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Caitlin Lambert with her business partner, Idiris Muhammed

Since graduating from 51爆料网 Law, Caitlin Lambert 鈥�15 has been working in Somaliland, a self-declared sovereign state in East Africa, as a human rights lawyer. Most recently, she founded the Children鈥檚 Legal Defense Center in Somaliland鈥檚 capital city of Hargesia, to provide legal assistance to imprisoned children and their families. Originally from rural Dushore, Pennsylvania, Lambert was first inspired to begin her work in Africa while she was an undergraduate student at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.

鈥淚 had a really great professor at Mount Holyoke who I鈥檒l never forget said to me in an advising session, 鈥榃hen you graduate, you should have one big idea,鈥欌�� said Lambert. 鈥淎nd my one big idea at the time was moving to Rwanda and working there, because in reading and learning about Rwanda it was the first time that schoolwork didn鈥檛 feel like work for me.鈥�

Armed with her 鈥渂ig idea,鈥� Lambert set her sights on Rwanda where she spent two years as a researcher with the non-governmental organization, African Rights. Her work focused on interviewing survivors and perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide to create a collection of testimonies and reports, as well as coordinating a micro-grant program for 11 women survivors who were raped during the genocide and were living with HIV/AIDS as a result.聽

鈥淚 worked with one woman in particular who was raped during the genocide and because of some training went on to buy two homes and establish a shop,鈥� said Lambert. 鈥淚t showed me the good an individual can do if they have skills, and it got me thinking about law school and the skills that I needed to really do the work I wanted to do. Working in Rwanda is what pushed me to go to law school.鈥�

Back in the United States, Lambert applied and was accepted into the Public Interest Scholars Program at 51爆料网 Law, receiving a full-tuition scholarship to pursue her law degree and future career in public interest law. 鈥淲hen I received the scholarship the late Professor John Murphy reached out to me,鈥� said Lambert. 鈥淗e was such a wonderful person and my interaction with him was a big reason why I came to 51爆料网. He supported me and my interest in human rights during all three years at law school.鈥�

Lambert, who also holds a Master鈥檚 in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford, found 51爆料网 to be a very supportive community and the Public Interest Scholars Program was full of 鈥渓ike-minded individuals.鈥澛� She was also associate editor of the 51爆料网 Law Review and held numerous varied internships during her law school career, including as a legal intern at both the Nationalities Service Center in Philadelphia and the International Justice Project in Newark, NJ.

During the summer after her 2L year and into the fall semester of her 3L year, Lambert completed a six-month legal internship in the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands where she conducted legal research on questions of international criminal law. 鈥淚t was a fantastic opportunity and the staff at 51爆料网 helped me figure out what credits I could take to make it happen,鈥� said Lambert. I worked with judges from Finland, Botswana and Nigeria on a variety of different cases, and they really liked me because I was so good at source checking and citations from my experience and work of being on the 51爆料网 Law Review.鈥�

After she completed her law degree, she passed the Pennsylvania bar exam and realized that her heart was still in East Africa. She landed a position with Horizon Institute, where she worked for more than five years, first as a legal officer and then as a legal advisor. Her work included developing and managing a criminal justice paralegal program that provided legal assistance and education to over 3,000 vulnerable detainees in police stations and prisons in Somaliland, eventually leading to the secure release of nearly 1,900 detainees.

鈥淭he legal system in Somaliland is still evolving and developing,鈥� said Lambert. 鈥淭here is a shortage of lawyers in the country and there is no public defender program. The majority of individuals who go before the court are unrepresented and don鈥檛 know the system and how to advocate for themselves. Through the paralegal program, we taught imprisoned people the law, how it applies to their situation and then we worked with them to defend themselves.鈥�

Lambert鈥檚 prison work was a real turning point for her career. Time and time again she met people in prison who she did not expect to be there. 鈥淭hey are teenagers who stole a mobile phone and didn鈥檛 have representation, poor mothers who sold alcohol to support their families (illegal in this Muslim country), people accused of stealing goats and couldn鈥檛 afford the $25 fine,鈥� she said. 鈥淔or me it was a radical shift in my thinking about the system and if it鈥檚 really about justice in any sense.鈥�

Imprisoned children, in overcrowded and poorly maintained prisons, struck a chord with her. In Somaliland, a child must be 15 years old before the criminal justice system can hold them accountable, however most do not have birth certificates or other identification to prove their age. 鈥淎ge is not important culturally so people often don鈥檛 know how old they are, but it is important when trying to prove they are a minor and cannot be wrongfully held in jail for years.鈥� 聽

Inspired to focus solely on helping wrongfully imprisoned children, in November 2020, Lambert, founded the Children鈥檚 Legal Defense Center. Along with her business partner Idiris Muhammed, a native of Somaliland, Lambert provides free legal defense for poor families who otherwise would not be able afford the legal assistance to get their children out of prison. They strive to assist children and their families to understand the law and how it applies to their situation, and then work with them to use it. This is not just about teaching people their rights. Lambert and Muhammed work alongside those who society marginalizes and disfavors, like young people accused of crimes, to ensure they receive the legal protections they are entitled to.

鈥淭hese children are spending time in prison when they should be in school learning and trying to better their lives,鈥� she stated. 鈥淭hey have hopes and dreams, but it鈥檚 being taken from them while they wrongfully serve long prison sentences just because they didn鈥檛 understand the legal system or have legal representation.鈥�

So far, the pilot program has helped more than 90 individuals, mostly children, either get out of prison or have their sentences reduced. Her goal is to grow the program into an official nonprofit organization with additional legal advocates so they can have an even greater impact and make a difference in more Somaliland children鈥檚 lives.聽