… And luckily, UW Law School has no interest in making her one.
Neiha Lasharie has no interest in being a “black-and-white lawyer.” Luckily, her experiences at University of Wisconsin Law School are setting her up for success in that mission.
Lasharie was born and raised in Pakistan and lived in Dubai between the ages of 12 and 18. She received her undergraduate and master’s degrees at universities in Boston, where she specialized in public international law and human rights.
“I’ve always known that I needed to help people in some way; it was always a matter of figuring out how, and I realized pretty young that it was going to be political and international in some way,” she said. “International law ended up being exactly what I was looking for.”
In 2017, Lasharie worked at the Dutch Rapporteur for Trafficking in Human Beings and Sexual Violence Against Children as a research intern, an experience she said impacted the entire trajectory of her career.
“It was a really affirming experience for me because it helped me gain confidence in my research skills,” she said. “I was able to see the ways policy and law informed the Netherlands’ approach to human trafficking and contribute toward some of the research products the Rapporteur’s office produced.”
She also utilized the extensive library at the Rapporteur’s office, where she was first exposed to the critiques of the anti-trafficking field.
“I was funding my time in the Netherlands with a research grant, and I used that to explore the anti-trafficking industrial complex,” she explained.
This undergraduate research led to Lasharie’s graduate capstone, which resulted in her receiving the best paper award at the Human Trafficking Research Network Conference — which she ran the following year while a 1L at UW Law.
“This is now an area that I’m deeply passionate about, and it empowered me to take a staunchly decolonial lens to the rest of my legal research, which I have pursued even in Law School,” she said.
When choosing what law school to attend, Lasharie said she asked herself which would best fill in the gaps in her already robust international law knowledge.
“I remember seeing Professor Asifa Quraishi-Landes’ work, and I was told about Professor Mitra Sharafi. Both their research areas appealed to me as someone who is interested in Islamic law and South Asian legal history, and I didn’t find any other schools that had the collegial feel I prioritized and had a faculty as incredible as UW Law,” she explained.
Lasharie said she’s “really proud” of what she’s accomplished so far as a Badger.
She joined the Middle Eastern Law Students Association (MELSA) early on because of her ties to the Middle East and Islamic culture. She also joined the Student Bar Association as both a 1L and 2L representative and did research work for Professor Sharafi. She later conducted a directed research project under Professor Quraishi-Landes on the potential Islamic law influence on the original conception of the law of nations. Lasharie also joined the Wisconsin International Law Society, for which she was president throughout her 2L year, and she is the editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin International Law Journal (WILJ).
“This past academic year, I’ve also been a student intern with the amazing Restorative Justice Project, and I was the instructor for Human Rights in Law and Society, an undergraduate legal studies class,” she added.
Both these experiences have “genuinely changed my life,” she said.
“Every single experience I’ve had at UW Law has only reaffirmed my goals and has introduced me to people I know I will remain connected with for the rest of my life,” Lasharie added.
After Law School, Lasharie seeks to work as a legal fellow at an international law-related organization, conducting research while also helping individuals achieve justice. Her teaching experience has also opened her eyes to the possibility of becoming a fellow at a law school clinic, supervising students working on international criminal law, humanitarian law or human rights law projects, she said.
“Every single experience I’ve had at UW Law has only reaffirmed my goals and has introduced me to people I know I will remain connected with for the rest of my life.”
“Long term, I’d love to get my Ph.D. in international law and do even more serious research and publishing while moonlighting as a pro bono litigator/attorney representing clients who have faced injustices under international law,” Lasharie explained.
Ultimately, she hopes to make international law more equitable.
“I’m not blind to the criticisms of international law, and I think many international legal regimes (like the trafficking regime) entrench colonial logics,” she said. “But I also have hope in the potential of international law, if not in its current guise, then in some future guise. I want to be a part of articulating what that might look like.”
Her vast experiences at UW Law are preparing her well to meet that goal.
“I’ve had the privilege of being taught by people like Professor Heinz Klug, who has literally been a part of upsetting oppressive regimes,” she said. “My time with the Restorative Justice Project has only reinforced my love for and hope in people. Being part of WILJ has given me the opportunity to articulate myself on an issue that matters to me a lot — the underprotection of transgender and nonbinary people in international criminal law — and now I get to shape the next year of an international law journal.”
According to Lasharie, every professor she’s spoken with at UW Law has been supportive and encouraging of her journey.
“And, of course, that’s to say nothing about the skills and knowledge I’ve acquired as a future lawyer,” she added. “At UW Law, we don’t just learn about the law as it is; we also learn about the law as it should or shouldn’t be. I have no interest in being a black-and-white lawyer, and luckily, UW Law has no interest in making me one.”