provides fellows with “practical exposure to judicial administration, policy development, and education.”