North Attleboro High School Alumni Association

Tom Grant
Joseph W. Martin, Jr. Distinguished Alumni Award
2008

Visitors to the North Attleboro Schools website cannot miss the school system’s mission that is simply stated in bold blue font: Preparing all students to be life-long learners and responsible citizens. Tom Grant attended public schools in North Attleboro, K through 12, and graduated valedictorian of the Class of 1987. Dr. Grant now teaches at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, where, in addition to his academic work, he consults as an international lawyer. Mission accomplished.

After graduation, Tom enrolled at Harvard University, where Phi Beta Kappa elected Tom one of its Junior Twelve at Harvard—a commendation given to the top twelve students in the class at the end of Junior Year. He graduated from the prestigious Ivy League institution summa cum laude in 1991. Three years later, Tom graduated from the Yale Law School and began clerking (1994-95) on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Bangor, Maine, and Boston, Massachusetts.

A professor in law school encouraged Tom to undertake further study of international law at one of the British or European universities having a strong tradition in the subject. Tom eventually applied for support from the Fulbright program—and then learned that a grant was available for a Ph.D. He began his doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge in 1995 and completed his Ph.D. in international law in 2000.

Tom’s first post-doctoral post was at Heidelberg, Germany, at a research institute for international law. After a little over a year in Heidelberg, he took up a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at Oxford. The year after his Oxford post, Tom was asked by his former Ph.D. supervisor if he would like to work with him in Cambridge on a long-term research project, involving the re-writing of a major treatise on international law. Accepting, Tom then also took up teaching duties at the University of Cambridge, which maintains an active faculty in his field. He has been at Cambridge as a Senior Research Fellow since 2002. For the academic year 2007-2008, Tom is on sabbatical at the U.S. Institute of Peace, a think tank supported by the U.S. Congress in Washington, DC.

Tom’s consulting practice includes advisory work for governments, businesses, and law firms; and he has assisted on cases before the International Court of Justice and on arbitrations before ad hoc tribunals in international investment disputes. He worked pro bono in 2002-2003 as lead counsel on an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in litigation concerning the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. His published work has appeared in over a dozen scholarly journals, and he has published three books (two as sole author, one as editor-in-chief). He has lectured at numerous universities, conferences, government agencies, and think tanks. Opinion pieces by Dr. Grant have been published in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and overseas editions of the Wall Street Journal. He is admitted to the bars of Massachusetts, New York, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Tom is currently working on several projects, including a book concerning international law and the armed conflict in Chechnya; several articles for the third edition of the Max-Planck Institute Encyclopaedia of International Law; and a book on the impact of the admission policies of the United Nations on international peace and security.

For work and leisure, Tom has travelled extensively in the British Isles, Western Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, and the Caucasus. He enjoys weightlifting as a hobby.

Tom Grant serves as a symbol that North Attleboro HS graduates can compete with anyone, anywhere in the world.