Sherrie Russell-Brown

Author: Sherrie Russell-Brown

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.

May 24, 2013May 24, 2013 by Sherrie Russell-Brown

Dad’s (Dr. Karl Russell-Brown) Army picture.

May 24, 2013May 24, 2013 by Sherrie Russell-Brown

My grandmother (far right), Ivy May Russell-Brown, my great-grandfather (center) Dr. Julius Graham and my Aunt (center) Carol Anne Russell-Brown, as a young child.

May 24, 2013May 24, 2013 by Sherrie Russell-Brown

My grandfather, Victor Moreland Russell-Brown