Kala M. Finn, Esq. is an attorney with 15 years of international experience in building institutional capacity in the areas of court administration and court management, with particular expertise in judicial reform and rule of law. She is currently serving as the Chief of Party for The Asia Foundation’s eMpowering Access to Justice (MAJu) Project. She is also a certified Master Program Manager (MPM) and possesses strong organizational, supervisory, program management, financial management, and interpersonal skills. She has experience in judicial education and adult learning theory, organizational change management, and leadership development.
Finn has worked with judicial officials from around the world that come from a variety of professional backgrounds spanning the justice sector: ministry officials, High Judicial Council members, leaders from courts of last resort, and judges and court staff from appellate, first instance, and municipal courts. She has also worked with prosecutors, police, and detention facility professionals. She has designed and implemented hundreds of justice sector observation programs, study tours, and training seminars focusing on court administration and management with an emphasis on court technologies and automation, caseflow management, records management, strategic planning, leadership, court budgeting and finance, access to justice, and facilities planning and court security for thousands of international participants from over 110 countries. Additional areas of practical, hands-on experience are in judicial training and professional development for judges and court staff, continuing legal education for judges and lawyers, public information and outreach, legal aid, family and problem solving courts, ethics and accountability, and law school clinics and curriculum development.
Kala Finn also has over a decade of experience with proposal development and field implementation. She possesses strong planning and coordinating skills and a demonstrated ability to analyze, strategize, make policy decisions and implement them. She has on-the-ground rule of law experience in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. She has also served in the position of Chief of Party in Mongolia and Iraq on multi-million dollar rule of law projects funded by the USAID and the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL).
Education and Professional Associations: Kala Finn received her bachelor’s degree from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota where she double majored in Russian Studies and History and minored in Political Science. She received her J.D. from Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire. She is an active member of the Virginia State Bar.