Courses Offered:

Law and Policy in International Trade

Professional Biographical Information:

C. Donald Johnson joined the University of Georgia School of Law in June 2004 as the director of the Dean Rusk Center - International, Comparative and Graduate Legal Studies. In this role, he is responsible for the management and direction of the center's mission of promoting an understanding of international legal and policy issues by hosting conferences and visiting scholars and by facilitating international research, graduate and foreign studies, and outreach projects.

As a former U.S. congressman and ambassador, he brings to Georgia Law a distinguished career in both the public and private sectors.  Prior to his current role, Johnson served as vice-chairman of Fleishman-Hillard Government Relations, Inc., in Washington, D.C., a subsidiary of Fleishman-Hillard, the largest public affairs communications firm in the world. There, he specialized in international trade and investment, national security and foreign policy and assisted such clients as the government of Hong Kong with bilateral trade, human rights, constitutional reform and domestic security law issues. His other clients included foreign and domestic corporations and foreign governments. Johnson previously dealt with similar international legal and policy issues as a partner at the law firm of Patton Boggs in Washington, D.C. For example, in 2001 he attended the Doha World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial meeting as an official adviser to the government of Bangladesh.

In 1998, he was nominated to the rank of ambassador by President Bill Clinton and for over two years served as chief textile negotiator and principal adviser to both the president and the U.S. trade representative on all textile and apparel trade matters. Among the significant negotiations concluded during Johnson's tenure in office was the U.S.-Cambodia Textile Agreement, which is considered a landmark in that it included, for the first time, labor provisions linked to trade benefits. He also led the U.S. in WTO dispute cases involving textiles against the European Union and Pakistan and resolved other cases through negotiations. Johnson was substantially involved with the development of trade legislation during this period, including the Trade Act of 2000 with the Caribbean Basin Initiative and African Growth and Opportunity Act.

In 1993-94, Johnson served as the U.S. congressman for the 10th district of Georgia. While in this position, he was a member of the House Armed Services and the Science, Space and Technology committees and focused on national security and international economic policy. He was also selected by Speaker Tom Foley to serve as a member of the Speaker’s Working Group on Policy. He was a delegate to the North Atlantic Assembly (NATO’s legislative body) in Berlin and Copenhagen and monitored Russia’s first parliamentary (Duma) election in Moscow in December 1993. He assisted in the whip organizations that secured passage of the NAFTA and WTO agreements by Congress in 1994.

Johnson also served in the Georgia State Senate from 1987 to 1992, where he was chairman of the Appropriations Committee, vice-chairman of the Judiciary Committee and served as an assistant floor leader for Gov. Joe Frank Harris. He was the original author of major legislation enacted to reform the state budget process, sovereign immunity, the ethical standards of public officials and rural telecommunications.

In addition, his public service also includes a four-year stint at the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Office (two years in Turkey) and serving as trade counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee.

Johnson is a member of the bar associations of the District of Columbia, Georgia and Illinois. From 1986 to 1992, he was a member of the State Bar of Georgia’s Board of Governors.

He holds a master of laws degree from the London School of Economics and earned his bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Georgia, where he served as articles editor for the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law. He obtained a certificate in private and public international law from The Hague Academy of International Law in The Netherlands.