Before Amal Alamuddin was best known as George Clooney‘s fiancée, the Beirut-born beauty’s legal career stole the spotlight.
Laha, a Beirut-based weekly magazine, has published an undated photograph of Alamuddin, now 36, at her law school graduation.
In the snapshot, Alamuddin dons barrister garb: a dark robe and a wig, as it is traditionally done in the United Kingdom.
The London-based lawyer specializes in international law, human rights, extradition and criminal law and works for firm Doughty Street Chambers.
She’s represented high-profile clients, including WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in his extradition case with Sweden. The trilingual (she speaks English, Arabic and French) Alamuddin also serves as an adviser to former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the special envoy to Syria.
Last week, Clooney, 53, tore into the Mail Online after they published what he called a “completely fabricated” report about his future mother-in-law Baria Alamuddin disapproving of the couple’s plans to marry because of religious reasons.
In the op-ed published in USA Today, Clooney wrote that it is “criminal” for any media to speculate on religious rifts.
“To exploit religious differences where none exist, is at the very least negligent and more appropriately dangerous,” he said.
When the Mail Online issued an apology, Clooney refused to accept. In a second op-ed, he accused the publication of lying.
“There is one constant when a person or company is caught doing something wrong. The coverup is always worse,” he wrote. “In this case, the Daily Mail has printed an apology for insinuating religious tensions where there are none. In the apology, managing editor Charles Garside claims that the article was ‘not a fabrication,’ but ‘based the story on conversations with senior members of the Lebanese community.’”
He continued, “The problem is that none of that is true. The original story never cites that source, but instead goes out of its way to insist on four different occasions that ‘a family friend’ spoke directly to the Mail. A ‘family friend’ was the source. So either they were lying originally or they’re lying now.”
Clooney and Alamuddin are said to be planning to wed in Venice in September.