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Meet Our Teams

Vance Center Staff

  • Alexander Papachristou

    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
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    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. He co-founded Reporters Shield and leads the legal work of that global program to defend public interest journalism.

    Alex 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.

    Alex was previously 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, he 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. Alex 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 he edited.

    Alex 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; ASSOCIATE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
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    Susan M. Kath
    DIRECTOR, ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM; ASSOCIATE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR skath@nycbar.org

    Susan Kath joined the Vance Center in February 2013 as Director of the Environment Program.

    Susan directs the Program’s work with local, regional, and international environmental NGOs on projects concerning human rights and the environment, climate change, protection of environmental defenders, children’s environmental rights, biodiversity loss and conservation, toxic pollution, and water source and river protection. The Program also supports special rapporteurs of the UN Human Rights Council to further their mandates in human rights and the environment, climate change, and the right to a healthy environment, and works to promote the rights of Indigenous peoples and other communities through projects that build legal capacity and knowledge.

    As Associate Executive Director, Susan oversees the Vance Center’s pro bono project development and implementation, and overall programmatic strategy.

    Susan previously served as the Chief of the New York City Law Department Environmental Law Division. She managed 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. In this role, she was responsible for managing 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. She 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.

    Susan is a Fellow in the American College of Environmental Lawyers. She is a Chair Emerita of the New York Committee for Human Rights Watch, and she helped establish and formerly co-chaired of the Advisory Committee for the Environment and Human Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Prospect Park Alliance.

    Admitted to practice law in New York, Susan is a graduate of Fordham Law School and Northwestern University.

  • Jaime Chávez Alor

    ASSOCIATE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
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    Jaime Chávez Alor
    ASSOCIATE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR jchavezalor@nycbar.org

    Jaime Chávez Alor joined the Vance Center in November 2018 as the Latin America Policy Manager; as of January 2024, he holds the title of Associate Executive Director. In his role, he is responsible for directing the Vance Center’s Lawyers Council on Civil and Economic Rights in the Americas; leading pro bono practice development and strategy in Latin America, including co-coordination of the Pro Bono Network of the Americas; and developing policy-related and diversity initiatives. He is also responsible for overall programmatic strategy and monitoring & evaluation, including impact measurement.

    Before joining the Vance Center, Jaime 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 comparative 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.

    Jaime 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, y Director Ejecutivo Asociado desde enero de 2024. Es responsable de administrar el Consejo de Abogados de Derechos Civiles y Económicos en las Américas; liderar el desarrollo y la estrategia de la práctica pro bono en América Latina, incluida la coordinación conjunta de la Red Pro Bono de las Américas; y desarrollar iniciativas relacionadas con las políticas y la diversidad en la profesion legal. También es responsable de la estrategia programática general y de las medidas de seguimiento y evaluación, incluida la medición del impacto.

    Antes de incorporarse al Vance Center, Jaime 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.

  • Karina Benzaquen

    SENIOR MANAGER, INTERNATIONAL DIVERSITY AND PRO BONO PROGRAMS
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    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).

    Karina 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.

    Karina 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.

  • Sam Bookman

    SENIOR STAFF ATTORNEY, ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM
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    Sam Bookman
    SENIOR STAFF ATTORNEY, ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM 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. Sam’s first law degree was from the University of Auckland, where he was the director of New Zealand’s largest student practice organization, the Equal Justice Project.

  • Romina Canessa

    STAFF ATTORNEY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE PROGRAM
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    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.

    Romina 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, Romina received a JD from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York and a Bachelor of Science 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.

  • Nathalya Desterro

    PROGRAM ADVISOR, ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM
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    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.

    Nathalya 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.

    She 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, Nathalya 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.

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

  • Adaobi Egboka

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

    Adaobi Egboka joined the Vance Center in September 2018 as Africa Program Manager and in 2022 became Africa Program Director. She directs the Vance Center’s programmatic activities in Africa, including managing the African Legal Fellows Program, the Women in the Profession program chapters 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.

    Adaobi has more than 15 years of experience on access to justice, rule of law, and good governance issues, and over 10 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. Adaobi 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.

    Adaobi 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.

  • Shaydah Ghom

    ENGAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE
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    Shaydah Ghom
    ENGAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE sghom@nycbar.org

    Shaydah Ghom joined the Vance Center in March 2024 as Engagement and Development Associate. In this role, she contributes to the organization’s capacity across multiple function areas, including through programmatic support, strategic communications, and development operations.  

    Shaydah previously worked to advance program development at In-Sight Collaborative, where she provided research and policy insights on issues of forced displacement, human rights, and the humanitarian and development sectors. Shaydah’s work on these topics was used as materials for the organization’s education modules, and she also supported implementation in a mentor capacity throughout the program. She has held additional roles with various international organizations, including Journalists for Human Rights, the International Organization for Migration, and the World Food Programme, Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Bureau. 

    Shaydah has a Master of Global Affairs from the University of Toronto and a Master of Public Policy from Sciences Po Paris. She completed her BA in International Development Studies at McGill University. She is fluent in Spanish, proficient in French, and is continuing to expand her basic knowledge of Farsi. 

  • Wilmer González

    PROGRAM ADVISOR, LAWYERS COUNCIL
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    Wilmer González
    PROGRAM ADVISOR, LAWYERS COUNCIL wgonzalez@nycbar.org

    Wilmer González joined the Vance Center in September 2022 as the Latin America Policy Manager. In January 2024, he changed roles to Program Advisor for the Vance Center’s Lawyers Council for Civil and Economic Rights in the Americas. 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. 

    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. 

  • Snezana Green

    DIRECTOR, REPORTERS SHIELD
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    Snezana Green
    DIRECTOR, REPORTERS SHIELD sgreen@nycbar.org

    Snezana Green joined the Vance Center in June as Director of the Reporters Shield Program. Snezana supervises and directs the Reporters Shield Program Coordinators based in Europe, Latin America, and other locations, supports the development and maintenance of a network of media lawyers in those jurisdictions, and directs and provides the program’s overall response to requests for legal representation and other RS member benefits, including training and pre-publication review.   

    Snezana brings to the Vance Center over twenty years of international experience in freedom of expression. She has worked and lived in many regions that are highly challenging to journalists, including Central America and the Balkans. She previously worked for more than ten years at the Media Development Investment Fund, most recently as Senior Counsel, Legal & Policy Affairs. While with MDIF, she authored several articles that were re-published by GIJN and others advocating against media capture, SLAPPs and other forms of legal harassment of journalists.  

    She previously consulted for various UN agencies as well as WAN-IFRA, where she directed a global project researching the intersection between technology, media, and development assistance. Snezana started her career in the Balkans in the late 1990s, on a team of lawyers at Zivkovic & Samardzic Law Office that provided legal representation to independent media, and where she coordinated ANEM Pro-Bono Legal Aid Network. She also worked for the OSCE Media Department in Serbia and Montenegro as a freedom of expression expert and provided research advice to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.   

    Snezana is a Chevening and University of Oxford scholar with a master’s degree with distinction in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford and a bachelor of laws degree from the University of Belgrade, Serbia.

    She is a native Serbo-Croatian speaker, fluent in English, and proficient in Spanish.   

  • Kay Murray

    MANAGING ATTORNEY, LAWYERS FOR REPORTERS
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    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. 

  • Carla A. Pierini Borenstein

    STAFF ATTORNEY, GOOD GOVERNANCE PROGRAM
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    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, she contributes to the Program’s pursuit of openness and honesty in government, supporting civil society and independent journalism to hold officials and institutions accountable.

    Carla 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 before joining the Vance Center, Carla 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, Carla 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.

  • Sean Phee

    PROGRAM ASSISTANT, LAWYERS FOR REPORTERS
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    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
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    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
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    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.

    Emily 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, Emily 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.

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

  • Astrid Reyes

    STAFF ATTORNEY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE PROGRAM
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    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 JD 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.

  • Natalie Southwick

    COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
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    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.

  • Audrey Tanenbaum

    STAFF ATTORNEY, LAWYERS FOR REPORTERS
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    Audrey Tanenbaum
    STAFF ATTORNEY, LAWYERS FOR REPORTERS atanenbaum@nycbar.org

    Audrey Tanenbaum joined the Vance Center in February 2024 as Staff Attorney for Lawyers for Reporters. She advises clients on a range of media and First Amendment law issues.

    Before joining Lawyers for Reporters, Audrey worked in antitrust litigation at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and was a legal fellow at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, where she conducted prepublication review, drafted numerous amicus briefs, and staffed a legal hotline for journalists.  

    Audrey received her J.D. from the George Washington University School of Law. During law school, she interned at the Knight First Amendment Institute and the Reporters Committee. She is a graduate of Barnard College, where she received her BA cum laude in Political Science and French. 

  • Douglass Cassel

    SPECIAL COUNSEL
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    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
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    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.

 

Co-Chairs & Executive Sub-Committee

  • Werner F. Ahlers

    Co-Chair, Vance Center Committee; Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell
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    Werner F. Ahlers
    Co-Chair, Vance Center Committee; Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell ahlersw@sullcrom.com

    Co-Chair of the Vance Center 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.

  • Lorraine McGowen

    Co-Chair, Vance Center Committee; Partner, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe
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    Lorraine McGowen
    Co-Chair, Vance Center Committee; Partner, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe lmcgowen@orrick.com

    Co-Chair of the Vance Center Committee and partner in the restructuring practice group at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, Lorraine McGowen is a leading bankruptcy and restructuring attorney, a well-known advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the legal profession, and a leader with more than 15 years of board and management experience.

    Lorraine has represented various stakeholders in bankruptcies, workouts, distressed debt transactions, sovereign debt restructurings, bankruptcy litigation, derivatives, and distressed acquisition matters such as Suriname, Belize, Puerto Rico, Takata Corporation, Windstream, GTT, Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, Lehman, MF Global, Indiana Toll Road, Chemtura Corporation, Tronox Incorporated, South Bay Expressway, American Dream School, Detroit, General Motors, and Stone & Webster.

    Lorraine is a member of Orrick’s Management Committee and is Partner in Charge of its global DEI Initiatives. She previously served two terms on the firm’s 11-member Board of Directors and also previously chaired its Restructuring Group. As a leading DEI advocate, Lorraine creates programs for the legal profession and the community. She is a frequent speaker and author on bankruptcy and insolvency and diversity and inclusion.

    Among her community involvement, she is a former Vice President and Board Member of the New York City Bar Association and currently co-chairs the City Bar’s Digital Assets Task Force. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession and the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, where she is chair of the board, and on the Advisory Committee for Legal Outreach of the City Bar, in addition to her role with the Vance Center.

  • Edwin S. Maynard

    Vance Center Executive Sub-Committee; Of Counsel, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
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    Edwin S. Maynard
    Vance Center Executive Sub-Committee; Of Counsel, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison emaynard@paulweiss.com

    Of Counsel in the Corporate Department at Paul, Weiss, retired partner Edwin S. Maynard concentrated 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.

    In May 2023, Ted completed his term as Chair of the Vance Center Committee. He has been actively involved in the Vance Center’s work for nearly two decades, including playing a key role in efforts that led to the 2008 launch of the Pro Bono Declaration of the Americas, which commits signing law firms and other legal institutions throughout the Americas to do pro bono work. He has received a number of awards for his pro bono work on behalf of micro-entrepreneurs in Harlem, and 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.

  • S. Todd Crider

    Vance Center Executive Sub-Committee; Partner, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
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    S. Todd Crider
    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 Vance Center’s Executive Sub-Committee 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
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    Antonia E. Stolper
    Vice Chair for Latin America, Vance Center Committee; Of Counsel, Shearman & Sterling astolper@shearman.com

    Antonia 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

    Vance Center Executive Sub-Committee; Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell
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    Inosi M. Nyatta
    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), a 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.

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

Kelly A. Librera Winston & Strawn

Marcia T. Maack Mayer Brown

Viren Mascarenhas Milbank

Theodore V. H. Mayer Hughes Hubbard & Reed

Patricia Menendez-Cambo

Marcelo A. Mottesi Milbank

Steve Nickelsburg Clifford Chance

Maria-Leticia Ossa Daza Willkie Farr & Gallagher

Alexandro M. Padres Paul Hastings

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

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

Nyc Bar Association

New York City Bar Association Executive Director and President

  • Bret I. Parker

    Executive Director, New York City Bar Association
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    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