Announcing the 2024 Dalferes Laureates
ILSA is proud to announce this year’s Dalferes Laureates. These five incredible lawyers have been selected to receive an award from the Rusty Dalferes Memorial Fund to help defray their travel costs to attend and judge at the White & Case International Rounds. The 2024 class represents the second group of outstanding legal professionals selected to receive an award from the Rusty Dalferes Memorial Fund.
Manan Shishodia
Manan Shishodia is an Advocate in New Delhi, India. He holds an LL.M. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. At Penn, he studied Investment Treaty Arbitration and International Law, and was a Research Assistant to Mr. William Burke-White. Manan has been a Jessup judge for the last 4 years, including judging the advanced rounds of the US National Rounds and India National Rounds.Bruna Gonçalves
Bruna Gonçalves is a Special Doctoral Fellow at the Law Department of the European University Institute (EUI), in Florence, and an MRes. candidate at Universidade de São Paulo (USP). She graduated with an Advanced LLM in European and International Human Rights Law from Leiden University and obtained her LLB from Universidade de São Paulo. Bruna has been involved with Jessup since 2020 as a competitor and coach. In 2022 and 2023, her team was respectively in the semi-finals and quarter-finals of the White & Case International Rounds.Abena Achiaa Otuo
Abena Achiaa Otuo is a Transactional Lawyer at Templars. While studying at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology where she earned her LL.B degree, her research focused on protecting internally displaced persons under international human rights, humanitarian, and criminal law.
Abena’s involvement with the Jessup sparked her passion for international trade and cross-border transactions, leading to collaborations with organizations including the UK Department for Business and Trade and the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Since 2018, Abena has actively participated in the Jessup, including emerging as a national round champion and judging memorials and oral rounds. Currently, she serves as the National Administrator of Jessup Ghana and is leading the organization of the largest Jessup national round in Ghana’s history.
Daka Francis William
Daka Francis William is a Legal Practitioner (Advocate) in Zambia. He is currently practicing as an associate at Makebi Zulu Advocates. He is an up and coming litigator with an interest in Human Rights, Humanitarian Law, Constitutional Law and Criminal Law. Francis holds both a Master of Laws in Legal Studies from the Atlantic International University and a Master of Laws in Human Rights Law from the University of Lusaka. Additionally, Francis is an experienced Jessup Judge who has judged the national rounds for the past 5 years.Natalia Cortés
Natalia Cortés is a lawyer currently working at the Treaties Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia. She has represented Colombia before technical groups of integration mechanisms in her region, such as the Pacific Alliance and the Andean Community. Additionally, Natalia has experience working on petitions and cases before the Inter-American system of Human Rights. Her main areas of interest are human rights, gender-race matters, and criminal law. She has been a participant and a judge of the Jessup, and her Jessup experience has key to improving her knowledge and skills in Public International Law.