Sawyer joined Northwestern Law School in January 2004 and serves now as Clinical Associate Professor of Law, Senior Counsel for the Center for International Human Rights and Director of Curricular Projects. His legal specialty is public international law.
Northwestern Law School Teaching Responsibilities Sawyer presents four seminar courses in public international law (see below for course descriptions) at the Law School, two in the fall and two in the spring, and has taught sessions of courses in International Human Rights Law and International Criminal Law. Center for International Human Rights Responsibilities Sawyer’s CIHR responsibilities include service on an international panel enquiring into allegations of official collusion by the U.K. in human rights crimes in Northern Ireland in the 1970s and his participation in numerous conferences in this country and abroad on issues of public international law. Sawyer is a faculty participant at the Europe-based Summer Course on International Human Rights sponsored by the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) and Northwestern University. Prior Professional Experience Prior to coming to Northwestern, Sawyer engaged in a broad practice of law, including service as a prosecutor in the Manhattan Office of the District Attorney, trying murder and official corruption cases, as deputy to the New York City deputy mayor for Criminal Justice, handling budget review and operations planning for NYC criminal justice agencies, and, most recently, as assistant general counsel at a large multinational corporation. At the corporation, Sawyer was chief litigation counsel, served as the company’s primary liaison with federal and state governmental agencies on competition issues, acted as the company’s antitrust compliance officer, and managed labor, employment and environmental issues.
