Delaine R. Swenson is a Professor of Law at KUL and Director and founder of the Center for Advancing Legal Skills. He is one of the founders of the Rule of Law Institute. Professor Swenson is a graduate of Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington where he received a double degree in History/Political Science and Theatre Arts. He received his Juris Doctorate (J.D.) degree from the National Law Center of George Washington University in Washington D.C. He worked for over 10 years as a trial attorney in the United States specializing in taking criminal and civil cases to court, with an emphasis on jury trials. In 1994 he was recognized as the outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year for the State of Washington.
From 1997-99 he worked as the Rule of Law/Criminal Law Liaison for the American Bar Association’s Central Europe and Eurasia Law Initiative (CEELI) legal reform program in Poland. As liaison he worked closely with Iustitia, the Polish Judges Association, the Ministry of Justice and lawyers groups on legal reform and judicial training and was a founder of Catholic University’s Center for American Law. From 1999 to 2002 Professor Swenson managed CEELI’s legal reform programs in the five Central Asian Republics of Kazakhstan, Krygzystan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. As Regional Director he was administrative and programmatic manager of a multi-million dollar legal reform assistance program with 10 offices in five countries.
In 2002 Professor Swenson served as a Senior Scholar with the United States Fulbright Program in Poland and since then has served as a Professor at KUL’s Chair of American and Comparative Law. He is a founder and Council Member of the Rule of Law Institute Foundation. He continues to work on legal reform projects, and has consulted on projects for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations, USAID and the State Department. He is presently involved as an expert and trainer in a State Department funded Model Courthouse project run by Indiana University in China.
Professor Swenson has provided training on adult education methods, trial advocacy, human rights, court and judicial reform in the United States, Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union.
