 | “I had already completed my doctorate before starting law school, so I wanted an environment that was collegial and maintained high academic standards, where the faculty could guide me in the study of law but where I would be able to carry out more research and writing than in a standard JD program. William and Mary gave me the legal skills I needed to adapt my academic background to a career in international law. The small size of the law school and the open, approachable faculty provided a friendly atmosphere with great faculty contact and mentoring, both formally and informally. The library never failed to find even the most obscure foreign books within days so that I could carry out my research. The administration’s flexibility and support made it possible for me to get everything I hoped for out of my law school studies.” |
Dr. Charles E. Ehrlich (1999)
International Public Law and Development Consultant, Vienna, Austria
Dr. Charles E. Ehrlich’s legal career outside the United States has included a variety of positions in the field of public international law and development. Currently an independent consultant based in Vienna, Austria, he was recently retained as legal advisor to the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, where he is assisting with institutional, legal, and administrative reforms in the Russian justice sector.
Charles first heard about William and Mary while completing a doctorate at the University of Oxford. William and Mary’s excellent Summer Law Program in Madrid had such a strong reputation among his academic colleagues that when he decided to return to the United States to study international law, Charles naturally considered William and Mary.
After working with US-based NGOs during and immediately after law school, Charles has subsequently lived and worked in Switzerland, Kosovo, Austria, Georgia, and Russia. At the Claims Resolution Tribunal in Zurich, he adjudicated claims against Swiss bank accounts from the Nazi era. He later served as head of legal operations for the United Nations Housing and Property Directorate in Pristina, Kosovo and chief counsel to Kosovo’s Temporary Media Commissioner, where he helped establish Kosovo’s permanent broadcast regulatory agency and drafted the laws, policies, and guidelines creating the legal framework for freedom of the media and freedom of expression. He also served as Senior Legal Advisor in the Office of the Head of Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission in Kosovo, where his assignments included acting as an advisor to Kosovo’s Constitutional Commission. In that capacity he assisted the Commission in drafting the chapters of Kosovo’s constitution covering decentralization, economic and fiscal policy, and independent public institutions.
Charles has also worked in the office of the OSCE Secretary General in Vienna, Austria and in Tbilisi as the chief legal counsel for OSCE’s Mission to Georgia. In addition to the JD he received from William and Mary, he holds a Doctorate in Modern History from the University of Oxford, a Master’s Degree in European Studies specializing in European government and economics from the London School of Economics, and a Bachelor’s Degree in History and the Classics from Harvard University.
