Alumni Update: Charles Buker '11

Charles Buker graduated from Dartmouth in 2011 with a major in Government and a minor in Spanish. While at Dartmouth, Charles was actively involved as a writer for the Dartmouth Independent. He also conducted research with Professor Dean Lacy regarding post-war reconstruction in Iraq and participated in the Spanish FSP program in Madrid. Expecting to pursue an English major upon first arriving at Dartmouth, Charles credits Professor Jennifer Lind's Government 5 course with sparking his interest in Government and in international relations more broadly.   

After Dartmouth, Charles worked for two years as a legal analyst for Goldman Sachs in New York City. Charles then attended Stanford Law School, where he was a member of Stanford's Rule of Law program and helped to develop a legal curriculum for use by a U.S.-affiliated university in Iraqi Kurdistan. He was an editor for the Stanford Law Review and also served as the policy director for the Stanford chapter of the International Refugee Assistance Project. Charles maintains that Professor Sonu Bedi's constitutional law classes still provide some of the most useful legal education on the U.S. constitutional system he has ever received, including through his law school education.

After graduating law school, Charles clerked for Judge Frank Hull on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia. He then moved to Washington, D.C. and has since worked as an associate at Covington, where he advises companies on risks relating to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States ("CFIUS"), a federal interagency committee charged with screening foreign direct investment in the United States for national security concerns.  Charles also advises clients on federal public policy matters, with a focus on the aerospace and defense industries.  

Charles is grateful to the many Dartmouth government professors who helped to shape his undergraduate experience and early professional career, including Profs. Baldez, Bedi, Lacy, Lind, Vandewalle. He is always happy to connect with Dartmouth students considering a career in law and public service.