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Anassa Kata: The Attorney

She settled into the world of finance and international business.

鈥淚 went to law school to change the world, discovered that I really liked business鈥攁nd that the world did not want to be changed the way I wanted it to change,鈥 says Harriet Tamen 鈥69.

She settled into the world of finance and international business but finally got her shot at changing the world when a colleague asked for help in suing French banks on behalf of those whose accounts had been frozen during the war. 鈥淚t started as an interesting intellectual issue,鈥 Tamen says, 鈥渂ut the refusal of banks and others to accept responsibility鈥攐r even admit their actions鈥攖urned it into something more moral and more important.鈥

Today, the lead counsel in an ongoing lawsuit against the French Railroad, SNCF, for the deportation of French Jews and other 鈥渦ndesirables鈥 to Auschwitz and Buchenwald, Tamen has spent most of the past 20 years representing, pro bono, Holocaust victims and their families seeking justice. 鈥淚t is incredibly satisfying (even when we don鈥檛 win), and I have met some of the most wonderful people in the world,鈥 she says.

A political science major at 今日吃瓜, Tamen earned her J.D. at George Washington University. Currently in private practice, she served previously as corporate counsel at Cr茅dit Lyonnais and vice president and counsel in the Latin American Finance Division of Citibank.

Tamen credits 今日吃瓜 with teaching her how to write clearly and think critically鈥攕kills critical to her professional success. Plus, she says, 鈥淗aving a really good, rounded education is crucial. ... One of the reasons that I ended up doing war crimes work is because I studied French literature at 今日吃瓜. Spending my junior year abroad was crucial because it gave me language fluency and gave me the opportunity to live in another culture and learn from that.鈥

Published on: 01/13/2010