Migration, Drugs, and the Bureaucracy 

Wednesday, January 19, 2022 | 12:50 – 2:00 pm
Zoom | Berkeley Law

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Event Description

The Public Law & Policy Program and the Berkeley Law Federalist Society is pleased to host Christopher Landau, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico during the Trump Administration, for a discussion on legal issues implicated in the U.S.-Mexico relationship, with a focus on U.S. migration and counternarcotics laws. Ambassador Landau will also address the legal and bureaucratic frameworks in which U.S. foreign policy is made, and the obstacles to innovation and creativity in this area. Grubhub gift cards will be provided.

A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Ambassador Landau clerked for both Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Clarence Thomas on the United States Supreme Court. Ambassador Landau was born in Spain and grew up in South America, where his father served as a career diplomat.

Panelists

Christopher Landau served as the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico from 2019 to 2021. During his tenure at the helm of the country’s largest diplomatic mission, U.S.-Mexican relations reached historic highs with the entry into force of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement and unprecedented binational cooperation on migration. Ambassador Landau also helped safeguard critical regional supply chains and spearheaded innovative public diplomacy efforts during the pandemic.

Prior to his appointment, Ambassador Landau practiced law in Washington, D.C., for thirty years. For most of that time, he was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, and head of the firm’s appellate litigation practice. He has briefed and argued cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and all of the federal courts of appeals. In 2020, the President included him on a short list of potential nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court. At the beginning of his legal career, he served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. He has also taught as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center.

Ambassador Landau was born into a career Foreign Service family; his father, George W. Landau, served as U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay, Chile, and Venezuela in the 1970s and 80s. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and has served as a Trustee of the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society and a Director of the Diplomacy Center Foundation. He is fluent in Spanish and proficient in French.

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Event Transcript 

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