Donate

Meet Our Teams

Vance Center Staff

  • Alexander Papachristou

    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
    Close
    Alexander Papachristou
    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR apapachristou@nycbar.org

    Alexander Papachristou joined the Vance Center as Executive Director in January 2012. He directs the organization’s overall operations and focuses on its programmatic and institutional initiatives, as well as fundraising.

    Mr. Papachristou serves as the board secretary of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, board member of Bard College Berlin, and member of the advisory boards of the Prison Journalism Project and the Environmental Reporting Collective. He recently served on the European Commission Anti-SLAPP Working Group.

    Mr. Papachristou previously was president of the Near East Foundation, a participatory, community-based economic and social development organization working in Arab and African countries. For the preceding 18 years, Mr. Papachristou engaged in cross-border corporate finance in advisory and proprietary roles: he served as managing director and general counsel at NCH Capital, which invests in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe; he lived in Russia from 1989 to 1993, where he opened and ran the Moscow office of White & Case. Mr. Papachristou also worked in the law firm of Clifford & Warnke in Washington, DC and was policy assistant to New York Governor Mario Cuomo. He served as law clerk to US District Judge Myron H. Thompson in the Middle District of Alabama.

    In 2011, The New Press published Blind Goddess: A Race and Justice Reader, which Mr. Papachristou edited.

    Mr. Papachristou received an LLM and JD from Harvard Law School and an AB from Princeton University, as well as Arabic language training at the American University in Cairo.

  • Susan M. Kath

    DIRECTOR, ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM
    Close
    Susan M. Kath
    DIRECTOR, ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM skath@nycbar.org

    Susan M. Kath became Director of the Environment Program in February 2013. She directs the program in its work with international and regional environmental NGOs to develop cross-jurisdictional pro bono projects in the areas of human rights and the environment, climate change, biodiversity conservation, international humanitarian law, toxic waste and protecting environmental defenders.

    Ms. Kath previously served as the Chief of the New York City Law Department Environmental Law Division. Ms. Kath managed and directed the division in its representation of the Mayor of the City of New York and its agencies with respect to all federal, state and local environmental laws and served as a senior advisor to the Corporation Counsel, Deputy Mayors and City Agency Commissioners. Ms. Kath managed complex environmental policy and litigation matters in the areas of climate change and climate resilience, environmental sustainability and public health, transportation, energy and wastewater infrastructure projects, and major New York City economic development initiatives. Ms. Kath participated in the creation of the City’s first sustainability plan, PlaNYC: A Greener, Greater New York and in the design and creation of the City’s long term solid waste management plan. Ms. Kath co-taught a seminar class at Harvard Law School on PlaNYC and the legal issues related to sustainability planning.

    Ms. Kath is the Co-chair of the New York Committee for Human Rights Watch, Co-Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Environment and Human Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Prospect Park Alliance. She is a Fellow in the American College of Environmental Lawyers. Ms. Kath is a graduate of Fordham Law School and Northwestern University.

  • Karina Benzaquen

    SENIOR MANAGER, INTERNATIONAL DIVERSITY AND PRO BONO PROGRAMS
    Close
    Karina Benzaquen
    SENIOR MANAGER, INTERNATIONAL DIVERSITY AND PRO BONO PROGRAMS kbenzaquen@nycbar.org

    Karina Benzaquen joined the Vance Center in November 2015 as the Communications and Development Assistant and currently holds the position of Program Manager where she works on managing the Women in the Profession Program (WIP).

    Ms. Benzaquen holds a Master’s degree in International Business from Hult International Business School in Boston. She also holds a BA in International Relations, with a concentration in Global Business, from Roanoke College in Virginia.

    Ms. Benzaquen was born in Peru and has lived in Germany, Greece, and the United States. She is bilingual in English and Spanish and also speaks Russian.

  • Jaime Chávez Alor

    LATIN AMERICA POLICY DIRECTOR
    Close
    Jaime Chávez Alor
    LATIN AMERICA POLICY DIRECTOR jchavezalor@nycbar.org

    Mr. Chávez Alor joined the Vance Center in November 2018 as the Latin America Policy Manager and currently holds the Latin America Policy Director title. In his role, he is responsible for managing the Vance Center’s Lawyers Council on Civil and Economic Rights in the Americas and developing other policy-related initiatives in Latin America, particularly on anti-corruption and judicial independence. He is also responsible for co-coordinating the Pro Bono Network of the Americas.

    Before joining the Vance Center, Mr. Chávez Alor worked in the three branches of the Mexican federal government. He served as head of the Unit of Ethics, Public Integrity, and Prevention of Conflict of Interest in the Secretariat of Public Administration and as head of the Unit of International Affairs and Attachés in the Office of the Attorney General. He worked before as senior advisor to a Mexican senator and junior advisor to the Chief Justice of the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice. He has also worked as a normative analysis and institutional design expert.

    Jaime received his law degree from Escuela Libre de Derecho in Mexico City, and an LLM from Columbia Law School, where he graduated as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and received the Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law Recognition of Achievement. Additionally, he has studies in public policy, human rights and compared criminal law.

    In 2014 he was selected to participate in the Professional Fellows Program of the U.S. Department of State, and in 2016 in the Mexico – United Kingdom Initiative on Future Leaders.

    Mr. Chávez Alor has authored and co-authored several articles and books on human rights, conflict of interest, corruption, and democratic participation.

    Born and raised in Mexico, he is fluent in Spanish and English.

    ——

    Jaime Chávez Alor es Director de Políticas para América Latina del Vance Center for International Justice desde 2018. Es responsable de administrar el Consejo de Abogados de Derechos Civiles y Económicos, y de liderar otras iniciativas relacionadas con políticas públicas en materia anticorrupción, independencia judicial y apoyo a la sociedad civil América Latina. También es responsable de la co-coordinación de la Red Pro Bono de las Américas.

    Antes de incorporarse al Vance Center, el Mtro. Chávez Alor trabajó en los tres poderes del gobierno federal mexicano. Se desempeñó como jefe de la Unidad de Ética, Integridad Pública y Prevención de Conflictos de Intereses en la Secretaría de la Función Pública, y anteriormente como Titular de la Coordinación de Asuntos Internacionales y Agregadurías de la ahora Fiscalía General de la República. Trabajó antes como asesor en el Senado de la República y del Presidente de la Suprema Corte de Justicia. También ha trabajado como experto en análisis normativo y diseño institucional.

    Jaime es abogado por la Escuela Libre de Derecho en la Ciudad de México, y Maestro en Derecho por la Universidad de Columbia en Nueva York. Además, tiene estudios en políticas públicas. Es autor y coautor de libros y artículos, y ha participado como conferencista y expositor en diversas materias en la región.

  • Adaobi Egboka

    AFRICA PROGRAM DIRECTOR
    Close
    Adaobi Egboka
    AFRICA PROGRAM DIRECTOR aegboka@nycbar.org

    Adaobi Egboka joined the Vance Center in September 2018 as Africa Program Manager and in 2022 as Africa Program Director. She has overall responsibility for the Vance Center’s Africa Program, managing the African Legal Fellows program, including the Power Africa Legal Fellows program, and the Women in Profession program in Africa, and liaising with the directors of the pro bono representation program and the pro bono partnerships program in developing pro bono practice in selected African countries, as well as supporting the Africa Sub-Committee of the Vance Center Committee.

    Ms. Egboka has more than ten years of experience on access to justice, rule of law, and good governance and over seven years’ experience in NGO management, project coordination, fundraising, stakeholder management and team/capacity building. She started her professional career in 2007 as legal officer at Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), a leading Nigerian human rights NGO, where she rose to the position of the Executive Programmes Director. Her work focused on innovative leadership and the effective application of international and human rights treaties and standards through capacity building, strategic litigation, and advocacy. She also focused on full implementation of laws on justice sector reform and prohibition of Gender Based Violence and on initiating and coordinating pro bono partnerships such as managing the duty solicitor scheme of LEDAP in partnership with the Law Society of England and Wales in 2009. She managed the West African Focal Point of the Coalition for Effective African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and served as an expert on electoral violence mitigation at The Electoral Institute, Abuja, from February 2015 -2016. Ms. Egboka has also served as the Technical Assistant on Police Reform for the Rule of Law Advisory Team in the office of the Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    Ms. Egboka received her LLM in Sustainable International Development Law in 2018 from the University of Washington School of Law, graduating with distinction and awarded the Roy Prosterman Leadership Award. Previously, she graduated from the University of Lagos and Nigerian Law School. She was a Barer and PILnet fellow, serving as a visiting scholar at Columbia University Law School and interning at the Center for Reproductive Rights. She also interned at the America Civil Liberties Union of Washington, Columbia Legal Services, and North-West Justice Project, all in Seattle, Washington State.

  • Sam Bookman

    SENIOR STAFF ATTORNEY
    Close
    Sam Bookman
    SENIOR STAFF ATTORNEY sbookman@nycbar.org

    Sam Bookman joined the Vance Center as a Pro Bono Practice Fellow, supported by the Harvard Law School Public Service Venture Fund. Sam completed an LLM degree at Harvard in 2017-2018 with a focus on international human rights and comparative constitutional law. At Harvard, he assisted in strategic litigation as part of the Harvard International Human Rights Clinic, and was a project leader for Harvard Advocates for Human Rights.

    He has previously worked in New Zealand as Judge’s Clerk to the Chief District Court Judge of New Zealand and as barrister in a range of human rights-related issues. His first law degree was from the University of Auckland, where Sam was the Director of New Zealand’s largest student practice organization, the Equal Justice Project.

  • Nathalya Desterro

    PROGRAM ADVISOR, ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM
    Close
    Nathalya Desterro
    PROGRAM ADVISOR, ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM ndesterro@nycbar.org

    Nathalya Desterro returned to the Vance Center in January 2021 as Program Advisor to the Environment Program after acting as fellow for the Environment Program from November 2019 until August 2020.

    Ms. Desterro holds a double LLM in Comparative Legal Studies and in Environmental Law – Energy and Climate Change from Pace University, Elisabeth Haub School of Law. She also holds a Graduate degree in Environmental Management from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ in Brazil. Her first law degree is from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ in Brazil.

    Ms. Desterro previously worked as legal advisor to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to the United Nations, as legal assistant at the Food and Beverage Law Clinic at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law and was part of the advisory board at Meraki Impact. In Brazil, Ms. Desterro has worked as an environmental lawyer at a law firm and at the Attorney General’s Office at the State Environmental Agency of Rio de Janeiro.

    Ms. Desterro was born in Brazil. She is bilingual in English and Portuguese with intermediate Spanish.

  • Carla A. Pierini Borenstein

    STAFF ATTORNEY, GOOD GOVERNANCE PROGRAM
    Close
    Carla A. Pierini Borenstein
    STAFF ATTORNEY, GOOD GOVERNANCE PROGRAM cpierini@nycbar.org

    Carla A. Pierini Borenstein joined the Vance Center in January 2021 as Staff Attorney for the Good Governance Program. In this role, Ms. Pierini Borenstein contributes to the Program’s pursuit of openness and honesty in government, supporting civil society and independent journalism to hold officials and institutions accountable.

    Ms. Pierini Borenstein previously worked at two international law firms. Her practice focused on developing compliance programs for companies in Latin America and conducting internal investigations of whistleblower claims at multinational corporations. Most recently, Ms. Pierini Borenstein was a legal producer and writer for two top-ranked weekly podcasts on U.S. law and politics.

    Admitted to practice law in New York and the District of Columbia, Ms. Pierini Borenstein received her JD degree cum laude from the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, with a joint master’s degree in Medical Humanities and Bioethics from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She also received an LLM in International Human Rights & Humanitarian Law from the Washington College of Law at American University, an Accelerated Master of Public Health from Columbia University, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

    She is a native Spanish speaker, fluent in Portuguese, and conversational in French.

  • Romina Canessa

    STAFF ATTORNEY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE PROGRAM
    Close
    Romina Canessa
    STAFF ATTORNEY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE PROGRAM rcanessa@nycbar.org

    Romina Canessa joined the Vance Center in February 2021 as Staff Attorney for the Human Rights and Access to Justice Program, assisting NGOs worldwide with projects related to violence against women, the protection of LGBT communities, prisoners’ rights, transitional justice, and accountability for atrocity crimes.

    Ms. Canessa previously worked as an attorney at Equality Now, an international women’s rights organization. In this role she focused on conducting strategic litigation and legal advocacy focusing on issues of international human rights, including access to justice for victims of sexual violence, with a particular focus on Latin America, and the impact of technology on the rights of women and girls. She also served as an expert for ADR Center based in Italy, on developing global access to justice mechanisms, most notably helping to launch and implement the first alternative dispute resolution center in Kabul, Afghanistan. Prior to that, she worked in Peru on anti-corruption, judicial and electoral reform projects for the Asociacion Civil Transparencia.

    Admitted to practice in New York and New Jersey, Ms. Canessa received a JD Degree in Law from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York and a Bachelor of Science Degree in International Politics from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

    She is bilingual in English and Spanish, and also speaks French and Italian.

  • Astrid Reyes

    STAFF ATTORNEY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE PROGRAM
    Close
    Astrid Reyes
    STAFF ATTORNEY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE PROGRAM areyes@nycbar.org

    Astrid Reyes joined the Vance Center in November 2022 as Staff Attorney for the Human Rights and Access to Justice Program, assisting NGOs worldwide with projects related to violence against women, the protection of LGBT communities, prisoners’ rights, transitional justice, and accountability for atrocity crimes.

    Previously, Astrid worked as a Legal Fellow with A Better Balance, where she was part of the Clinical Legal Team and the Outreach and Education Team, providing legal assistance and know-your-rights information to workers across the country. Prior to this, she served as a Legal Intern, and subsequently as a Legal Fellow, with the Global Legal Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights, where she focused on sexual and reproductive health and human rights issues affecting indigenous and marginalized women and girls in Latin America and provided international human rights and comparative legal support on global standards and policies around abortion. In law school, Astrid was a Student Advocate with the Reproductive Justice Clinic and Global Justice Clinic. Prior to law school, she also served as a Paralegal with the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program and as a Legal Assistant for the ACLU’s Human Rights Program.

    Astrid is admitted to practice in New York. She received her J.D. from New York University School of Law, where she was a Latinx Rights Scholar and the inaugural recipient of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Network’s Abby Lyn Gillette Research Assistantship. She received a Bachelor’s Degree in International Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexualities Studies from Emory University.

    Astrid is bilingual in English and Spanish, and speaks conversational Portuguese.

  • Wilmer Gonzalez

    LATIN AMERICA POLICY MANAGER
    Close
    Wilmer Gonzalez
    LATIN AMERICA POLICY MANAGER wgonzalez@nycbar.org

    Wilmer Gonzalez joined the Vance Center in September 2022 as the Latin America Policy Manager. In this role, he works on programs to strengthen judicial independence and address corruption in Latin America, as well as other initiatives of the Lawyers Council for Civil and Economic Rights in the Americas. 

    Wilmer worked with the Zulia state Commission for Human Rights, representing victims in issues related to extrajudicial killings, sexual torture, health care, and the unconstitutionality of the Anti-Hate Crime Law in Venezuela. He has reported cases to the International Criminal Court and the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council. He also has been active in bringing cases related to Indigenous people’s rights to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights. 

     

    In New York, Wilmer has worked with ArentFox Schiff LLP and nonprofit organizations such as Catholic Charities. 

     

    He holds an LLB from Rafael Urdaneta University, and an International Law and Justice LLM from Fordham University School of Law, where he was awarded a Graduate Student full-tuition scholarship. He is an alumnus of the Vance Center’s TotalLAW Prep diversity program. Wilmer has received recognitions including Human Rights Defender of the Month from the Zulia Commission for Human Rights, BIPOC scholar by the Point Foundation, and MPOWER Global Citizen Scholar. 

    Wilmer was born in Venezuela, and is fluent in Spanish and English. 

  • Kay Murray

    MANAGING ATTORNEY, LAWYERS FOR REPORTERS
    Close
    Kay Murray
    MANAGING ATTORNEY, LAWYERS FOR REPORTERS kmurray@nycbar.org

    Kay Murray joined the Vance Center in April 2023 as Managing Attorney of Lawyers for Reporters, expanding the program’s work to provide pro bono legal representation to local and social mission-driven journalism organizations throughout the United States.  

    Kay has counseled and represented news organizations, writers, documentary filmmakers and nonprofit organizations for more than 30 years. She has served as in-house counsel at First Look Institute, Tribune Publishing and the Open Society Foundations, and as General Counsel at the Authors Guild, where she was also Executive Editor of the Authors Guild Bulletin and Executive Director of the Authors Guild Foundation. She also co-authored The Writers Legal Guide (3d ed.). Most recently, Kay was counsel at the media law firm of Baron Harris Healey, where she advised documentary filmmakers and nonprofit organizations.  

    Kay holds degrees from Northwestern University Law School, where she was Articles Editor of the Journal of Crime and Criminology, and from Xavier University, where she was the Outstanding University Humanities Scholar. 

  • Sean Phee

    PROGRAM ASSISTANT, LAWYERS FOR REPORTERS
    Close
    Sean Phee
    PROGRAM ASSISTANT, LAWYERS FOR REPORTERS sphee@nycbar.org

    Sean Phee joined the Vance Center in July 2022 as the Program Assistant for Lawyers for Reporters, which provides pro bono legal representation to local and social mission-driven journalism organizations throughout the United States.

    He previously worked for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. He received his BA in political science from Southern Illinois University and attended the Columbia University School of Professional Studies.

  • Zach Press

    STAFF ATTORNEY, LAWYERS FOR REPORTERS
    Close
    Zach Press
    STAFF ATTORNEY, LAWYERS FOR REPORTERS zpress@nycbar.org

    Zach Press joined the Vance Center in June 2023 as Staff Attorney for Lawyers for Reporters. He advises clients on media and First Amendment law, focusing on defense against defamation and other publication torts, copyright and fair use analysis, and prepublication review.

    Before joining Lawyers for Reporters, Zach counseled media clients in litigation and transactional matters at the law firms of Miller Korzenik Sommers Rayman and Klaris Law. He has represented a diverse range of writers, editors, artists, and publishers, helping them to minimize their legal risk and fulfill their creative vision.

    Zach earned his LLM in French, European and International Business Law from the École de droit de la Sorbonne and his JD from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He served as Articles Editor on the Cardozo Public Law, Policy and Ethics Journal and was a Howard M. Squadron Fellow in Law, Media and Society. He is a graduate of Tulane University, where he received his BA in philosophy and French.

    Zach is a member of the New York City Bar Association Committee on Communications & Media Law, the Media Law Resource Center, and is a volunteer translator for the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services. He is admitted to practice in New York State courts, and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

  • Emily Reers

    FUNDRAISING MANAGER
    Close
    Emily Reers
    FUNDRAISING MANAGER ereers@nycbar.org

    Emily Reers joined the Vance Center in November 2021 as the Fundraising Manager, the first full-time development position in the Vance Center’s near 20-year history. She leads the organization’s fundraising planning and implementation, along with the fundraising sub-committee of the Vance Center.

    Ms. Reers previously worked for over three and a half years​ at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), most recently as the Institutional Development Manager. At PHR, she was responsible for identifying new foundation and government donors for the organization, as well as building and managing those relationships. Prior to PHR, Ms. Reers was the Fundraising Program Coordinator at Equal Exchange, working with nearly 400 schools and groups across the country to raise funds through the sale of Equal Exchange’s fair trade coffee, chocolate, tea, and more.

    Ms. Reers received her BA in Public and Community Service Studies and Political Science from Providence College.

  • Natalie Southwick

    COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
    Close
    Natalie Southwick
    COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER nsouthwick@nycbar.org

    Natalie Southwick joined the Vance Center in January 2023 as Communications Manager. Natalie is responsible for developing and implementing the organization’s communications strategy, working with staff, the Vance Center Committee and its communications sub-committee, international partners, and other stakeholders.

    Natalie previously worked for more than five years at the Committee to Protect Journalists, first as a researcher in the Americas program then as Latin America and the Caribbean Program Coordinator. Prior to graduate school, she worked at Latin Correspondent, Witness for Peace and ACDI/VOCA’s Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Program, all based in Bogotá, Colombia. She has also worked as a freelance journalist and English teacher, and her reporting has been published in outlets including the Boston Globe, Chicago Reporter and Rio on Watch.

    She has an MA in International Human Rights from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and a BS in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She is fluent in Spanish, with basic knowledge of Portuguese.

  • Douglass Cassel

    SPECIAL COUNSEL
    Close
    Douglass Cassel
    SPECIAL COUNSEL dcassel@nycbar.org

    Douglass Cassel joined the Vance Center as special counsel on a part-time basis in January 2023. A recognized expert on business and human rights, international human rights law, and public international law, he has taught in these fields for decades, most recently at Notre Dame Law School.

    He also has assisted human rights victims before the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights, and the International Criminal Court, served as Legal Advisor to the United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador, chaired an independent international panel investigating paramilitary killings in Northern Ireland, and helped negotiate the transitional justice provisions of Colombia’s peace treaty with the FARC. Working with the Vance Center in 2021, he secured precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on behalf of the owners of Nicavisión, S.A., who credited the measures for saving the last independent TV station with nationwide coverage in Nicaragua.  

  • Vance Center Consultants
    Close
    Vance Center Consultants
    vance@nycbar.org

    The Vance Center hires consultants based on geographical and project based needs. We are currently working with consultants in the following countries:

    • Colombia
    • Guatemala
    • Kenya
    • Mexico
    • Panama
    • South Africa

Vance Center Committee

The Vance Center Committee, composed of leading members of the legal profession in New York City and elsewhere in the United States and the world, including law firm partners, members of the judiciary, and corporate counsels, provides core funding and active member engagement in the Vance Center’s programming and planning.

 

Chair & Executive Sub-committee

  • Edwin S. Maynard

    Chair, Vance Center Committee; Partner, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
    Close
    Edwin S. Maynard
    Chair, Vance Center Committee; Partner, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison emaynard@paulweiss.com

    Edwin S. Maynard is a partner in the Corporate Department and head of the Canadian Practice Group. He focuses primarily on corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions, with an emphasis on cross-border transactions. Ted has represented many U.S., Canadian and other non-U.S. issuers in a broad range of securities offerings, public and private, equity and debt and in cross-border acquisitions and restructurings, both public and private.

    Ted has advised numerous issuers, underwriters and placement agents in connection with cross-border offerings made in Canada and the United States. Ted regularly advises U.S., Canadian and other non-U.S. public companies with respect to cross-border mergers and acquisitions and on their U.S. reporting obligations. He is recognized as a leading lawyer in the area of Capital Markets by Chambers Global, The Legal 500, The Best Lawyers in America and Who’s Who Legal.

    Ted speaks frequently on a range of securities law and mergers and acquisitions topics, most often on the effects of legal developments in the United States on Canadian companies and their underwriters/agents. From 2002 to 2004, he served as the sole American representative on the Securities Advisory Committee of the Ontario Securities Commission.

    He is the Chair of the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice, the international pro bono arm of the NYC Bar Association, Ted was actively involved in the Vance Center’s efforts that led to the 2008 launch of the Pro Bono Declaration of the Americas, committing signing law firms and other legal institutions throughout the Americas to do pro bono work. He received a number of awards for his pro bono work on behalf of micro-entrepreneurs in Harlem. Ted is also a director of the Classic Stage Company.

    During his academic career, he studied in France, Mexico and Guatemala. He speaks French and Spanish

  • Todd Crider

    Member, Vance Center Executive Sub-Committee; Partner, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
    Close
    Todd Crider
    Member, Vance Center Executive Sub-Committee; Partner, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett tcrider@stblaw.com

    Todd Crider is a Partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett where he is a member of the Firm’s Corporate Department. He advises client in international corporate finance transactions, mergers and acquisitions and project finance.  Fluent in Spanish and French and proficient in Portuguese, Mr. Crider concentrates primarily on transactions in Spain and Latin America. Mr. Crider is an active member of The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, where he is a member of the Executive Sub-Committee of the Cyrus R. Vance Center of International Justice Initiatives and a member of the Inter-American Affairs Committee.  In such capacities he participated in 2001 and 2002 as an organizer and speaker at pro bono conferences in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Santiago, Chile. He has previously served pro bono as a legal adviser to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.  He was a speaker at the First Annual Latin American Corporate Counsel Institute on Introduction to International Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances in 1998 and, among other articles, is a co-author of Indigenous Peoples, the Environment, and Commercial Forestry in Developing Countries:  the Case of Awas Tingni, published in Human Rights Quarterly (May 1996). Originally from the American South, Mr. Crider lived in Spain for 10 of his first 20 years.  Mr. Crider received his B.A. magna cum laude in 1987 from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, where he was student body president, his License d’histoire in 1988 from the University of Paris IV, Sorbonne, where he was a Rotary Scholar, and his J.D. in 1991 from Columbia University School of Law, where he was a member of Journal of Transnational Law and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.

  • Antonia E. Stolper

    Vice Chair for Latin America, Vance Center Committee; Of Counsel, Shearman & Sterling
    Close
    Antonia E. Stolper
    Vice Chair for Latin America, Vance Center Committee; Of Counsel, Shearman & Sterling astolper@shearman.com

    Ms. Stolper is the Americas Regional Managing Partner, head of the Latin America affinity group and a member of Shearman & Sterling’s Capital Markets-Americas practice group.  Ms. Stolper’s practice focuses primarily on corporate finance transactions in emerging markets. She has extensive registered public offering experience for foreign private issuers.  Her practice focuses on debt and equity securities offerings for Latin American corporate and sovereign issuers, representing both underwriters and issuers, and on restructuring transactions in Latin America, representing issuers, dealer managers and creditors.  In addition, she advises a number of Latin American issuers on their ongoing SEC reporting requirements and corporate governance matters. Ms. Stolper has also advised the Climate Bonds Initiative pro bono on establishing standards for financing the transition to a low carbon economy.  Ms. Stolper is also a member of the executive sub-committee of the Cyrus R. Vance Center of the New York City Bar Association, promoting pro bono work by private lawyers in Latin America and working with lawyers throughout the region on promoting the status of women in the legal profession.

    Ms. Stolper is currently ranked Band 1 in Latin America-wide Capital Markets Chambers Latin America and Band 1 in Latin American Investment in Chambers Global. She has recently been selected amongst the Latin America’s Top Lawyers (2017), Latin America’s Top 100 Female Lawyers (2016) for Capital Markets. She was named one of the National Law Journal’s Outstanding Women Lawyers in 2015 and selected by Latinvex in 2015 as among Latin America’s top 50 female lawyers.

  • Inosi M. Nyatta

    Member, Vance Center Executive Sub-Committee; Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell
    Close
    Inosi M. Nyatta
    Member, Vance Center Executive Sub-Committee; Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell nyattai@sullcrom.com

    Member of the Vance Center’s Executive Sub- Committee, Inosi Nyatta is a partner in Sullivan & Cromwell LLP’s Finance & Restructuring Group. Ms. Nyatta is originally from Kenya. She advises clients on a broad range of financing transactions, including project financings, capital markets offerings and cross-border financings. Ms. Nyatta has acted for a cross-section of clients in oil and gas, power, financial, mining, infrastructure, consumer and other sectors in the United States, Europe, Africa, Latin America and elsewhere. She was assigned to the London office from 2006 through 2010 and relocated to New York in 2011. Ms. Nyatta was the pro bono coordinator in the Firm’s London office and is a member of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP’s Diversity Committee. Ms. Nyatta has participated in a number of pro bono projects through the Vance Center and her firm, including assisting in the establishment of non-for-profit organizations involved in charitable activities in the U.S. and in Africa, providing advice to the African Freedom of Information Center on a “Supplementary Act on a Uniform Legal Framework on Right of Information in West Africa” for submission to the ECOWAS states and providing advice to the Kenya Human Rights Commission with respect to International Criminal Court proceedings involving certain Kenyan individuals.  Ms. Nyatta also serves as the Vice Chair of Amref Health Africa (USA), an charity focused on strengthening community health systems in Africa.  Ms. Nyatta has been recognized for her work in project finance by Chambers USA, The Legal 500 United States, IFLR1000 and Law360. She received her LL.B. at the University of Nairobi, an LL.M. from New York University School of Law under the Hauser Global Scholar program, and a B.C.L. from the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford under the Rhodes Scholar program.

     

  • Werner F. Ahlers

    Member, Vance Center Executive Sub-Committee; Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell
    Close
    Werner F. Ahlers
    Member, Vance Center Executive Sub-Committee; Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell ahlersw@sullcrom.com

    Member of the Vance Center’s Executive Sub-Committee, Werner Federico Ahlers is a partner in Sullivan & Cromwell LLP’s General Practice Group, whose work includes practice includes a wide range of cross-border mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures, as well as various corporate, project and asset-backed financings. He has particular experience advising strategic and financial investors in investments in countries across Latin America in the energy, natural resources and infrastructure sectors, as well as in highly regulated industries, including telecommunications, healthcare and financial services.  Originally from Nicaragua, Mr. Ahlers’ practice and broader interest in the region led to his service as the Chair of the City Bar’s Inter-American Affairs Committee, through which he deepened his involvement with the Vance Center.  Since then, he has served on the Vance Center Committee and participated actively in a number of its pro bono projects and other initiatives, including the 2015 Legal Summit of the Americas.  Mr. Ahlers is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and also serves on the Board of Directors of Global Kids, an educational charity promoting youth development and global awareness. He has been recognized for his M&A and corporate work by The American Lawyer, Chambers (Global, USA and Latin America), The Legal 500, Law360 and M&A Advisor.  He received his J.D. from Yale Law School and A.B. from Harvard College.

Law Firm Members

Meriam Al-Rashid Eversheds Sutherland

Maurice Blanco Davis Polk & Wardwell

Mayling Blanco Norton Rose Fulbright

Hunter Carter Arent Fox

Emeka Chinwuba Cahill Gordon & Reindel

Carrie Cohen Morrison & Foerster

Ikenna Emehelu Akin Gump

Michael L. Fitzgerald Baker McKenzie

David Flechner Allen & Overy

Lucila Hemmingsen King & Spalding

Richard L. Levine Weil, Gotshal & Manges

Kelly A. Librera Winston & Strawn

Marcia T. Maack Mayer Brown

Viren Mascarenhas Milbank

Theodore V. H. Mayer Hughes Hubbard & Reed

Lorraine McGowen Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe

Patricia Menendez-Cambo

Marcelo A. Mottesi Milbank

Steve Nickelsburg Clifford Chance

Maria-Leticia Ossa Daza Willkie Farr & Gallagher

Dennis Pereira Akin Gump

Tom Plotkin Covington & Burling

Dietmar W. Prager Debevoise & Plimpton

Melissa Raciti Freshfields

Pedro Reyes Baker McKenzie

Paul T. Schnell Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom

Steven H. Schulman Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld

Sabrena Silver White & Case

Ruti Smithline Morrison & Foerster

Jaime Trujillo Caicedo Baker McKenzie

Liza M. Velazquez Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison

Lisa Vicens Cleary Gottlieb

Michael J. Volkovitsch Cleary Gottlieb

Janet Whittaker Clifford Chance

Dorina Yessios Allen & Overy

Corporate Counsel

David E. McCraw The New York Times Company

David J. Sorkin Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co

Eruch P. Nowrojee The Carlyle Group

Richard Fogarty

Veronica Rodriguez Televisa Univision

Emeritus Members

Evan A. Davis Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton

Public Service Members

Hon. George B. Daniels U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

Elsie N. Vance

Ex-Officio

Susan J. Kohlmann President, New York City Bar

Bret Parker Executive Director, New York City Bar

International Council

The Vance Center benefits from the wisdom of many legal practitioners and scholars worldwide. The International Council provides cutting edge guidance and unparalleled contacts throughout the legal profession, the United Nations and other international systems, and academia. We are enormously grateful for the service of these world-class experts.

  • Hon. Louise Arbor
    Close
    Hon. Louise Arbor

    Former President & CEO of the International Crisis Group (2009 – present)

    From 2004 to 2008, Ms. Arbour served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She previously served for five years on the Supreme Court of Canada.

    In 1996, the UN Security Council appointed Ms. Arbour as Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, where she served for three years.

    Ms. Arbour was appointed to the Supreme Court of Ontario in 1987, and in 1990 to the Court of Appeal for Ontario. In 1995, as commissioner of an inquiry into the Prison for Women in Kingston, Ontario, she produced a report that accelerated the move towards modern institutions specifically designed to meet the security and programming needs of women inmates.

    In 2009, Ms. Arbour became a member of the Advisory Board for the 2011 World Bank Development Report: ‘Conflict, Security and Development; in 2010, she joined the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security; and in April 2011, became a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy.

    The International Crisis Group is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict.

  • Hon. Hans Corell
    Close
    Hon. Hans Corell

    Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the Legal Counsel of the United Nations (1994 – 2004)

    From 1962 to 1972, Hans Corell served in the Swedish judiciary. In 1972, he joinedthe Ministry of Justice where he became Director of the Division for Administrativeand Constitutional Law in 1979. In 1981, he was appointed Chief Legal Officer of the Ministry. He was Ambassador and Under-Secretary for Legal and Consular Affairs in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs from 1984 to 1994.

    Since his retirement from public service in 2004, Ambassador Corell has been engaged with many different organiza tions in the legal field: the International Bar Association, the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University and the Hague Institute for the Internalisation of Law. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Lund University, Sweden.

     

  • Hon. Richard J. Goldstone
    Close
    Hon. Richard J. Goldstone

    Former Justice South Africa Constitutional Court (1994-2003)

    From 1994 to 1996, Judge Goldstone served as the chief prosecutor of the United Nations’ International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

    From 1999 to 2001, he was the chairperson of the International Independent Inquiry on Kosovo. In 2004, the secretary-general of the United Nations appointed Goldstone to the independent committee to investigate the Iraqi oil-for-food programme (the Volcker Committee). In 2009 he led the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on Gaza. From 1995 to 2007, he served as the Chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand. He chairs the advisory boards of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation, the International Center for Transitional Justice, and the Brandeis University Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life. He is a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary Member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

  • Hon. Juan E. Mendez
    Close
    Hon. Juan E. Mendez

    Former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (From November 2010)

    Professor Méndez is a Visiting Professor of Law at the American University – Washington College of Law and the author (with Marjory Wentworth) of Taking a Stand: The Evolution of Human Rights (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2011). In 2009 and 2010 he was an advisor on crime prevention to the Prosecutor, International Criminal Court. He is also Co-Chair of the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association.

    Until May 2009 he was the President of the International Center for Transnational Justice (ICTJ) and in the summer of 2009 he was a Scholar-in-Residence at the Ford Foundation in New York.  Concurrent with his duties at ICTJ, Professor Méndez served as Special Advisor to the Honorable Kofi Annan on the Prevention of Genocide, a task he performed from 2004 to 2007.

Nyc Bar Association

  • Bret I. Parker

    Executive Director, New York City Bar Association
    Close
    Bret I. Parker
    Executive Director, New York City Bar Association

    The Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice was founded in 2003 to honor the memory of Cyrus R. Vance, a past president of the New York City Bar Association (1974-1976) and former U.S. Secretary of State, and gives continuing substance to his conviction that lawyers have an ethical obligation to play an active role in the promotion of peace, democracy, and social justice.

    The Vance Center collaborates with committees of the Bar Association on complex pro bono projects, international delegations and push events. The Vance Center has been key in transporting the best ideas and practices of the Bar Association, especially the very concept of pro bono legal services, around the globe.

  • Susan J. Kohlmann

    President, New York City Bar Association