Susan D. Franck

Biography

Susan Franck joined the faculty as an Associate Professor in 2008. Professor Franck's teaching and scholarship relates to international economic law and dispute resolution.

Professor Franck is the author of various articles published in journals such as the American Journal of International Law, Fordham Law Review, Harvard Journal of International Law, Minnesota Law Review, North Carolina Law Review, Virginia Journal of International Law and Washington University Law Review.  In connection with the Lewis Center and Transnational Law Institute, she organized the Joint Symposium on International Investment and Alternative Dispute Resolution, http://investmentadr.wlu.edu, and created a UNCTAD publication summarizing the proceedings, which occurred through a collaboration blog, other online mediums and a traditional in-person conference.  She has presented her research to major international organizations including the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the International American Development Bank (IADB), the International Centre for Settlement if Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the United Nations Commission on Trade and Investment (UNCTAD) and across the globe in Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Korea, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.  Professor Franck has been elected to the International Who's Who of Commercial Arbitration and received the "New Voices" award from the American Society of International Law (ASIL) for her groundbreaking empirical analysis of investment treaty arbitration.

Professor Franck has served as a Scholar-in-Residence at UNCTAD in Switzerland (spring 2010) and a Visiting Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University (fall 2010).  Prior to joining W&L, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska Law College and a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. Before returning to the academy, Professor Franck practiced in the area of international economic dispute resolution on both sides of the Atlantic. From 1999-2001, Professor Franck was an associate in Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering's International Group in Washington, D.C. where she was involved with various proceedings, including international trade disputes, commercial litigation regarding defaulted sovereign debt and one of the first investment treaty arbitrations against the Czech Republic. From 2002-2004, Professor Franck was a senior associate in the International Arbitration Group at Allen & Overy in London, England, where she represented investors and sovereign states in arbitrations involving breaches of investment treaties and underlying commercial agreements.

Professor Franck is qualified to practice law in England and Wales, Minnesota and the District of Columbia. She has been appointed to the Executive Committee and Academic Council for the Institute for Transnational Arbitration, the American Association of Law School's Section on Alternative Dispute Resolution, the Steering Group of the American Bar Association's Committee on Commercial Dispute Resolution, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and various leadership positions in ASIL, including co-chair of the International Economic Law Interest Group.  Professor Franck is also an Associate Editor of Transnational Dispute Management and a member of the LCIA's Young International Arbitrator's Group.

Professor Franck received her B.A., summa cum laude, in Psychology and Political Science from Macalester College in 1993 and her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Minnesota in 1998. Thereafter, Professor Franck received a U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Grant to study international dispute resolution at the University of London where she received an LL.M. with merit.