Jared Genser
Jared Genser is Managing Director of Perseus Strategies, LLC. He is also founder of Freedom Now, an independent non-governmental organization that works to free prisoners of conscience worldwide. Referred to by the New York Times as “The Extractor” for his work freeing political prisoners, he 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 and Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Aung San Suu Kyi, Liu Xiaobo, Desmond Tutu, and Elie Wiesel. Among his current clients are imprisoned Venezuelan politician Leopoldo López, former Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, and the widow of Liu Xiaobo, Liu Xia.
He holds a B.S. from Cornell University, an M.P.P. from Harvard’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, Forthcoming 2018). In addition, he is co-editor of The UN Security Council in the Age of Human Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and The Responsibility to Protect: The Promise of Stopping Mass Atrocities in Our Times (Oxford University Press, 2011). Genser is 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.
Profiles – Print
- 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
Profiles – Television and Radio
- Sunday Profile, ABC Radio (Australia), June 30, 2013
- Conversations with Great Minds with Thom Hartmann, RT, June 29, 2012
Nicole Santiago
Nicole Santiago is an Associate at Perseus Strategies, LLC. She is a graduate of Northeastern University Law School, and holds a B.A. from DePaul University, where she graduated summa cum laude from the honors program with a Bachelor in international studies and minors in Spanish and political science. She was an Editor-in-Chief of the Northeastern University Law Journal for the 2013-2014 academic year and she worked as a research assistant with the Program on Human Rights in Global Economy, where she studied large-scale land acquisitions in Latin America. During law school, Nicole interned with the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable in Washington, DC, Oxfam America in Boston, and the Office of Deval L. Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts. She is conversant in Spanish and French. She is a member of the bar of Massachusetts but is not authorized to practice law in the District of Columbia.
Mary Brooks
Mary Brooks is Special Assistant to the Managing Director at Perseus Strategies, LLC. She graduated cum laude from Harvard College with a B.A. in Government and a Foreign Language Citation in Modern Standard Arabic. While in college, Mary interned for the White House Office of Operations during the Obama Administration, conducted research on global refugee policies and frameworks, and worked at the Justice Studies Center of the Americas in Santiago de Chile. She also served as a senior organizer for international and domestic conferences for Harvard’s International Relations Council. She is conversant in Spanish and Jordanian Arabic.
Juan Miramontes
Juan Pablo Miramontes is the Václav Havel Human Rights Fellow at Perseus Strategies, LLC. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a B.A. in Social Studies and a Foreign Language Citation in French. During college, Juan conducted research on immigrant integration policies in France and the United States. He worked directly on refugee resettlement as an intern for the International Rescue Committee and the Harvard Law School Immigration and Refugee Clinic. He also interned at the Buenos Aires-based Center for the Implementation of Public Policies in Growth and Equity (CIPPEC), where he studied the effects of political decentralization on democratic governance. Additionally, he helped organize numerous conferences in the US and abroad simulating various UN and OAS bodies. He is fluent in Spanish and French and conversant in Portuguese.
Ashley McLaughlin Leen
Ashley McLaughlin Leen is a Legal Intern at Perseus Strategies, LLC. She recently completed her first year of studies at The George Washington University School of Law. After graduating from Boston College magna cum laude with a B.A. in International Studies and a minor in Italian, Ashley worked for five years at the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the Boston and Dallas Field Offices. As an Intelligence Analyst, she led research, data analysis, and strategic reporting for national security and criminal – specifically gangs and violent crime – investigations. Desiring to work in international development, Ashley then worked for three and a half years as the Co-Director of the Lulu Project, a community-based women’s empowerment program in northwestern Tanzania. She is fluent in Swahili and conversant in Italian.
Charles Orta
Charles Orta is a Legal Intern at Perseus Strategies, LLC. He recently completed his first year of studies at Harvard Law School and is an MPP joint-degree candidate with the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard College with a B.A. in Government and a Certificate in Latin American Studies, Charles interned at the Carter Center, where he worked on critical peace and security issues in the Americas, such as the Colombian Peace Process. He also interned at InSight Crime, an investigative journalism website on organized crime in the Americas, where he published articles on corruption, gangs, and violence. More recently, he worked in a student practice organization to advocate for the human rights of waste pickers in Nicaragua. He is fluent in Spanish.
Claire Lynch
Claire Lynch is an Intern at Perseus Strategies, LLC. She graduated summa cum laude from the City College of New York, CUNY, with a double major in Political Science and Jewish Studies. Claire has interned with the U.S. Senate, the Roosevelt Institute, the New York Public Interest Research Group, and the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. Her undergraduate research focused on the procedures and jurisprudence relating to sexual violence and rape as a form of ethnic cleansing within the International Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia. Claire has assisted with citizenship test and language prep with Arabic and Spanish-speaking immigrants, and volunteered with the High Atlas Foundation in Morocco on sustainable agricultural development campaigns focused on women’s empowerment. She is a 2017 Harry S. Truman Scholar and a Fulbright ETA Recipient in Spain for the 2018-2019 academic year. She is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Arabic.
Daniel Wassim
Daniel Wassim is an Intern at Perseus Strategies, LLC. He graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University with a B.S.F.S. in International Politics and a minor in French. During college, Daniel interned with the U.S. Senate, the Office of International Affairs in the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, and with the Public Policy and Regulation Group at Holland and Knight LLP. While studying at Sciences Po in Lyon, France, he worked with Habitat et Humanisme, a French nonprofit, to provide social services to African and Middle Eastern refugees. He also served as an Editor on the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, publishing articles on issues including cybersecurity, migration, and the global commons. He is a 2017 recipient of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship. He is proficient in French.
Phoebe Dantoin
Phoebe Dantoin is a Research Assistant at Perseus Strategies, LLC. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Houston with a degree in mathematics and a minor in history. She is entering her third year at Boston University School of Law, where she will be working as editor-in-chief for the Boston University International Law Journal. She has previously done research work at Boston University on economics and financial technology, and at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy on vicarious post-traumatic stress disorder.