eNotes  -  July 2007

Volunteers Lend Their Expertise to Vance Center Projects

Vance Center volunteers Carrie Cohen (l.) and Elizabeth Millard.

Since its inception, the Vance Center has benefited from the work of volunteers who have helped to develop new projects and lent their expertise to existing programs. This year, the Vance Center is working with three volunteers who are assisting in the development of the Vance Center's projects on gender issues in the legal profession as well as the Center's work in Africa and Latin America.

The Center's 2007 volunteers are Carrie Cohen, Elizabeth Millard and Jorgelina Rossi.

Carrie Cohen is working with the Vance Center to address issues affecting women in the legal profession in Latin America and South Africa. She is currently chair of the New York City Bar's Committee on Women in the Profession, which under her leadership launched a report on the best practices for the hiring, training, retention and advancement of women attorneys in the United States. Ms. Cohen's work at the Vance Center seeks to mobilize resources in New York, including the Best Practices report, to support women lawyers in Latin America and South Africa who are taking steps to address disparities between men and women in the legal profession. Her work resulted in a series of meetings with women associates and partners in Argentina in April to discuss these issues and chart a plan forward. (See the article Lawyers Share Strategies For Advancing Women in the Legal Profession)

Ms. Cohen is working with the Vance Center prior to joining the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York where she will be an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division. Previously, Ms. Cohen was appointed by then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer as Chief of the Public Integrity Unit in the Criminal Division of the Attorney General's Office. Ms. Cohen earned her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and her undergraduate degree from Cornell University. In addition to serving as Chair of the New York City Bar's Committee on Women in the Profession, Ms. Cohen serves as Chair-Elect of the New York State Bar Association's Commercial and Federal Litigation Section and as a member of the Federal Bar Council's American Inn of Court.

Elizabeth Millard is developing partnerships between the Vance Center and law societies, law firms and NGOs in East and Southern Africa. She is currently working with the East Africa Law Society (EALS) to develop projects that support the capability of law societies in East Africa and the newly-formed African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights to be effective advocates for the public interest on the continent. She came to the Center after retiring from Credit Suisse, where she was a Managing Director in the Legal and Compliance Department. She had previously worked at Shearman & Sterling LLP. Ms. Millard holds an M.A. in South Asia Studies and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. She is active in the international humanitarian organization CARE where she serves on the Steering Committee of the CARE Women's Initiative of New York. She also chairs its education/outreach efforts. While at Credit Suisse she was a trustee of the Credit Suisse Americas Foundation Trust.

Jorgelina Rossi, a lawyer from Argentina, is writing a manual for lawyers active in the Center's Amicus Network to submit amicus curiae briefs in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Ms. Rossi is also developing content for the Global Network for Justice Initiatives website in Latin America. Ms. Rossi received her law degree from the University of Buenos Aires Law School and practiced commercial law at Perez Alati, Grondona, Benites, Arntsen & Martinez de Hoz Jr. Attorneys-at-Law, one of the top law firms in Argentina, before moving to the United States in 2006.

To inquire about volunteer opportunities at the Vance Center send an email to vance@nycbar.org.

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