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Asia Catalyst seeks a graduate intern for the fall 2008 semester. We currently seek interns to work on the following:

• Research: Help to research and write articles for a new website on economic and social rights in Asia.

Applicants should be self-starters, passionate about social justice, should have some background in Asia, and should work well as part of a team. For this position, we especially seek applicants with research experience. Graduate interns are responsible for design and implementation of projects, and have input into the strategic direction of the organization. All interns also do some administrative work in addition to their program work.

The period of the internship is from September 20^th until December 31^st, with the option (if both sides agree) to continue for a second semester through June 2009. It is expected that an intern will spend 15-20 hours a week working for Asia Catalyst, including an a mandatory orientation, a mandatory biweekly staff meeting, and a weekly phone meeting with the director. Interns must be based in New York, but will generally work from home. The internship is unpaid. University credit may be arranged.

Please write to catalystasia@gmail.com with a resume and 1-page cover letter in English describing your experience and qualifications, and provide contact information for two references. Applicants who do not include these materials will not be considered. Applications are due by September 15. We will only contact applicants we wish to interview.  

president --  Sophie Richardson, Ph.D. is the deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division. Her dissertation examined Chinese foreign policy toward Cambodia, and she has published on domestic political reform in China and on contemporary Cambodian politics.  Before joining Human Rights Watch, Dr. Richardson worked for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, where she oversaw electoral, legislative, and political party programs in Cambodia, China, and Hong Kong.  She has also served as a consultant on democratization, human rights, and governance to the International Crisis Group, the National Democratic Institute, Human Rights Watch, and the World Bank, with publications in the Journal of Asian Studies, The Nation (Bangkok), The Phnom Penh Post, and the Far Eastern Economic Review.  She is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Oberlin College.

secretary --  Joseph Saunders is Deputy Program Director at Human Rights Watch. An Indonesia specialist and lawyer by training, he is currently responsible for supervising the work of HRW’s programs on Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, the United States, Central and Latin America, women’s rights, business & human rights, and terrorism/counterterrorism. Apart from a brief period as senior program officer at the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, he has spent the past ten years at HRW. Prior to joining HRW, Mr. Saunders was a lawyer at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York and spent two years in Indonesia as a Fulbright scholar. He has studied human biology (Stanford U.), anthropology (Cornell U), and law (NYU), where he was editor-in-chief of the law review.

treasurer --  Janice Brown is a consultant at TCC Group, a national consulting firm with over 27 years of experience working with corporate philanthropic programs, private foundations, and nonprofit organizations. Since joining TCC Group, she has worked on strategic planning projects for Pfizer, Goldman Sachs, Kraft, CA, The Foundation Center, Gap, The Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, and United Neighborhood Houses. As a Program Officer in the Morgan Stanley Community Affairs department for five years, Brown designed and launched a firm-wide volunteer initiative, raised $6 million from employees in an annual giving campaign, and oversaw the firm’s matching gifts program.  Brown served for two years on the Executive Committee, including a term as President, of Corporate Volunteers of New York. At New York Cares, a nonprofit organization dedicated to enabling citizens to improve their community through volunteer service, Brown created and managed a training program curriculum designed to teach companies to build effective corporate volunteer programs. Brown is a founding board member of Room To Grow, a nonprofit organization that provides material necessities and parenting education to low-income families with children under the age of three in New York City.  Brown has a Master’s degree in Asian Studies from University of Pennsylvania.

member, board of directors -- A partner in the Corporate Department and a member of the Investment Funds Group of Paul, Weiss and Rifkind, Yvonne Y. F. Chan concentrates on the organization of pooled investment funds that raise private equity, including buyout funds, venture funds and funds of funds, as well as offshore and onshore hedge funds. Her practice includes the preparation and negotiation of definitive documents detailing the arrangements among fund principals and sponsors. Ms. Chan has also worked extensively on foreign direct investments in China and mergers and acquisitions in the U.S., with a focus on cross-border joint ventures. She is currently serving as counsel to several private equity funds with regard to their fund raising and investment activities in Asia. A New Zealand-trained lawyer, Ms. Chan has worked in the firm’s Beijing, Hong Kong and New York offices, and formerly served as General Counsel-North Asia of Glaxo China Limited in Hong Kong. Ms. Chan is fluent in English and Mandarin Chinese. She is qualified as a barrister and solicitor in New Zealand.

member, board of directors -- Jerome A. Cohen is Professor at New York University School of Law, Of Counsel in the international law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP and Senior Fellow for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.  Mr. Cohen has special expertise in business and public law relating to Asia and has long represented companies and individuals in contract negotiations and dispute resolution in China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea and other countries of East Asia. Mr. Cohen formerly served as Jeremiah J. Smith Professor, Director of East Asian Legal Studies and Associate Dean at Harvard Law School.  At New York University School of Law, he teaches courses on “Law and Society in China – The Criminal Process” and “International Business Transactions in China”.  He has published several books and many articles on Chinese law.

Mr. Cohen was Visiting Professor of Law at Doshisha University in Kyoto in 1971-72 and Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Hong Kong in 1979.  The Cohens lived in Beijing during 1979-81, while  Mr. Cohen took part in various trade and investment contract negotiations and taught a course on international business law, in the Chinese language, for Beijing officials.  Mr. Cohen is a member of the Panel of Arbitrators of both the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission in Beijing; Chair of the China Advisory Committee for the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution; a Trustee of the China Institute in America; a Director of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations; and a Trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  He currently serves as Chair of the Asia Law Initiative Advisory Council for the American Bar Association and formerly has served as Chairman of the New York/Beijing Friendship Committee; a Trustee of The Asia Society, a Corporate Director of the Japan Society; Advisor to the Government of Sichuan Province, China; Chairman of the American Arbitration Association’s China Conciliation Committee; Vice Chair of the Advisory Council for The Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Joint Center in China and a member of the Board of Editors of both the China Quarterly and the American Journal of International Law.  He continues to serve on the Advisory Board of Human Rights Watch-Asia.  Mr. Cohen is also Director of the American Foreign Law Association and received the AFLA Distinguished Service Award in 2001.  He was also awarded the 2000 Lifetime Service to Asian Legal Development Award.

member, board of directors -- John Emerson is an activist, graphic designer, writer and programmer based in New York City. He has designed web sites, printed materials and motion graphics for leading media companies as well as local and international non-profit organizations. His writing about graphic design has been published in Communication Arts and Print, featured in Metropolis Magazine and the Wall Street Journal, and translated into Italian by the Italian Association of Graphic Designers. He co-founded the social media consultancy Apperceptive in 2006 and sold it to Six Apart Ltd in 2008. His website is http://backspace.com. 

counsel -- Gayton P. Gomez (JD, Yale Law '95) was an Assistant General Counsel at Verizon New York Inc.  Prior to that, she was Counsel at Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering, and an Associate at Cravath, Swaine and Moore.