09.07.2007

ABA Rule of Law Initiative Director Rob Boone

On August 1, 2007, the American Bar Association (ABA) welcomed Rob Boone as the Director of the Rule of Law Initiative (ROLI), which implements the ABA’s overseas rule of law technical assistance program and related activities, currently operating in over 40 countries worldwide.  As the first Director for the Rule of Law Initiative, Mr. Boone will oversee the Association’s recently consolidated rule of law programs in Africa, Asia, Europe and Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa.

Mr. Boone arrives at the Rule of Law Initiative following six years with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).  While Chief of the Human Security Branch at UNODC headquarters in Vienna, Austria, he oversaw development and implementation of rule of law operations worldwide.  He also served as Chief for Treaty and Legal Affairs.  Before his tenure in Vienna, he spent more than three years in Pretoria, South Africa, as the UNODC Representative for Southern Africa.  In that post, Mr. Boone led the organization’s regional field activities, including its training and technical assistance operations.

Before joining the United Nations, Mr. Boone held positions in Washington, D.C., including as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State (Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs), where he helped develop and manage multilateral and bilateral rule of law and related foreign assistance activities.  He also served as a Special Assistant in the Executive Office of the President.  He clerked for the Hon. Richard A. Gadbois, Jr. (Central District of California) and while in private practice was a business litigation attorney in southern California.  He holds a Master of Science degree from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.