Samantha Franks

Samantha Franks counsels global and U.S. companies on matters of international trade, including sanctions law, export and import controls, forced labor prevention, anti-corruption measures, government investigations and international arbitration. She maintains a cross-cutting regulatory practice, counseling clients in privacy, aviation and energy law.

Samantha’s global experience is complemented by her time as a Dean Acheson Legal Fellow at the Court of European Justice, where she clerked for Advocate General Nicholas Emiliou and studied the confluence of U.S. and European Union law. She currently serves as a subject matter expert on the forced labor prevention task force established by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Trafficking in Persons. Prior to law school, she studied international conflict prevention as a Fulbright postgraduate scholar in the United Kingdom.

Samantha is admitted in the District of Columbia.

Professional Highlights

Clerk to Advocate General Nicholas Emiliou, Court of European Justice
Let the Trees Speak: Nature’s Rights Under International Law, 42.3 Mich. J. Int’l Law (2021)
Dangerous Trades: Article XXI’s Potential for Climate Security, 21 Wash. U. Global Stud. L. Rev. (2021)

Editor-in-Chief, Michigan Journal of International Law, Volume 42

Honors and Awards
- Legal fellow at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (2023)
- National Association of Women Lawyer’s Award (2021)
- Award for Exceptional Service to a Journal from Michigan Law (2021)
- Frederick Douglass Legal Fellow with the Human Trafficking Institute (2020 – 2021)
- Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar to the United Kingdom (2016 – 2017)

Presentations
- 2020 American Society of International Law Midyear Forum
- 2021 Washington University School of Law International Symposium

Other
- Board member of the Fulbright Association
- Co-host of Season One of Trafficking Matters, the Human Trafficking Institute’s podcast
- Alumni Advisory Board for the University of Missouri’s Kinder Institute

Firm Publications
- Specially Designated Nationals as Tenants: How Landlords Can Be Impacted by Sanctions against Russian Nationals, Authors: Rachel B. Horsch, Nancy A. Fischer, Anne C. Lefever, Zachary C. Rozen, Samantha Franks, 03/31/2022
- Russia Invades and the West Reacts: A Look at Russian Sanctions So Far, Authors: Christopher R. Wall, Stephan E. Becker, Nancy A. Fischer, Steven Farmer, Benjamin J. Cote, Aaron R. Hutman, Matthew R. Rabinowitz, Scott Morton, Roya Motazedi, Zachary C. Rozen, Toochi L. Ngwangwa, Mark Booth, Samantha Franks, 02/25/2022

Education

J.D., University of Michigan Law School, 2021

M.S., International Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding, Durham University, 2018
With merit

B.A., Political Science and English, University of Missouri, 2016
magna cum laude

Admissions