RURAL DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE



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Brian Schwarzwalder Robin Nielsen's work as an attorney at RDI brings together her commitment to equal opportunity and the rights of marginalized groups, an interest in lives lived in developing countries, and a belief that lawyers are uniquely positioned to change the lives of the world’s poorest people.

Robin was raised in John Steinbeck country, surrounded by California’s agricultural fields and the migrant farm workers responsible for their productivity. She attended law school in Seattle spent 12 years of her career at the law firm of Preston Gates & Ellis LLP, concentrating her practice in the areas of equal employment opportunity, employment discrimination, affirmative action, and labor relations. Her interest in the lives of farm workers was awakened in 1999, when she traveled to southern Africa. In Zimbabwe she saw firsthand the effects of misconceived land reform on both the black Zimbabweans dependent on rural land for their livelihoods and the white farmers forced from the farms they had invested in and developed, often for generations. She returned to southern Africa seven times over the next three years. In 2002 she worked as a volunteer for the International Bar Association and Law Society of Zimbabwe, and assisted in developing and conducting legal education programs for Zimbabwe's lawyers and reporting on threats to the rule of law and independence of the judiciary.

Since joining RDI in 2003, Robin has worked in India, Nigeria, Angola, Indonesia, and the West Bank. She holds a J.D. from the Seattle University School of Law (1988), an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania (1982), and a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Washington (1980).

Curriculum Vitae

robinn@rdiland.org