Life Stories: She loved Staten Island. She loved the law, lecturing worldwide on international criminal law. Megan Fairlie dies at 51.

Megan Fairlie was by no means fearful of adventure. Scenario in level: as a youthful lady, she moved to Eire not recognizing a soul and with no clue where she would live. But by the time she remaining the country six yrs afterwards, she had amassed a tiny army of close friends who referred to themselves collectively as “Megan’s Mates.”

Dr. Megan Fairlie, who created friends easily and retained them for lifestyle, died Dec. 27 at the age of 51.

A 3rd technology Staten Islander, Megan cherished her roots. “She was deeply proud of staying from Staten Island,” stated her buddy and colleague, Joelle Moreno. “Anytime Pete Davidson mentioned anything about Staten Island in the media, she would display it to me and say, ‘Staten Island warrants this unbelievable recognition.’ She attributed a whole lot of her moxie and fortitude to staying a Staten Island lady.”

Megan grew up in Westerleigh and attended Blessed Sacrament School and Notre Dame Academy. As a youth, she swam competitively, beneath the steerage of coach Dr. Anthony Purpura.

Alongside with her sister, she took Irish dancing courses. She could do a jig, a reel, or a hornpipe. Every 12 months she marched with the Staten Ireland Dancers at the St. Patrick’s Working day Parade.

In her teenager years, she started a lifelong obsession with the songs of The Smiths. She listened to the punk and New Wave tunes wafting from the juke box at Choir Loft, a bar on Bay Avenue that she and her mates frequented. “Back in these days, pretty ladies did not want faux IDs to get into bars,” said her sister, Kristi Geddis.

Megan graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Albany, where by she majored in English. In 1996, she earned her JD diploma from Washington and Lee College Faculty of Law.

She moved to North Carolina, in which she worked as a prosecutor. “She commenced with drunk driving circumstances but she was a very proficient attorney and rapidly moved up to the extra serious crimes,” stated her sister.

Following a couple of several years, Megan returned to Albany to do the job as legal counsel for the New York Point out Legislature — a career that included investigating the implications of laws and earning suggestions to senators and assemblyman.

“Meg was super clever and pushed, always pushing herself to realize greater items,” explained her sister. Her ambition before long brought her to the Countrywide College of Ireland in Galway, the place she attained an LLM and a PhD in Worldwide Human Legal rights Regulation. She wrote her thesis on human rights and legal courts in the Southeast island-nation of East Timor.

In 2007, Megan accepted a placement as a professor at Florida International UniversityCollege of Regulation. She taught there for the next 15 years, as the school’s resident professional on international prison legislation.

“As a teacher, she cheerfully encouraged deep contemplating and vivid arguments,” explained Joelle. “She was demanding. She didn’t permit midway function or let students to evade the tough inquiries. College students came out of the course genuinely knowing the legislation and owning also experienced a great time.”

“Academics are normally a discontented bunch. That was never her mind-set. She was grateful and joyful.”

In addition to her professorship at FIU, Megan gave lectures all all around Europe: at educational facilities and establishments in Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Eire. She authored dozens of scholarly papers and e book chapters on the topic of worldwide felony treatment.

Megan’s location of skills, intercontinental legal legislation, concentrated not on every day crimes committed by individuals, but fairly on crimes against humanity —crimes that contain a huge selection of both perpetrators and victims, this kind of as the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the war crimes of Syria.

“Megan’s operate was in that room: What does legislation glance like in these genuinely extraordinary cases of mass violence? How do we prosecute these forms of people today? How do we protect the accused?” stated her colleague, Mark Drumbl.

In her scholarship, Megan was not worried to discover the unpopular thoughts — how to ensure the rights of the defendants in these kinds of instances of mass atrocities. “Megan generally insisted that that these defendants, just like any other defendants, have a proper to due procedure. Since the law’s received to be good, or else it is just politics, retribution, theater,” claimed Mark.

Megan’s personality did not exactly suit the stereotype of the solemn, august educational. “She explained to excellent tales and had a loud, outrageous chuckle,” reported her sister.

When she wasn’t performing, Megan was paying out time with her two daughters. “Her focus was on the ladies,” explained her sister. “Despite all of her qualified accolades and achievements, she was 110{e421c4d081ed1e1efd2d9b9e397159b409f6f1af1639f2363bfecd2822ec732a} associated in every single depth of their life. She thought in female electricity. She wanted her daughters to be capable to do whatsoever they required, to chart their have study course.”

Soon after Megan was diagnosed with colon cancer, she battled the sickness with characteristic dedication. “She fought so difficult for the sake of her ladies,” explained her sister. “She experimented with every thing. And she did not miss out on any time instructing, no make any difference how unwell she was. She didn’t wallow in self-pity. She just worked tough.”

Megan’s loved ones has founded a fundraiser to profit her two young daughters’ educations.

Megan is survived by her daughters, Aileen and Maca Fairlie Herman, her spouse, Matthew Herman, her sisters, Kristi Geddis and Heather Reilly, her mothers and fathers, Brian and Gail Fairlie, and her nieces and nephews.