Executive Team

Dr Gearóid Ó Cuinn (Director)
Gearóid is the founding director of the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) where he is responsible for GLAN's legal actions and strategic growth. He is an adjunct lecturer at the Irish Centre for Human Rights and formerly lectured at Lancaster University Law School and was a visiting fellow at the Transnational Law Institute at Kings College London. Gearóid was educated at the National University of Ireland, Galway (LLB), University of Nottingham (LLM) where he also completed his doctorate which was funded by the Wellcome Trust. His academic research focuses on public international law, human rights and public health governance. Gearóid has active links with the legal profession and is interested in new avenues in clinical legal education, especially within public international law and the use of technologies in pro bono legal work.

Gerry Liston (Senior Lawyer)
Gerry’s role as Senior Lawyer with GLAN covers a broad range of issues. He leads our work on challenging the trade in goods produced with forced labour, most recently focusing on EU trade measures which relate to cotton produced with forced labour in Uzbekistan. Gerry also manages our climate change litigation work which explores the possibility of taking cases against multiple States to international courts, challenging their failure to properly tackle climate change. In addition, Gerry works on seeking accountability for torture and other serious human rights violations. In 2016, he helped to initiate a private prosecution brought in the Irish courts against the Attorney General of Bahrain on behalf of a Bahraini torture survivor. Gerry has also assisted in the drafting of two Bills in the Irish parliament – the Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill which requires Ireland’s sovereign wealth fund to divest from fossil fuels (a world first) and the Occupied Territories Bill which, if enacted, will prohibit certain trade with occupied territories. Gerry is a qualified solicitor in Ireland and holds an LLM from the Irish Centre for Human Rights, where he is currently a part-time PhD student.

Siobhán Allen (Senior Lawyer)
Siobhán is a Senior Lawyer with GLAN and a consultant solicitor with Bindmans LLP. Her work focuses on the collation and verification of open source digital evidence of international law violations for use in litigation. Siobhán also works on supply chain accountability with a focus on goods produced through forced labour. She also leads GLANs work around tackling the human rights violations that intersect with global technology platforms and transnational educational accreditation. Siobhán holds an LLB from Trinity College Dublin and is a qualified solicitor in England and Wales. She practised commercial dispute resolution at a leading international firm in the City before moving into human rights law. Siobhán has worked on human rights legal actions, including strategic litigation before the European Court of Human Rights, the African Commission, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Before joining GLAN, Siobhán led a Refugee Status Determination practice in Cairo. Siobhán is also an accredited Immigration and Asylum practitioner in the UK and is one of the co-founders of the Refugee Clinic at the Human Rights Law Centre of the University of Nottingham. Siobhán is Vice Chair of the board of trustees of Womankind Worldwide.

Dearbhla Minogue (Senior Lawyer)
Dearbhla Minogue is a Senior Lawyer with GLAN and a consultant solicitor with Bindmans LLP. She leads the GLAN Yemen project, working with Yemeni and international colleagues on the identification, preservation and collation of evidence of international law violations there. In addition to Yemen work, Dearbhla acts in her capacity as a solicitor on our modern slavery action against the U.K. government, and works on the UK aspects of our migration work. She also works with the GLAN team on corporate supply chain and accountability actions. Prior to joining GLAN, Dearbhla worked in a legal aid firm in London, representing individuals in claims against public bodies. She is also an executive committee member of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights. Dearbhla also takes the lead on GLAN’s digital security practices. She can be contacted using PGP encryption below or on email (hosted by Protonmail) at dminogue@glanlaw.org. Queries concerning security and data protection can be directed to her.

Dr Rita Mota (Safeguarding Officer)
Rita works on GLAN's climate change legal actions. She has a PhD in Law from King’s College London, an LLM from Católica Global School of Law, and a Law degree from the University of Lisbon. Her doctoral work focused on the relationship between international investment and the cultural rights of indigenous peoples. She is a Research Fellow at Oxford Saïd Business School, where she conducts research on business ethics. She is particularly interested in the human rights obligations of businesses, corporate moral agency, the ethics of corporate communications, and moral learning in organisations. She was a Visiting Lecturer in EU Law at King’s and a Teaching Assistant in Governance and Ethics at Oxford Saïd. She is a member of the Global Business and Human Rights Scholars Association.

Dr Felix Luth (Legal Researcher)
Felix is a Legal Researcher with GLAN where he focuses on the role of economic services providers across the organisation’s key thematic areas. Currently, this work concentrates on challenging stock and bond listings linked to the financing of climate change, environmental harm and human rights violations. Felix is also a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the Global Governance Centre of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva and was a SNSF Doc. Mobility Fellow at the Transnational Law Institute of King’s College London. His academic research primarily focuses on corporate responsibility and illicit finance, especially in the context of international and transnational crimes, as well as more generally on international law in domestic legal systems. Before joining GLAN, he served as an assistant to Professor Georg Nolte in his capacity as a Special Rapporteur of the United Nations International Law Commission and worked, amongst others, at the international criminal justice NGO Civitas Maxima as well as in the investment arbitration and public international law practice groups of an international law firm in Geneva. Felix holds a law degree from Humboldt-University Berlin (First State Examination with a specialisation in public international and European law), a Certificate in Transnational Law from the University of Geneva and a PhD in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. While working with GLAN, Felix is also preparing for the German bar (Referendariat/Higher Regional Court of Berlin).

Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe (Lawyer)
Charlotte is a Lawyer with GLAN and consultant at Bindmans LLP. Charlotte works closely with Dearbhla, Siobhan and GLAN’s partner Bellingcat, on the collation and verification of open source digital evidence of international law violations for use in litigation. Charlotte works on GLAN’s U.K.-based public law litigation, for example in relation to supply chain accountability or challenging arms sales where there is evidence of systemic violations of International Humanitarian Law. Charlotte led GLAN’s complaints against Glencore, BHP and Anglo-American, filed with four OECD National Contact Points regarding human rights abuses and environmental devastation at the Cerrejón coal mine in La Guajira, Colombia. Prior to joining GLAN, Charlotte worked as a Research and Advocacy Fellow at the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, where she assisted with the representation of U.S. death row prisoners in domestic and international courts. She worked as a Legal Officer with Justice Defenders where she ran a legal clinic in Luzira Upper Prison, the highest-security prison in Uganda. Charlotte holds an LL.B. from Queen Mary University of London, and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, where she was a Frank Knox Scholar. She has been called to the Bar of England and Wales.

Jasmine Rayée (Lawyer)
Jasmine is a Lawyer with GLAN where she works on climate change litigation and is part of the legal team representing the six youth applicants in the Duarte Agostinho case before the European Court of Human Rights. Jasmine is particularly interested in environmental justice as well as state accountability for serious crimes under international law. Prior to joining GLAN, Jasmine was a qualified lawyer in international arbitration and litigation in Brussels. She is also a qualified attorney-at-law in common law (New York bar, 2019). Jasmine holds an LL.M. from Columbia Law School (2017) and Ghent University (2016). During her studies, Jasmine engaged in research for the Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School on complicity and accountability of states for aid and assistance to states violating international human rights and humanitarian law. She also completed an externship at the UN Advocacy department of Human Rights Watch in New York, focusing on the role of commissions of inquiry in promoting accountability for serious crimes under international law.

Stéphanie Caligara (Lawyer)
Stéphanie is a Lawyer with GLAN. She is involved with GLAN’s climate change litigation and other cases involving business and human rights, international criminal law and public international law, she is a member of the legal team representing the youth applicants in the Duarte Agostinho case before the European Court of Human Rights. Stéphanie is an attorney admitted to the Bar in Paris, France (2017). Prior to joining GLAN, Stéphanie specialized in international commercial and investment arbitration, as well as public international law and practiced law in various high profile law firms in France, Austria and Switzerland. She has also completed several internships with NGOs and a permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva during her studies. She holds a Master’s degree in international law from the Graduate Institute of International Studies and Development in Geneva, Switzerland (2015) as well as a Master’s degree in international law from Leiden University, the Netherlands (2013).

Rochelle Ferguson (Development Lead)
As Development Lead at GLAN, Rochelle is responsible for income generation and grant management across our key thematic areas. Having raised in excess of £10 million for NGOs, she specializes in securing income from charitable trusts, corporate foundations and institutional grants. She holds a Master of Science degree in Humanitarianism, Conflict and Development from Bath University. With a special interest in irregular migration, her research has focused on issues facing refugees and the impacts EU’s interference with the transnational Mediterranean route has had on West African migrants, she has spent time in refugee camps in Jordan meeting with UNHCR and government leaders on issues affecting refugees and host countries.

Tom Rawicz-Szczerbo (Digital Forensic Lead)
As the Digital Forensic Lead at GLAN, Tom's responsibilities include the design and maintenance of forensic systems, focusing on the development of conceptual models and processes that can assist in the capture of Open-Source Information for use in Court. Having performed Digital Forensics roles in both the private and public sectors, Tom has experience in the acquisition and preservation of large datasets for their use in criminal and civil matters. Tom has an MSc in Digital Forensics from Cranfield University and has attended multiple certified courses focusing on the forensic acquisition and analysis of data from a range of sources. Tom is interested in the different ways technology can be used in the legal sector to assist in the investigative process and the generation of evidential products.

Sarah O'Malley (Lawyer)
Sarah is a Lawyer with GLAN, she is passionate about holding powerful actors accountable for their involvement in environmental and human rights abuses and is dedicated to closing the impunity gap. Prior to joining GLAN, she worked on criminal justice, international law and human rights issues for NGOs, government and at international criminal tribunals. Sarah holds an LL.B in Law and Political Science from Trinity College Dublin and an LL.M in International Criminal Law from the University of Amsterdam and Columbia University, New York. She was called to the Bar of Ireland in 2018 and is a member of the Executive Committee for the Socialist Lawyers’ Association of Ireland.

Leanna Burnard (Lawyer)
Leanna is a Lawyer with GLAN where she focuses on using proceeds of crimes laws as a form of accountability for environmental harm and human rights violations. She is currently on the Board of Trustees of the NGO Action on Armed Violence. Prior to joining GLAN, Leanna was a Legal Advisor at REDRESS, where she led on the financial accountability project and securing the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was held hostage in Iran for six years. She was previously based in Iraq, building prosecution cases against members of ISIS for the Yazidi genocide, and worked for several years prior as a criminal defence lawyer for Aboriginal people in the Australian outback. Her passion for human rights has led her to volunteer in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, a human rights office in South Africa, Australia’s refugee detention centre on Christmas Island, and at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Leanna has an LL.M. in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights from the Geneva Academy and bachelor’s degrees in law and journalism from Australia.

Samson Ochigbo (Finance Manager)
Samson is the Finance Manager of the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN). He is a chartered accountant that is responsible for the strategic financial planning, budgeting, compliance, risk management and financial reporting for GLAN. He has worked with Action Against Hunger and IPAS as the capital finance officer and finance associate respectively, where he managed $50Million+ projects funded by institutional donors like USAID, FCDO, EU, GAC, GIZ, United Nations etc in the Humanitarian and developmental sectors. Samson focuses on building financial policies and procedures for the organisation with the aim of being accountable to funders and donors in order to achieve the overall objectives of GLAN.
Past researchers
Shane Huges, Sinéad Devane, Thomas Jones, Matthew Rosencranz, Ruairí McDermott, Julia Czaplinska, Sofia Khan, Jason McGoldrick, Amy Hayes, Anan AbuShanab, Katie Lucia Keegan, James Lewis, Georgia Frimpong, Anthony Humphreys, Gill Quinn, Sarah Lambert, Jessica Lambert, Patricia Nilsson, Pat de Brún, Stephen Cox, Aisha Salami