Jared Genser (Español)
Jared Genser is Managing Director of Perseus Strategies, Special Advisor on the Responsibility to Protect to the Organization of American States, General Counsel to the Neurorights Foundation, and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. Referred to by the New York Times as “The Extractor” for his work freeing political prisoners, he is also co-Executive Producer of a dramatic TV series based on his life being developed with actor and producer Orlando Bloom by Amazon Studios for Prime Video, which has 175 million viewers worldwide. Genser was previously a partner in the government affairs practice of DLA Piper LLP and a management consultant with McKinsey & Company.
Genser has taught semester-long seminars about the UN Security Council at Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Michigan and University of Pennsylvania law schools. He was an Associate of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University from 2014-2016, a Visiting Fellow with the National Endowment for Democracy from 2006-2007, and was previously named by the National Law Journal as one of “40 Under 40: Washington’s Rising Stars.” His past clients have included former Czech Republic President Václav Havel, former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Desmond Tutu, Liu Xiaobo, and Elie Wiesel. Coming from his experience freeing his first client as a law student, in 2001 he founded Freedom Now, a non-governmental organization that works to free prisoners of conscience worldwide.
He holds a B.S. from Cornell University, an M.P.P. from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he was an Alumni Public Service Fellow, and a J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School.
Genser is author of The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention: Commentary and Guide to Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2019). In addition, he is co-editor of The UN Security Council in the Age of Human Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and The Responsibility to Protect: The Promise of Stopping Mass Atrocities in Our Times (Oxford University Press, 2011). In 2020, Genser was selected as one of three winners of the Tällberg Eliasson Global Leadership Prize from among 2,165 nominees from 135 countries. He is also the recipient of the American Bar Association’s International Human Rights Award, Liberty in North Korea’s Freedom Fighter Award, and the Charles Bronfman Prize. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. And he was selected as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum (Class of 2008).
Profiles – Print
- High Stakes, Bethesda Magazine, April/May 2021
- The Ripple Effect: Jared Genser, Tällberg Eliasson Global Leadership Prize Profile, December 2020
- Human Rights Hero Jared Genser on Dictators and the World’s Worst Prisons, American Lawyer Litigation Daily, March 15, 2016
- 5 Humble Humanitarian Heroes, Take Part, August 19, 2011
- DLA Piper Alum Launches Practice Focused on Humanitarian Issues, Washington Post, July 3, 2011
- “I’m an American:” When Democracy Advocate Nyi Nyi Aung Was Arrested in Burma, It Took a Determined Washington Lawyer to Get Him Home, Washingtonian, October 2010
- What It Takes: A Persistent Voice for Human Rights, Washington Post Capital Business, June 7, 2010
- Freedom Fighter: One Man’s Lawyer, John F. Kennedy School of Government Bulletin, Spring 2008
- A Friend in Need, American Lawyer, October 2007
- The James Mawdsley Story, University of Michigan Law Quadrangle Notes, Spring 2001 (Case Inspired Founding of Freedom Now)
Profiles – Television and Radio
- Sunday Profile, ABC Radio (Australia), June 30, 2013
Brian Tronic
Brian Tronic is Counsel at Perseus Strategies. He is a graduate of Penn Law School and holds a B.A. from the University of Virginia, where he double-majored in Math and Philosophy. After law school, he clerked for two years in the Vermont Superior Court, and then moved to South India to work at a human rights organization through the William J. Clinton Fellowship for Service in India. He then served as the Crowley Fellow in International Human Rights at Fordham Law School, an Assistant Professor at Jindal Global Law School (India), and the Supervising Attorney and Teaching Fellow at the International Women’s Human Rights Clinic at the Georgetown Law Center. He is a member of the Massachusetts bar and the District of Columbia bar.
Stephanie Herrmann
Stephanie Herrmann is the Staff Attorney at Perseus Strategies. Her experience includes serving as an advocate at the Anti-Torture Initiative, as a Kovler Scholar at the UN Committee Against Torture’s 68th Session, and as the Inaugural Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House. She also has worked as a law clerk for both the ACLU National Prison Project and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Stephanie received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, her M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and her J.D. from American University Washington College of Law. She speaks Spanish and intermediate Mandarin. She is a member of the District of Columbia bar.
Michael Russo
Michael Russo is the Václav Havel Human Rights Fellow at Perseus Strategies. He graduated with highest honors from the University of Michigan with degrees in History and Spanish and a minor in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. During college, he helped to lead a free English tutoring clinic serving the Latinx community of Ann Arbor, and he worked with the U-M Law School’s Immigrant Justice Lab to compose asylum petitions on behalf of migrants facing deportation. His honors thesis examining how United States foreign policy in Central America affects human rights received one of the Arthur Fondiler Awards for Best Undergraduate Thesis. Michael also received the University’s Raoul Wallenberg Award for Excellence in Humanitarian Studies. He speaks Spanish and Portuguese.
Skylar Gleason
Skylar Gleason is a Consultant at Perseus Strategies. She graduated with highest distinction from the University of Michigan with majors in Political Science and International Studies, as well as minors in Spanish and Law, Justice, and Social Change. Skylar has served as an intern for the Washtenaw County Office of Public Defender, Perseus Strategies, and the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice. She studied abroad in Argentina and completed an honors thesis on the lingering effects of the 1976 Argentine military dictatorship. Additionally, Skylar is the self-published author and illustrator of the children’s book Finding the Monster Called Love, which benefits children with congenital heart defects. She speaks Spanish.
Olivia Powell
Olivia Powell is the Legal Intern at Perseus Strategies. She is a third-year law student at The George Washington University Law School and master’s candidate in Security Studies at Georgetown University. She graduated from Carleton College with a B.A. in Political Science/International Relations and Asian Studies. During law school, she has served as a law clerk with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Energy, and she is a member of GW’s International Law in Domestic Courts Journal. Her graduate and legal research focuses on women’s rights in South Asia, international humanitarian law in armed conflict, and application of human rights law in the U.S. court system.
Lauren Doyle
Lauren Doyle is an intern at Perseus Strategies. She is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Michigan and recipient of the DHRC/PICS International Human Rights Fellowship. She is pursuing a B.A. in International Studies with a focus in International Security, Norms, and Cooperation and the Middle East and North Africa. During college, Lauren has worked as a case aide intern for Samaritas’ Refugee Resettlement Program and as a crisis-line worker at SafeHouse Center. She speaks Arabic and Persian. In addition, Lauren is a director of Camp Kesem at the University of Michigan, a regional non-profit organization that provides free camp and support programs to children whose parents have been impacted by cancer.
Emmanuel Orozco Castellanos
Emmanuel Orozco Castellanos is an intern at Perseus Strategies. He is a senior at the University of Michigan interning this summer as the DHRC/PICS International Human Rights Fellow. He is majoring in International Studies with a double minor in translation and Latin American Studies. Emmanuel has been a delegate at the 61st and 63rd United Nations Commissions on the Status of Women (CSW), and the 10th UN Youth Forum. He has volunteered as a translator and interpreter for asylum-seekers at Freedom House Detroit, and interned at AsylumConnect (now InReach) as bilingual outreach and social services coordinator. He has also published several articles on human rights and migration. Emmanuel speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese and is currently learning French.