Our Mission: The Washington Foreign Law Society, founded in 1952, promotes knowledge and understanding of international legal matters, comparative legal issues, and foreign law.  It is a non-profit, tax-exempt, educational organization located in the District of Columbia.

Our Advantage: As a center for international activity -- diplomatic, financial, commercial and academic – Washington DC is served by a legal community that daily interacts with the laws and legal actors of foreign countries as well as those of the United States.  The Society is in a unique position to disseminate information about foreign laws and to promote scholarship on international and comparative law.Our Niche: The Washington Foreign Law Society serves as a forum for the intersection of legal and non-legal professionals serving in public and private capacities to the many US Government agencies, foreign missions, non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, and national and global professional firms with a Washington presence.Our History:  Since its founding in 1952, the Society has been served by a large number of prominent lawyers, jurists, and other legal professionals on its Board of Governors and has attracted an even larger number of distinguished lawyers, jurists, and other legal professionals and public policy makers as sustaining members.

Former Presidents of the WFLS:

2006                 Charles H. Camp
2005                 Hongxia Liu
2004                 Kenneth Hansen
2003                 Jamal El-Hindi
2002                 Joanne Young   
2001                 Stuart Kerr    
2000                 Dan Waltz      
1999                 Barry Robinson 
1998                 Margaret Roggensack 
1997                 Courtenay Ellis 
1996                 David R. Stepp     
1995                 Laura H. Hills    
1994                 Julius Kaplan  
1993                 Bennett A. Caplan     
1992                 David Palmeter 
1991                 John G Murphy Jr.      
1990                 Paul S. Haar      
1989                 Bruce Zagaris  
1988                 Ricki Tigert Helfer  
1987                 Charles Hunnicutt      
1986                 Eugene Marans  
1985                 Leo Phillips   
1984                 Peter Ehrenhaft
1983                 Marcia A. Wiss 
1982                 J. Dapray Muir 
1981                 Carl F. Paul   
1980                 Christian Garcia-Godoy 
1979                 B. Jenks Middleton     
1978                 Elting Arnold  
1977                 Harry LeRoy Jones      
1976                 Cecil Hunt     
1975                 Michael H. Cardozo, IV     
1974                 Stephen B. Ives, Jr.   
1973                 Katherine Drew Hallgarten      
1972                 Harry H. Almond, Jr.      
1971                 Sigmund Timberg
1970                 Leonard V. B. Sutton      
1969                 Stephen A. Silard      
1968                 Walter Slowinski       
1967                 L. Ronald Scheman      
1966                 Allyn C. Donaldson     
1965                 Whitney Gilliland      
1964                 Edward D. Re   
1961-63            Ernest Schein  
1959-62            Charles R. Norberg     
1957-59            Emory C. Smith 
1956-57            W. Lawrence Keitt      
1955-56            Smith N. Crowe, Jr.    
1954-55            Eugene M. Caffey       
1952-54            Newell Ellison