All the (Million and One) Reasons to Love This Birthday Girl

Consummate bachelor and Hollywood playboy George Clooney spent a healthy amount of his adult life denying that he would ever get married again – while chasing every woman who happened to turn his head, of course. He was the bastion of bachelorhood, a salt-and-pepper-haired gentleman with a captivating smile who spent his free time paling around with other actors struck with Peter Pan syndrome. He even went on record half a dozen times declaring to the media that he would never marry nor have kids.

Never say never.

When George Clooney announced his engagement to Amal Alamuddin in 2014 after a brief courtship, the whole world was intrigued by the mysterious and beautiful woman who had finally stolen the heart of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor. It turns out, she was the catch all along. So much more than just a bored trophy wife tasked with appearing polished and poised on her husband’s arm for red-carpet appearances, Amal happens to be one of the most brilliant human rights lawyers in the world. Not only is she statuesque, stylish, and gorgeous, but she is also a key player in major international affairs.

You will regularly find her spearheading highly publicized cases, like the trial of President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, or representing lightning-rod personalities like Julian Assange of Wikileaks in court. Her husband has repeatedly told the press that she is “the smartest woman I know” and, clearly, she is leagues beyond what one might expect from the non-celebrity wife of a Hollywood A-lister.

It turns out, she was the catch all along.

While Amal was born in Beirut, her family was forced to leave the country during the Lebanese Civil War when she was only two. The Alamuddin family resettled in the English county of Buckinghamshire, where she attended Dr Challoner’s High School and Oxford University. In 2001, she received her LLM from New York University and performed a notable clerkship at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the future Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor.

Afterwards, she landed a position at New York’s top-ranked law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, where she represented high-profile clients like Enron and Arthur Andersen. She switched courses in 2005, tackling international human rights as part of a United Nations tribunal that was responsible for prosecuting the people behind the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. Not only is she deeply respected in the highest courts of the world, but she also has the ear of some of the most powerful people in politics and governance.

While her status as George Clooney’s wife has shaped her into a global style influencer, Amal has not stepped down from her role as a human rights lawyer. Instead, she is parlaying her skills into teaching, recently landing a position as a visiting professor at New York’s Columbia University. “It is an honor to be invited as a visiting professor at Columbia Law School alongside such a distinguished faculty and talented student pool,” said Amal in a statement to the press. “I look forward to getting to know the next generation of human rights advocates studying here.”

It’s no wonder that this brainy beauty and mother of two, who turns 41 today, has seized the public imagination. We’re celebrating her with a closer look at her sizzling red-carpet gowns, polished business attire, and sexy date-night looks – all of which are always accompanied by pitch-perfect poise and the adoring glance of her handsome husband, of course.