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 political prisoner Leopoldo López, former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed, and imprisoned American hostages in Iran Siamak and Baquer Namazi.
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, Forthcoming 2019). 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
- 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
- Conversations with Great Minds with Thom Hartmann, RT, June 29, 2012
Brian Tronic
Brian Tronic is Counsel at Perseus Strategies, LLC. 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.
Skylar Gleason
Skylar Gleason is Special Assistant to the Managing Director at Perseus Strategies, LLC. She graduated with highest distinction from the University of Michigan with majors in Political Science and International Studies with a concentration in International Security, Norms, and Cooperation, 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 entitled ‘No es tan malo’: Investigating the Effects of Denial of Mass Violence on Perceptions of Justice in Contemporary Argentina. Additionally, Skylar is the self-published author and illustrator of the children’s book Finding the Monster Called Love, which benefits the International Children’s Heart Foundation. She is conversant in Spanish.
Juan Pablo 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.
Claire Connor
Claire Connor is a legal intern at Perseus Strategies, LLC. She is a rising 2L at the George Washington University Law School. She has an M.A. in International Affairs from American University and a B.A. in International Relations and French Language and Literature from the University of Denver. Prior to going to law school, Claire worked on Aegean affairs at the State Department for six years. She is fluent in French and conversant in Turkish.
Melissa Ozdemir
Melissa Ozdemir is an intern at Perseus Strategies, LLC. A recent graduate from the University of North Florida, Melissa holds a B.A. in Political Science – Public Law with a minor in Business Management. This fall she will pursue a Master of Science in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia University with plans to go on to law school. She previously interned with Women’s Social Enterprise with Small Projects Istanbul, an NGO centered around refugee women and their families, helping them earn a livelihood and integrate into the community. She is fluent in Turkish and conversant in Spanish.
Aman Madan
Aman Madan is an intern at Perseus Strategies, LLC. He is a rising graduate student at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, United Kingdom. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and Arab Studies from Davidson College. Prior to joining Perseus Strategies, Aman worked for the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs and as a journalist for the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. His work has been featured in the Washington Post, The Diplomat, and regional Middle Eastern and South Asian publications. He is fluent in Urdu, Hindi, & Lebanese Arabic. He is also proficient in Farsi.
Saam Namazi
Saam Namazi is an intern at Perseus Strategies, LLC. He is a rising junior at Tufts University and is pursuing a double major in International Relations, focusing on the Middle East, and Economics. He is fluent in English, Farsi, French and Spanish and previously interned at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Stephen Damianos
Stephen Damianos is an intern at Perseus Strategies. A recent graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, Stephen holds a B.A. in Political Science with a minor in journalism. This fall he will enroll in a Master’s of Philosophy in Development Studies at the University of Cambridge, where he will study the legal, societal, and economic implications of forced sex work within refugee communities. A Truman Scholar, Stephen is conversant in Greek and Spanish.
Tim Sadov
Tim Sadov is an intern at Perseus Strategies, LLC. He is a rising sophomore at Princeton University pursuing a concentration in the Woodrow School of Public Policy and a certificate in Russian language. Tim is a contributor to Princeton’s foreign policy magazine, American Foreign Policy, and a member of the Russian student alliance. He is a native Russian speaker and is conversant in French.