In July 2019, Philippine Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo claimed that he was excited to debate with international human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin Clooney so he could "educate" her regarding a particular legal case. But can he, really? Most people think not.
Here are eight important things you should know about the awesome Amal:
1. Amal was born on February 3, 1978, in Bierut, Lebanon.
2. She's multilingual!
Amal speaks fluent English, Arabic, and French. These languages probably come in handy when she's dealing with cases from all around the world.
3. Amal's education is A++.
She attended an all-girls school in Buckinghamshire, England before going to St. Hugh's College, Oxford in 2000, where she graduated with an English law degree. She then entered New York University School of Law to get her Master of Laws and worked for the clerkship program at the International Court of Justice.
4. Today, she is a London-based lawyer and activist.
Amal works at the prestigious Doughty Street Chambers in London and specializes in international law, human rights, extradition, and criminal law.
5. Most of her work centers on the mistreatment of women.
One of her most high-profile cases took place in 2015 when she represented Khadija Ismayilova, an Azerbaijani investigative journalist who published evidence of corruption by Azerbaijan's president. Ismayilova was released from prison after Amal proved that the charges were fabricated.
Amal also represented Nadia Murad, who was a student in Iraq when ISIS invaded her village in 2014. Nadia's parents and brother were killed while she was forced into sex slavery by the terror group.
Most recently, Amal has decided to be part of a team representing Filipina journalist Maria Ressa.
6. She's also a distinguished author!
Amal has contributed numerous chapters to books on international law published by Oxford University Press and co-edited a Lebanese book entitled The Law and Practice of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. I mean. WOW.
7. Amal is the loving mother of twins Ella and Alexander.
Amal and her husband welcomed their children in June 2017. Amal's twins are on the track to becoming bilingual, speaking both English and Italian!
8. Lastly, she's married to Hollywood actor George Clooney.
George Clooney, a self-proclaimed lifelong bachelor, once stated in an interview that he would never marry again after a failed marriage in the early 1990s.
What happened? Well, he met Amal in 2013! The pair was introduced when Amal accompanied a friend to visit George's house. They became friends, talked to each other a lot (through email!), and soon fell in love. It was during a safari trip to Africa that George realized he wanted to marry her! The couple got engaged in April 2014 and got married in September that same year in Venice, Italy.
Here's the story of how George ~proposed~ to Amal and how she took a full 25 minutes to respond:
Amal has become known in pop culture as George's wife, but we all know that she's MUCH MORE than that! In fact, people are always joking that she's *more amazing* than George (he heartily agrees).
During the 2015 Golden Globes, comedienne and host Tina Fey said in a monologue: "George Clooney married Amal Alamuddin this year. Amal is a human rights lawyer who worked on the Enron case, was an adviser to Kofi Annan regarding Syria, and was selected to a three-person U.N. commission investigating rules of war violations in the Gaza Strip. So tonight, her husband is getting a lifetime achievement award."
George LOVED it. Watch the hilarious moment here:
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