Program Director: Professor James Cooper

The Chile Summer Program is directed by Professor James Cooper, Assistant Dean for Mission Development and Director of International Legal Studies at California Western School of Law, where he teaches International Trade Law, Comparative Law and the Law of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Professor Cooper is a Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Society and served as a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and a Visiting Professor at UCSD’s Earl Warren College. A Barrister and Solicitor, Professor Cooper has worked at the international law firm of Baker & McKenzie, consulted for ministries of justice around Latin America, the United States, and German governments, and taught in law schools in Canada, Chile, Italy, Mexico, Paraguay, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

His work has been commissioned by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the leading political foundations in Germany. He writes for newspapers in Bolivia, Chile, and the United States and has appeared on radio and television in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and other parts of Latin America.

Professor Cooper has produced and directed reality TV show pilots in Mexico and Chile featuring U.S. law students and public education campaigns for governments around Latin America. Professor Cooper has been profiled in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The San Diego Union Tribune, The Los Angeles Daily Journal, and The San Diego Daily Transcript and appears regularly on TV, radio and in print media about Latin America.

Associate Dean and Professor Raj Bhala, University of Kansas Law School

Raj Bhala has lived and worked in nearly 50 countries. He holds a university chair, the Rice Distinguished Professorship, at the University of Kansas School of Law, where he serves as Associate Dean for International and Comparative Law.

He teaches courses in Islamic Law, International Trade Law, and Advanced International Trade Law. Professor Bhala is the author of 5 books and over 3 dozen articles in International Trade Law, plus 5 books and 15 articles in International Banking Law.

Roughly 100 law schools around the globe have used his textbook on International Trade Law, published by LexisNexis. The University of Kansas has granted him the Kemper Award for teaching excellence, and the Woodyard Award as International Educator of the Year. Professor Bhala was an Attorney on Wall Street with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. At the New York Fed, he twice won the President’s Award for Excellence for his work on wire transfers as a United States Delegate to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and on Article 4A of the Uniform Commercial Code.

Professor Bhala is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, England’s Royal Society for Asian Affairs, American Law Institute, and Fellowship of Catholic Scholars. He is a Foreign Legal Consultant to Heenan Blaikie, a pre-eminent Canadian law firm. He also consults with a number of international organizations, foreign governments, and multinational corporations.

He enjoys running, and has completed many marathons, including Boston, Chicago, Des Moines, Los Angeles, and Richmond.

Professor Justin Brooks, California Western School of Law

Professor Justin Brooks is the Director of the California Innocence Project, the Institute for Criminal Defense Advocacy, and California Western's LL.M. in Trial Advocacy Specializing in Federal Criminal Law.

Prior to coming to California, Professor Brooks practiced as a criminal defense attorney in Washington D.C., Michigan, and Illinois. Over the course of his career he has served as counsel on several high profile criminal cases and has been successful in exonerating wrongfully convicted clients.

He has been recognized several times by the Los Angeles Daily Journal as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California. In 2010, California Lawyer magazine awarded him the “Lawyer of the Year” award.

Professor Kenneth Williams, South Texas College of Law

Kenneth Williams is a professor at South Texas College of Law, where he teaches criminal law and procedure, evidence, capital punishment, international human rights and international criminal law.

He has taught previously in summer abroad programs in Argentina and Vancouver, Canada. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Professor Williams is also a national expert on Capital Punishment. He is the author of a soon to be published book on the death penalty and the Supreme Court and has also authored numerous law review articles.

Professor Williams has represented eight death row inmates during their federal habeas corpus proceedings. Professor Williams has been successful before both the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas in obtaining relief for inmates who were sentenced to death in violation of their constitutional rights.