Taylor Strickling is the Chair of the AUAF Department of Law as well as an Assistant Professor teaching International Law, International Humanitarian Law, Legal Methods, and Professional Responsibility. Taylor is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center (J.D., 2010) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (S.B. in political science with a minor in music, 2003). Taylor led the ALEP effort in Kabul as the Project’s Visiting Assistant Professor and Postdoctoral Fellow for 2011. Before joining SLS/ALEP, Taylor was the International Humanitarian Law Fellow at the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. As a David L. Boren Graduate Fellow during law school, he studied Islamic law and modern standard Arabic in Morocco. Taylor has also held positions with Clifford Chance and the Office of General Counsel at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and he has served as a budget analyst for the National Park Service.
Mohammad Haroon Mutasem joined AUAF in 2008 and is now a Law Faculty Member teaching Introduction to the Law of Afghanistan, Criminal Law, and Introduction to Islamic Law. He concurrently serves as Assistant Professor and Vice-Dean of the Kabul University Faculty of Law and Political Science. Professor Mutasem is also the director of legal clinics of the Law Faculty and President of the Afghanistan Jessup International Moot Court Club. He formerly worked as a Judicial Training Materials Specialist for USAID-sponsored Afghanistan Rule of Law where he prepared training materials for existing judges and recent graduates preparing to become judges. From 2004 to 2005, he served on the Curriculum Development Committee of the Kabul University Law Faculty. Professor Mutasem received his law degree from Kabul University in 2004 and his LLM from the University of Washington School of Law in 2007.
Ghizaal Haress is a Lecturer in Law teaching Commercial Law and Constitutional Law at AUAF. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Afghanistan Rural Enterprise Development Program of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development. She has over a decade of experience working in law and development on the ground in Afghanistan. She received her LLM from the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies in 2009. She received her Bachelor of Law and Political Science from Kabul University.
Nafay Choudhury is a Visiting Assistant Professor teaching courses in Comparative Law and Civil Obligations. He is a graduate of the McGill Faculty of Law in Montreal, Canada, holding a joint degree in the common law and civil law (LL.B./B.C.L.). He previously completed an MA (Queen’s University) and BA (McGill University) in economics. During law school, Nafay was the founder of Legal Frontiers – McGill’s Blog on International Law, which has received numerous accolades for its research on international law. He spent one summer working at the Ontario Securities Commission. Previous to joining AUAF, Nafay completed an Arabic fellowship in Qatar and was also a researcher for the Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics in Qatar.
Rohullah Azizi is an Assistant Professor of Law teaching courses in Commercial Law and Civil Obligations. Rohullah is the founder of a legal consultancy firm in Kabul, Elite Legal Services. He has also worked with various law and Shari’a programs to develop and administer professional skill-building programs and legal clinics in his capacity as a Legal Skills Advisor. A Fulbright Scholar, Rohullah received an LLM degree from Tulane University School of Law in 2010. He received his Bachelor of Law and Political Science from Kabul University, where he graduated first in his class. In 2008, Rohullah conducted empirical research for the National Center for Policy Research (NCPR) at Kabul University for which he was awarded the Manfred Worner Award by the NATO Public Diplomacy Division. He and fellow winners were invited to the Young Atlanticist Summit in Romania to receive the award.