About Blaine Meredith
Blaine Meredith Bookey has built a career at the intersection of human rights, gender justice and refugee protection. Her academic path began at Northwestern University, where she completed a Bachelor of Science in Social Policy and Gender Studies in 2003. She went on to earn a J.D. from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco in 2009, and later returned to graduate study at the University of Oxford, completing an M.S. in International Human Rights Law in 2022.
After law school, Bookey took on a legal fellowship that placed her in the field early in her career. In 2009 she served as a Legal Fellow at the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti. That role involved direct engagement with human rights issues on the ground and gave her practical exposure to post-crisis legal work and advocacy.
The following year she worked in the federal courts. In 2010 Bookey clerked for the Honorable Dolores K. Sloviter on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The clerkship offered a close view of appellate litigation and judicial reasoning, and it followed her initial years in nonprofit legal practice.
In 2011 she joined the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies as Legal Director. In that position she handled litigation and policy matters related to gender-based asylum claims and refugee protections. She has also been involved in organizational leadership outside the Center. In 2012 Bookey served as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors for MADRE, a role that expanded her work into coalition-building and governance within the nonprofit human rights sector.
Her professional experience centers on gender and refugee law, human rights standards and the legal mechanisms that support protection claims. Over time she has combined case-based work with policy and advocacy aimed at improving outcomes for people seeking refuge and protection. Her Oxford degree underscores a grounding in international legal frameworks that inform much of her practice.
Bookey is admitted to practice in California and has spent the bulk of her career in roles that bridge litigation, policy and advocacy. She has moved between direct legal representation, appellate work and nonprofit leadership, bringing those strands together in her work.
She is currently practicing at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, where her work continues to involve gender-related refugee protection and international human rights law. Her current practice focuses on legal strategies to advance protection for refugees and survivors of gender-based violence.
