Interested in the State Department or public service international law careers? Join Professor Allen Weiner and the Levin Center at a brown bag lunch with Monica Ager Jacobsen, where she will discuss her work with the Office of the Legal Adviser.

Monica Ager Jacobsen is currently an attorney adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser (L) at the U.S. Department of State. During her time at the State Department, she has advised on a variety of topics, including genocide and other atrocities; human rights-related sanctions regimes; children’s rights; the impact of assisted reproductive technology on citizenship acquisition overseas; and engagement in multilateral fora on accountability and human rights. Currently, she is in L’s Office of Law Enforcement and Intelligence, serving as the Department’s legal expert on counterterrorism matters, including foreign terrorist organization designations, terrorist use of the internet, and racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism, as well as the legal issues related to hostage-taking and wrongful detentions. She is also the Department lead on extradition and mutual legal assistance matters related to Eastern and Central Europe and Russia. Monica was selected as a finalist for the 2020 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals award, which highlights excellence in the federal workforce, for her behind-the-scenes role shaping the complex legal and policy issues involved in imposing sanctions against dozens of human rights abusers worldwide.

Monica received her B.A. cum laude from Columbia University and her J.D. from University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. During law school, she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Berkeley Journal of International Law and externed at the Department of Justice, Civil Division, Appellate Staff. Prior to joining L, Monica clerked for the Honorable Helene N. White of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Detroit, Michigan and worked as an associate at Steptoe & Johnson LLP in Washington, D.C. She is originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan.