About the Vance Center

The Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice mobilizes the global legal profession to engage in activities that promote social justice, human rights and democratic values and principles. We perform our work in partnership with private- and public-sector lawyers, members of the judiciary, law schools, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the regions where we work.

Founded in 2003, the Vance Center is part of the New York City Bar Association.  We have access to all the resources of the City Bar and its affiliate, the City Bar Justice Center, and members of the City Bar are involved in planning and carrying out all of our activities.  The Vance Center's name honors the memory of Cyrus R. Vance, past president of the City Bar and former United States Secretary of State.

Vance Center Committee

The governing body of the Vance Center is the Vance Center Committee, which is composed of leading members of the legal profession in New York City, including law firm partners, members of the judiciary, corporate officers, government officials, and representatives from NGOs.  They provide core funding and are actively engaged in the Vance Center's day-to-day activities.  The current members of the Vance Center committee are:

Maurice Blanco | Davis Polk & Wardwell
Hunter T. Carter | Arent Fox; Inter-American Affairs Committee of the New York City Bar
Carrie H. Cohen | U.S. Attorney's Office - SDNY
Robert Cusumano | ACE Limited
S. Todd Crider, Vice Chair | Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Hon. George B. Daniels | United States District Court - SDNY
Evan A. Davis | Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton 
Michael L. Fitzgerald | Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy
Michael J. Gillespie | Debevoise & Plimpton
Jeffrey B. Gracer | Sive, Paget & Riesel
R. Scott Greathead | Wiggin & Dana 
Jonathan Hamilton | White & Case
Christina T. Holder | Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft
Lynn Kelly | City Bar Justice Center
Marcia Maack | Mayer Brown
Edwin S. Maynard, Chair | Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
David McCraw | The New York Times Company
Lorraine McGowan | Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
Cathleen McLaughlin | Allen & Overy
Barbara Mendelson | Morrison & Foerster
Eruch P. Nowrojee | Credit Suisse
Eric Ordway | Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Marc Rossell | Chadbourne & Parke
Paul T. Schnell | Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
David J. Sorkin | Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. 
Antonia E. Stolper, Vice Chair | Shearman & Sterling
Christine A. Spillane | Sullivan & Cromwell
Anne Stetson
Elsie N. Vance

EX-OFICIO

Samuel Seymour, President | New York City Bar; Sullivan & Cromwell
Barbara Berger Opotowsky, Executive Director | New York City Bar

EMERITUS

Michael Cooper | Sullivan & Cromwell

Vance Center Staff

Alexander  Papachristou
Executive Director
Mr. Papachristou joined the Vance Center as Executive Director in January 2012. He is the former president of the Near East Foundation, which supports vulnerable communities in Jordan, Egypt, Palestine, Sudan, Morocco and Mali to overcome  deep poverty, as well as the effects of conflict, migration and/or climate change, through civil society action. Prior to this position, Mr. Papachristou engaged in cross-border corporate finance in advisory and proprietary roles since 1989. From 1994 to 2007, he served as managing director and general counsel and then senior consultant at NCH Capital, Inc, which runs a series of limited partnerships investing in private equity and public securities in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Romania and Bulgaria. Mr. Papachristou lived in Russia from 1989 to 1993, where he opened and ran the Moscow office of the international law firm White & Case and wrote a column for the Moscow Times. Previously, Mr. Papachristou was associated with the law firm of Clifford & Warnke in Washington, DC and served as policy assistant to New York Governor Mario C. Cuomo. He also was law clerk to US District Judge Myron H. Thompson in the Middle District of Alabama. Mr. Papachristou has served on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including the Media Development Loan Fund and International Social Service (US Branch), as well as the advisory councils of Princeton University’s Near East Studies Program and Bard College’s Institute for International Liberal Education. In late 2011, The New Press published Blind Goddess: A Race and Justice Reader, which Mr. Papachristou edited. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Princeton University.

Elizabeth W. Millard
Ms. Millard, who oversees the Center's Africa program, came to the Center in 2006 after retiring from Credit Suisse, where she was a Managing Director. She had previously worked at the law firm of Shearman & Sterling. Ms. Millard, who holds an M.A. in South Asian Studies from the University of Pennsylvania as well as a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School, is a member of the Steering Committee of the CARE Women's Initiative of New York. For several years she was a trustee of the Credit Suisse Americas Foundation Trust and a member of the Board of Directors of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.

Elise Colomer Grimaldi
Senior Program Director
Ms. Colomer Grimaldi leads region-wide initiatives in the Americas and country-based projects in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, the United States, and Venezuela, including the Pro Bono Declaration for the Americas (PBDA).  Her responsibilities include co-managing the Vance Center's Global Clearinghouse, Amicus Network and Pro Bono Signature Projects.  Ms. Colomer also provides direct support to the Vance Center's Executive Director in program development and institutional management. Before joining the Vance Center, Ms. Colomer Grimaldi was Coordinator of the City Diplomacy Program at the Glocal Forum, an international think tank based in Rome that espouses peace building and development cooperation at the municipal level. Before joining the Glocal Forum, Ms. Colomer Grimaldi was Business & Partnership Officer at the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), where she managed the public-private partnership program and project portfolio, providing business and partnership services to the United Nations and World Bank Group. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Ms. Colomer Grimaldi is bi-lingual in English and Spanish.  She received her M.S. in International Social Welfare Administration from Columbia University in 1999 and her B.A. in International Affairs and Peace & Justice Studies from Tufts University in 1997.  In 2005, Ms. Colomer Grimaldi was a Senior Fellow Scholar at the National Leadership Development Institute and is a member of Network 20/20.

Amy Slattery
Director of Development
Ms. Slattery is responsible for fundraising to support the programs of the Vance Center, including foundation, corporate, government and individual gifts.  She began her career and worked as an auditor for eight years at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, specializing in the audits of non-for-profit organizations. From there, she transitioned into fundraising and development as a grant writer for New York Road Runners for over two years before joining the Vance Center in the Spring of 2010. Ms. Slattery attended graduate school at New School University and has a B.S. in Accounting from Penn State University.

Caroline Walker
Director of Communications
Ms. Walker writes and publishes Enotes and Directions, manages the Vance Center website, and coordinates media relations.  She is a graduate of Trinity College (BA English Literature 1974) and Georgetown University Law Center (JD 1978), and a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and New York.  Following law school, she spent a year in Salzburg, Austria studying comparative law on a Rotary Fellowship.  Ms. Walker has practiced general corporate law in the Legal Departments of Du Pont Chemical Company, Manufacturer's Hanover Bank, and the Stauffer Chemical Company.  Subsequently she served as Attorney-in-Charge of the Civil Division of the Legal Aid Society of Westchester County and was elected Town Councilman for the Town of Bedford, New York.  She has served on the Board of Directors of the Bedford Historical Society, the United Way of Northern Westchester, and the Westchester Oratorio Society and on the Vestry of St. Matthew's Church.  In addition, Ms. Walker was a member of the the Bedford Conservation Board and the Pound Ridge Zoning Board of Appeals.