Sherrie Russell-Brown is an international lawyer, who has litigated before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR),  published articles on gender and genocide, Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region, security, international justice and humanitarian law, taught public international and human rights law, presented on child soldiers in armed conflict and international child protection, conducted international labor rights advocacy training and field research, in the Kingdom of Swaziland and coordinates a collaborative group of experts dedicated to promoting research and analysis on the Sahel, and, in particular, the Boko Haram insurgency.

Ms. Russell-Brown graduated from Columbia Law School (JD), Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, where she was a member of the Child Advocacy Clinic, a Teaching Fellow in Constitutional Law, Writing and Research Editor, Human Rights Law Review and received a Charles Evans Hughes Fellowship, awarded for showing “demonstrated concern for the legal problems of the disadvantaged and active involvement in helping disadvantaged people while a member of the Law School community.”

She served as a Federal Judicial Law Clerk for the Honorable Earl Ben Gilliam, United States District Court for the Southern District of California, before becoming a Litigation Associate in the New York Office of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where she spent several years doing complex commercial litigation, including securities litigation, derivative class action suits, ERISA class actions, copyright and patent infringement. She also coordinated Paul, Weiss’ participation in the “Legal Outreach” program, which introduces junior high and high school students to the operation of the legal system.

Returning to Columbia Law School for its inaugural class of its Masters of Law Program in International Human Rights Law, Ms. Russell-Brown graduated with an LL.M. in international human rights law, Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and received a Post-Graduate Fellowship in the Law School’s Human Rights Institute, to assist CUNY Law School’s International Women’s Human Rights Law Clinic with an Alien Torts Claims Act litigation in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, involving allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other violations of humanitarian law.

Subsequent to obtaining her LL.M., Ms. Russell-Brown continued her legal studies in a PhD/DPhil program at Oxford University (Brasenose College). Her thesis research is on Reservations to Normative/Law-Making Multilateral Treaties in International Law, and, in particular, human rights treaties. During her residency at Oxford, she was invited to be a Professeur Invitée de Droit International Public at Université Lumière, Lyon 2, Lyon, France, where she taught public international and comparative law. Most recently, she taught in the Human Rights Program, Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College.  

Finally, in her commitment to international justice and human rights, Ms. Russell-Brown continues in her family’s tradition of service to the community. Ms. Russell-Brown’s great-grandfather, Dr. Julius Graham, was one of the co-founders of the earliest African-American-owned and operated hospitals in Detroit, Michigan – – Dunbar/Parkside and Fairview. He emigrated from Jamaica, West Indies, in 1919, graduated from Wilberforce University and Meharry Medical College, was a Trustee of Wilberforce and President of the Detroit Medical Society.

And, her cousin Mrs. Patsy Robertson is a Visiting Professor, The Policy Institute, King’s College London, Chair of the Ramphal Institute and the former Director of Information at the Commonwealth Secretariat and Official Spokesperson for the Commonwealth (1983-1994), senior Media Advisor for the Fourth World Conference on Women and Beijing +5, and with UNICEF on the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children 1991-1992. She is also a Chair of Widows’ Rights International and The Commonwealth Association, and is a trustee of several charities, including The Thomson Foundation and The British Empire & Commonwealth Museum.

You can also find Sherrie Russell-Brown on the web at: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, WordPress, about.me, Pinterest, Martindale Hubbell, Google+, Quora, Plaxo, Wikipedia and ResearchGate.