Like so many people working in the field of international trade law, I was blessed to be mentored in my “younger and more vulnerable years”<fnref n="1" /> by the incomparable Gabrielle Marceau. In fact, her mentorship began several years before we met: as a student competing in the ELSA Moot Court Competition on WTO (World Trade Organization) Law (EMC2) (as it was then known, now the John H Jackson Moot), Gabrielle was the authority most often consulted by my team-mates and me as we tried to make sense of the intricacies of the *General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade*<fnref n="2" /> (*GATT 1994*) and the *Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures*<fnref n="3" /> (*SPS Agreement*). Her calm, clear, and rigorous exposition of panel and Appellate Body reports, and her creative explorations of how the WTO agreements might work together with other areas of public international law, were inspirational and, for us law students exhausted and confused by the sometimes overwhelming details and complexities of dispute settlement reports, enormously helpful. When my team was fortunate to argue in the Grand Final in Geneva in front of a large panel including Gabrielle, we were both awed to be in her presence and, in an unexpected way, comforted to be appearing in front of someone who had become, through her writing, both a guru and almost a friend.

I began my career at the WTO as an intern in 2013. My first assignment was to assist Gabrielle in her work advising a panel in an ongoing dispute. I was immediately struck by her tremendous knowledge of the WTO Agreements and dispute settlement practice, both at a macro and a micro level. On any point she could instantly recall past panel or Appellate Body proceedings where relevant issues had come up, as though she had memorized the entire *WTO Analytical Index*.<fnref n="4" /> Without even consulting the “green book” she could compare and contrast the wording of different provisions across the WTO Agreements in both English and French. And I was deeply impressed by the way her deep technical knowledge of the WTO rules was illuminated by a profound understanding of both the WTO’s institutional history and the broader international law context in which WTO rules operate. She seemed to have read (and written about) everything regarding international dispute settlement, public international law, and areas as diverse as human rights, environmental protection, investment law, and labour law. You can imagine how intimidated I was when Gabrielle asked me, a 23-year-old barely a year out of my Master of Laws (LLM), to prepare legal research papers for her!

In 2015 I collaborated with Gabrielle on a book called *A History of Law and Lawyers in the GATT/WTO*.<fnref n="5" /> Emerging from a conference held to celebrate 30 years of the Legal Affairs Division in the GATT/WTO, the book collected personal reflections from many of the founding mothers and fathers of the multilateral trading system, including, sadly, a significant number who have since passed away. The book was a labour of love for Gabrielle, who conducted numerous interviews herself, and whose encouragement (and perhaps occasional prodding) was responsible for securing the invaluable contributions of so many past and present *GATT* and WTO staff. Preparation of the book also involved significant archival research to trace changes in the structure of the *GATT*/WTO Secretariat over time. In this work Gabrielle was indefatigable, working with archivists and past staff to track down documents that would shed light on the development of the Secretariat from a small office on the periphery of the Palais des Nations in the late 1940s to the emergence of the WTO in 1995. Gabrielle was deeply conscious of the historical processes and contingencies that had led to the creation of the WTO, and she was committed to preserving this legacy for future generations of trade lawyers, economists, and staff. I think she considered the creation of the WTO as a pinnacle of multilateralism and proof of what can be achieved through negotiation and cooperation. I believe that, in recording the Organization’s history, she was also attempting to inspire future generations with the knowledge that, if it happened before, it could happen again: that the tree of multilateralism has not yet ceased to bear fruit.

Indeed, inspiring future generations was central to Gabrielle’s vision and practice as both a Secretariat lawyer and a long-time professor at the University of Geneva. She was unfailingly generous with her time and expertise, always willing and enthusiastic to share her knowledge and her experience with students and young professionals. She had an unmatched ability to make WTO dispute settlement not just interesting but exciting for generations of law students, interns, and young lawyers. And she believed that the multilateral trading system could benefit from the insights and creativity of young people. Her academic, logistical, and financial support to the EMC2 is just one more example of her career-long efforts to make the WTO accessible to students and young lawyers around the world, including in developing and least developed countries, and to contribute to shaping a WTO that would truly reflect the diversity of its Membership.

Her generosity is also manifest in her truly extraordinary publication record. She has published well over 100 articles on a dizzying range of WTO-related topics, and in doing so has brought the WTO, once considered a niche subject of little interest to anyone outside a tiny circle of trade bureaucrats, into the mainstream of international law scholarship. Her interest in the connections between trade and other areas of international law was ground-breaking in the late ’90s and has continued to set the agenda for much scholarship through the first two decades of the 21<sup>st</sup> century. Her writing is widely cited in current scholarship, and it is very rare to read an undergraduate essay, a graduate thesis, or a published article on WTO dispute settlement (not to mention an EMC2 submission) that does not footnote to several of her works. Indeed, in many instances she was the first, and sometimes the only, scholar to have published on topics as diverse as the relationship between trade law and human rights, treaty interpretation in WTO dispute settlement, and the interaction between the WTO and regional trading arrangements.

On a personal note, I am deeply grateful not only for Gabrielle’s professional and intellectual mentorship, but also for her friendship. It is not easy to move to Geneva, which for many of us is far away from our established social support networks. Gabrielle has been unstinting in her support and generosity, and I am deeply grateful for her kindness. Those lucky enough to have attended one of her dinner parties think with great affection of her gracious hosting and her very generous servings of wine and curry.

Gabrielle has retired, but her influence will undoubtedly continue to be felt in the WTO Secretariat and in law faculties, law firms, and government offices around the world. I am profoundly grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from her, and I wish her only good things in this next stage of her life. I feel certain that generations of scholars, lawyers, and students will continue to draw on her work and her example as they navigate the ever-evolving landscape of international trade law.

<footnote n="1">F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925) 7.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">*Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization*, 15 April 1994, 1869 UNTS 299.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">*Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures*, 15 April 1994, 1867 UNTS 493.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">*WTO Analytical Index: Guide to WTO Law and Practice*, 2<sup>nd</sup> edition (Cambridge: World Trade Organization & Cambridge University Press, 2012).</footnote>

<footnote n="5">Gabrielle Marceau, ed, *A History of Law and Lawyers in the GATT/WTO: The Development of the Rule of Law in the Multilateral Trading System* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015).</footnote>