Duncan Pickard, class of 2006, has wonderful memories of the high school, especially of teachers like Corinne Kurtz, Lynn Ditchfield, and Dan Sharkovitz: “They taught me not only content but also social justice.” Duncan was active in student government, soccer and basketball, the Minnesingers, and the school newspaper, where he shared the position of co–editor in chief with Simone McCarthy.
After high school, he pursued a major in history and Middle Eastern studies at Tufts University. He studied Arabic in Jordan, and was an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria. Duncan contributed to the embassy’s human rights report, and witnessed efforts at Middle East peace. Duncan then earned a master’s from the Harvard Kennedy School. He recalls that he “received so many wonderful opportunities to study and travel to the Middle East and North Africa.” This was the time of the Arab Spring, and Duncan supported constitutional reform in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Yemen.
Inspired by the lawyers with whom he worked, Duncan studied international law at Stanford Law School. He then worked in the Hague for a year before starting his practice in international law at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in New York, where he remains today. Some of the work he has found most meaningful has been working with nine small island nations in the Caribbean and the Pacific — some of which face extinction due to sea level rise — to clarify the international law of climate change. His clients have achieved significant victories at the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
Bravo, Duncan — you began your interests as a high school student, and you followed them through with passion and brilliance, always seeking to learn, taking every opportunity that you could. Thank you for continuing to represent MVRHS! You make us so proud!
Marge Harris was a teacher at MVRHS for 27 years. You can contact her at margeharris@comcast.net. This column appears twice a month.