“I chose Northeastern because I wanted to learn alongside others committed to advancing the public good.
Chris Fletcher ’11
Chris Fletcher never thought he would be a lawyer. But several experiences with injustice turned his path toward social justice, and eventually to law. “Traditional human-rights tools — while still vital — can have limitations,” explains Chris. “NGOs can be underfunded and have a reduced impact, and bureaucratic governments can be slow to adapt and respond to human rights violations.”
Corporations, however — when driven by the right vision — have the potential to bring about needed and positive change on a global scale. Chris therefore focused his studies at Northeastern on business and human rights, a relatively new field in which businesses work to assess and address their actual and potential adverse impacts to human rights.
“I chose Northeastern because I wanted to learn alongside others committed to advancing the public good,” says Chris, who today serves as the global director for human rights at Arcadis, the world’s leading company for delivering sustainable design, engineering and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets. Chris’ responsibilities include building out and overseeing a human-rights program across the company's value chain as it relates to employees, clients and suppliers.
Massachusetts Superior Court, Boston, Massachusetts
Chris assisted with a range of business litigation matters and received valuable mentorship from a member of the bench.
Chris was selected as part of research team, directed by Harvard Law School Professor David Kennedy, on behalf of PricewaterhouseCoopers, to research good governance regulations.
- Academic and Student Affairs Committee
- Governing Council
- International Law Society
- Restorative Justice Society
- Student Bar Association: Graduate and Professional Student Association Senator
United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT), Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Chris worked with UNAKRT, investigating the alleged forced transfer of populations and the use of media to incite genocide.
- Administrative Law
- Business and Human Rights Independent Study
- Corporate Finance
- Corporations
- Employment Law
- Environmental Law
- Human Rights in the Global Economy
- International and Foreign Legal Research
- International Business Regulation
- International Law
- Law and Economic Development
- Negotiation
PHRGE Fellow, Oxfam America, Private Sector Department, Boston, Massachusetts
Chris was selected for the law school’s coveted Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE) Fellowship, which funded his co-op at Oxfam America, where he dealt with cutting-edge issues, such as locating and analyzing critiques of John Ruggie’s UN framework for business and human rights.
Chris assisted Professor Hope Lewis with research on UN discussions on violence against women, the obligations of corporations toward migrant workers, and the Haiti earthquake relief effort.
Life is good, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts
Chris assisted with strategic planning and implementation of the company’s sustainability program; among other projects, he updated their factory code of conduct to enhance social compliance within supply-chain factories.