Stephanie Biedermann
Senior Lecturer
BA (Princeton), JD (Yale Law)
Biography
Stephanie is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Law and is a US-licensed lawyer.
She specializes in international law, immigration, forced migration, and discrimination issues, particularly for refugees, asylum-seekers, and migrant workers. Her legal experience includes work in the US, the Middle East, and Hong Kong, with a focus on public interest law and access to justice issues as they relate to individual client services, policy decisions, and the development of clinical opportunities for law students.
Before joining HKU, Stephanie served as Legal Officer at PILnet, where she oversaw the Hong Kong Pro Bono Roundtable. She developed projects to strengthen community legal services, train young lawyers, and connect NGOs to legal resources.
While based in the United Arab Emirates, Stephanie worked on matters ranging from international energy policies to labor migration in the GCC. As an officer in the governance division of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) – a sustainability-focused intergovernmental organization based in Abu Dhabi – she helped initiate collaboration between IRENA and UNHCR to bring renewable energy to refugee camps in Jordan and Ethiopia. She also managed communication with IRENA’s Member States, made assessments on legal and protocol issues, and prepared briefing papers for Assembly and Council meetings. While in Abu Dhabi, Stephanie also worked on policies to improve living and working conditions for migrant workers, and she was part of the team that revised New York University Abu Dhabi’s labor standards.
In Cairo, Stephanie was the Legal Director of an NGO assisting refugees in the resettlement process. She fought to find durable solutions for vulnerable families and individuals – primarily from Iraq, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, and Somalia. In addition to representing her own clients, Stephanie supervised a legal team and taught a course in refugee law and practice. She navigated her clients and office through Egypt’s Arab Spring uprising, which had serious reverberations throughout the refugee community and Egyptian civil society. Under her leadership, the office became an implementing partner of UNHCR Cairo.
While based in the US, Stephanie conducted impact litigation on behalf of persons with disabilities with Disability Rights Advocates in Berkeley, California, as the Arthur Liman Fellowship Attorney.
At HKU, Stephanie teaches across a variety of subject areas. She has helped build the Law, Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship (LITE) program, which creates opportunities for students to gain practical and transactional experience in Hong Kong, research relevant legal issues, and assist local companies and NGOs. She also teaches courses in human rights, refugee law, and legal writing and research.
Stephanie holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a B.A. in English from Princeton University, and is admitted to the State Bar of California, USA.
