Lawless A lawyer’s unrelenting fight for justice in a war zone

Kimberley Chongyon Motley is an American international human rights attorney, philanthropist, author, and former beauty queen, of African-American and Korean descent. She is also the mother of three, and former Mrs. Wisconsin-America 2004, who is known for being the first foreign attorney to litigate in Afghanistan since 2008. She is licensed and has permission to practice in Afghanistan, Wisconsin, the U.S. Supreme Court, Dubai International Financial Courts, and the International Criminal Courts. She is considered one of the most effective defense attorneys operating in Afghanistan. In the male-dominated Afghan court and prison system, wrote Tom Freston in Vanity Fair, Motley "must appear to be someone from outer space. She acknowledges this but declares that she gets respect… She has proven to be a very effective and tenacious fighter." Motley has been described as possessing "a rare kind of grit—the kind necessary to hang a shingle in Kabul, represent the under-represented, weather a kaleidoscope of threats, and win the respect of the Afghan legal establishment (and of tribal leaders)." Tom Rosenstock, an attorney who has worked in Kabul since 2008, told The Daily Beast in 2010 that Motley may be doing more "to promote rule of law than large ambitious programs which never get to where the rubber meets the road." A Western diplomat in Afghanistan called Motley "the kind of person who makes you change [your] opinion about lawyers." In 2014, Motley was named by Richard Branson as one of the most inspirational people and described her as "an inspiring litigator with a powerful message: 'The laws are ours – no matter your ethnicity, nationality, gender, race – they belong to us.'" Motley's unique notoriety as one of the most effective international human rights attorneys has not gone unnoticed. She spoke about her legal philosophy at TED Talks which has garnered over a million views. She has spoken at Google numerous times about corporations and individuals responsibility to promote human rights by becoming "global investors in human rights." In addition to this, Motley was featured on BBC's Desert Island Discs program.