Ms. Thais Aponte is Temple Law School’s International Law Committee Award Recipient

On Thursday February 27, 2025, the Philadelphia Bar Association International Law Committee held its annual reception in honor of the Phildelphia International LLM students.  Attendees included international LLM students Temple University and University of Pennsylvania Law Schools. The current Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, Katayun Jaffari, Esq. and the former Chancellor, Jennifer Coatsworth, Esq. were in attendance. 

Jeremy Heep, Esq. is the chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association International Law Committe and is also a partner at Troutman Pepper Locke. The reception was hosted by Troutman Pepper Locke in Center City Philadelphia. 

The International Law Committee presented an award to a University of Pennsylvania LLM and to a Temple University LLM student who demonstrated outstanding commitment to international law or human rights.

Thais earned her first law degree in 2011 from Andres Bello Catholic University in Caracas, Venezuela. In 2023, she completed a Master’s degree International Human Rights Law at the University for Peace (a United Nations mandated university) in Costa Rica.

Since 2023, Thais has served as the Associate Director of Governance, Risk and Compliance for Habitat For Humanity International (Latin American and Caribbean). Until recently, she worked out of Costa Rica, but was fortunately obtain a work visa that allows her to study as a part-time LLM degree student while she continues to work remotely for Habitat.

Ms. Thais Aponte is Temple Law School’s International Law Committee award recipient. 

Before joining Habitat, Thais was the Head of Compliance at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals Central American and Caribbean. Several year before that, she was Head of Legal and Compliance at Alcon Optical Devices and Products for the Latin American Region. Her other work experience includes legal and compliance work for Roche and GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceutical companies in the Latin American Region. Thais also worked for about a year as a global intellectual property and legal affairs attorney at the Husqvarna AB tool company in Jonkoping, Sweden.

Thais hopes her Temple Law School LLM studies will provide tools to tackle some big questions:

“How do we ensure that the international human rights framework is interconnected with a digital ecosystem?” and “How can we merge legal rights, technology and business ethics to build a more equitable world?”