Our Approach
Background
I am an Australian social changemaker and human rights lawyer based in France.
With Rodolphe Prom and Silvia Palomba, I co-founded and co-direct the NGO Destination Justice, which has worked since 2011 with a wide range of talented young professionals to advance rule of law, access to justice, and access to information in Cambodia and beyond. Among our many achievements, we hand-built the Justice Café, a safe space and resource centre for changemakers in the making; published the first Annotated Cambodian Constitution; and published Revealing the Rainbow, a comprehensive report analysing the human rights situation of Southeast Asia's LGBTIQ communities and their human rights defenders.
I am currently serving as the International Lawyer to Nuon Chea, the senior-surviving leader of the Khmer Rouge, at the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal (known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia). I had previously served for nearly five years as Nuon Chea's Senior Legal Consultant, including as principal drafter of the 550-page Closing Brief in his trial on genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
My wider practice focuses on representing persecuted human rights defenders and vulnerable communities in Asia. Led by Silvia Palomba and I, Destination Justice has brought human rights defenders' cases before UN human rights bodies and other forums, including this case which we ghostwrote and won.
I have also served as Lead Prosecutor at the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal on Myanmar which examined serious crimes committed against the Rohingya, Kachin, and other Myanmar Muslim groups, including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, serious violations of human rights, and state crimes. Similarly, I am the current Coordinator for International Law with the Free Rohingya Coalition supporting leading Rohingya activists and community leaders and advocating for Rohingya-led solutions to the crises they face.
Among other things, I previously consulted for the UN human rights office in Cambodia to develop the first Annotated Cambodian Code of Criminal Procedure and to promote the legacy of the Khmer Rouge tribunal and support the capacity of the Cambodian legal sector. I was lead Trial Monitor for the Cambodia Tribunal Monitor website. I have held leadership roles with organisations including Amnesty, Oxfam, the Inspire Foundation, and New South Wales Young Lawyers, and have also provided pro bono legal advice to a range of organisations.
In addition, I have lectured widely on international law, human rights, and political science at universities in Cambodia, France, and Australia.
I began my career as a lawyer at Deacons (now part of global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright), working in a business advisory and corporate governance practice and in commercial dispute resolution.
Memberships and Education
I am admitted to the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Australia and a member of the Law Society of New South Wales and the ATLAS Network.
I hold an LLM with honours from Columbia University and honours degrees in government and international relations and law from the University of Sydney. I am also an alumni of Seth Godin's altMBA.