Amal Clooney Reveals Her Greatest Inspiration: 'My Mother Was Definitely a Role Model'

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Amal Clooney has clerked for future Supreme Court Justices and walked red carpets on the arm of her Hollywood A-lister husband. But one of the 38-year-old human rights lawyer's biggest influences is still her mother, Baria Alamuddin.

Clooney spoke of her mother's influence during an empowering keynote address at the 2016 Texas Conference for Women on Tuesday.

"Growing up, my mother was definitely a role model. She was always a working woman and someone who is independent and cared about her career and cared about being independent but also had balance," she explained, adding that her mother, who is a journalist, "never lost her femininity."

"She believed the balance was important and that is something that stuck with me," Amal said.


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Besides her mom, Amal named Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor – whom she clerked for as a law student at NYU – as another woman on her list of idols.

"When I was a junior lawyer she was incredible to watch in action in court, how she had so many cases in her head and firing questions at these lawyers standing before her," she said, noting Sotomayor as a "lovely"person.

"I was the most junior and irrelevant person in her chamber and she was very charming and very balanced,"recalled Amal.


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Amal also discussed women’s rights, and her role representing ISIS rape survivors.

"I am advocating for the United Nations Security Council to do more to prosecute [ISIS]," she revealed, adding, "I am addressing the security council next month."

Find out more about Amal’s high-pressured job in the video below.

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