Zoomin’ Out: International Alumni/ae Spotlight Series

From Australia to the Netherlands, Northeastern Law graduates are promoting the rule of law, creating business opportunities and advancing human rights across the globe.

Building on the success of its Zoomin' In series, the Office of Alumni/ae Relations and Development is thrilled to present Zoomin' Out, a fall series of one-on-one conversations with outstanding international alumni/ae. Graduates join Mielle Marquis, director of external affairs, over Zoom to talk about their unique career paths and experiences living and practicing abroad. To date, Mielle has spoken with Maia Spilman ’96, a data privacy and intellectual property attorney based in Amsterdam; Mohamed el Roubi ´99, an experienced executive and general counsel who has worked extensively throughout five continents and is currently based in Canberra, Australia; Sarah Gogel ’13, a social entrepreneur, human rights advocate and lecturer based in Paris; Garth Bray ’93, a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, who recently moved to Paris after twelve years based in Asia;  Lisa Roberts ’86, who is currently on a 3-year Secondment at INTERPOL, the International Criminal Police Organization, in Lyon, France; and Felipe Durini LLM ’18, an international lawyer based in Quito, the capital of Ecuador.

Scroll down to view the series archive!


Friday, December 10, 2021 | 12:45 PM ET
Zoomin’ Out: Alumni/ae Global Series

FELIPE DURINI LLM ’18
International Practitioner Attorney
Quito, Ecuador



Felipe is an international lawyer with more than 20 years of legal practice, focusing on corporate & contracts, investment law, ADR (specializing in arbitration), tax law and labor matters. Felipe's operation center is based in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. He actively represents local and international companies in investments for project financing, development plans, energy, natural resources, infrastructure and new technologies.

"Quito is a beautiful city in the middle of the world where spring is present all year round," says Felipe. "The city has an exceptionally well-preserved colonial historic center, and the citizenship is renewed by people from all regions of the country, with great diversity—an unmissable destination to visit in South America."

Felipe was the founding partner of Durini & Guerrero Abogados in Ecuador in 2006, and currently, he represents LAWORLD, the international legal network with a presence in the five continents.

He is a law professor of modern contracts at the Graduate School of the Universidad Andina Simón Bolivar.


Friday, November 19, 2021
LISA ROBERTS ’86
Assistant Director, Legal Support to Operations, Interpol
Lyon, France

Lisa Roberts has over thirty years’ experience as a state and federal prosecutor, specializing since 2008 in international and comparative criminal law. She has handled more than one thousand extradition and mutual legal assistance (MLA) requests made by US and foreign authorities and has assisted in the return of hundreds of fugitives to face justice and obtained essential evidence for US and foreign prosecutors. Lisa began her career in 1989, as an assistant district attorney with the Kings County (Brooklyn, NY) District Attorney’s Office where she conducted over twenty-five felony trials specializing in sex crimes, domestic violence and child sexual abuse. In 1996, Lisa spent a year as a visiting fellow senior attorney at the National District Attorney’s Association/American Prosecutors Research Institute, National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse, in Virginia, where she worked with fellow practitioners to develop ChildPROOF, an advanced trial advocacy course for child abuse prosecutors.  The week-long practical trial training course then ran for over 17 years and provided hundreds of practitioners with skills which they were then able to take into the courtroom.

In 1997, Lisa joined the US Department of Justice, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section where she worked with federal prosecutors from around the country on emerging issues related to the use of the internet for child exploitation offenses.  In 1998, Lisa left Washington, DC, for a 3-month detail to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix, Arizona, to prosecute child pornography cases and violations of child sexual abuse statutes occurring on Indian reservations in Arizona. Lisa enjoyed her work and living in Arizona and following her detail, took a position as an Assistant US Attorney and remained in Arizona for another eight years. As an Assistant US Attorney, Lisa worked on immigration cases and asset forfeiture matters, and served as the acting chief for the asset forfeiture section where she assisted in the seizure and forfeiture of millions of dollars and other assets which represented the proceeds of drug trafficking, fraud, and money laundering, and assisted in returning fraudulently obtained funds to victims.

In 2008, Lisa returned to Washington and joined the US Department of Justice, Office of International Affairs, which acts as the Central Authority for the United States in gathering essential evidence for criminal investigations and prosecutions worldwide by working with domestic partners and foreign counterparts to facilitate the cooperation necessary to enforce the law, advance public safety, and achieve justice. The office also is one of the central points, along with the Department of State, dealing with the extradition and return of fugitives to the United States or other countries, to face justice. Lisa has served as the acting associate director for the Canada and English Speaking Caribbean Team and has focused on extradition, mutual legal assistance, policy and multi-lateral matters involving numerous countries including Colombia, Ireland, East and West Africa, Germany and Switzerland.

In May 2021, Lisa began a 3-year Secondment at INTERPOL, the International Criminal Police Organization, in Lyon, France, where she oversees a team of attorneys who work with internal police units to facilitate worldwide police cooperation and crime control among the Organization’s 194 member countries.

Lisa has been honored to receive DOJ awards for distinguished Service, and for supporting the National Security Mission.


Friday, November 5, 2021 | 12:00 PM ET
GARTH BRAY ’93
Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell
Hong Kong and Paris

Garth Bray is a member of Sullivan & Cromwell's Mergers and Acquisitions and Private Equity Groups and has extensive experience in complex cross-border M&A, joint venture and capital markets transactions. He has been based in Asia since 2009 and focuses on matters arising out of the firm's Tokyo, Beijing and Hong Kong offices.

Garth has acted on various matters for Alibaba and Ant Financial, as well as certain Alibaba founders. He has handled private equity and principal investment assignments for the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, MBK Partners, Aquiline Capital, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Lightyear and Silver Lake Partners.

He has acted as M&A adviser to Philips Electronics, including in the sale of its semiconductors business, NXP, to KKR and Silver Lake; the transfer of its computer monitor and flat screen television activities to TPV; the sale of its contract manufacturing unit to Jabil Circuit; and various other acquisitions, dispositions and joint ventures.

Garth has been named as a leading Corporate/M&A lawyer in Chambers Europe: Europe’s Leading Lawyers for Business and Chambers Global and has been recognized as a leading Corporate Finance lawyer in Chambers UK.

Garth is also a regular speaker on M&A issues, including as a panelist on China M&A activities at an event hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, as a speaker at the annual Citibank conference on China-Europe M&A developments in Frankfurt, and as a panelist on FCPA and M&A matters at the Annual Corporate Accountability Conference in Hong Kong.



Friday, October 8, 2021 | 12:00 PM ET
Zoomin’ Out: Alumni/ae Global Series
SARAH GOGEL JD/MA ’13
Founder and President, YES Akademia (YAKA)
Paris, France

Sarah Gogel ’13 is a Franco-American social entrepreneur, human rights advocate and lecturer. Sarah's life work has been devoted to transforming the life pathways of youth and marginalized populations such as refugees from rural and urban communities around the world through immersive social impact experiences.

Her results have been recognized through awards and grants from the European Network for Global Education, Ariane de Rothschild, and the International Youth Foundation. She received the "Ordre National du Mérite" in 2021, a French order of merit awarded by the President of France.

The Paris-based non-profit YES Akademia (YAKA) she currently presides and founded after a previous successful experience in international social entrepreneurship, has operations in France, India, Senegal, Haiti, Nicaragua and Tunisia. YAKA has increased the graduation rates, college enrollment, and career growth of its over 2,500 youth alumni.

Sarah also lectures on these themes at Sciences Po and Paris 8 and supports women-led causes and sustainable solutions to poverty and inequality through her volunteer work and long-term consultancies with NGOs and iNGOs such as Mission d'Aide au Développement des Economies Rurales (MADERA), the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Federation for Human Rights, the Federation of American Women's Clubs Overseas, and the American Red Cross.

Sarah's degrees include a BA from Harvard College in Sociology, an MA in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis (dual degree with NUSL), an MSW from Wurzweiler School of Social Work and a JD from Northeastern.


Friday, September 24, 2021 | 12:00 PM ET
Zoomin’ Out: Alumni/ae Global Series
MOHAMED HELMI EL ROUBI ’99
Independent Board Consultant
Canberra, Australia

Mohamed el Roubi is an experienced executive and general counsel and a specialist in business resilience, corporate restructuring, M&A and issues management. He has broad legal, governance, risk and compliance experience across a range of industries operating in a multi-jurisdictional context.

As a successful member of senior executive management teams at Orascom Telecom, General Electric, Amec Foster Wheeler and GardaWorld, Mohamed has contributed to business strategy and management beyond functional responsibilities, and has provided impactful legal support for countless initiatives over twenty two years. Mohamed has worked extensively throughout five continents and has a particular focus on complex and ambiguous legal and operating environments including the Middle East and Africa.

Mohamed has led large (40+) multi-disciplined legal and compliance functions in complex matrices and across various cultures and geographies. He has a proven track record of identifying, managing, and developing talented lawyers and compliance professionals.

A bi-lingual (English/Arabic) Northeastern University School of Law graduate, Mohamed has both corporate and private practice experience, is admitted to practice as an attorney and counsellor at law in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, and is a thought leader and a regular conference speaker on corporate governance and business ethics. Mohamed is also an experienced independent non-executive director, a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia and a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Mohamed is married with two children and lives in Canberra, Australia. Mohamed is not admitted to practice law in Australia.

He is currently working on satisfying the requirements for admission as a lawyer in New South Wales.

 

Friday, September 10, 2021 | 12:00 PM ET
Zoomin’ Out: Alumni/ae Global Series
MAIA SPILMAN ’96
Senior Legal Counsel, Privacy/Legal Regional Director, BCD Travel Services, B.V.
Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands 

Watch the video!

Maia Spilman is a data privacy and intellectual property attorney, licensed in NY, USA.  A skilled transactional lawyer and Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP)/US/E,  Maia's work as data privacy counsel spans various sectors: the health industry, business travel, digital marketing and e-commerce. Substantively she handles: agreements related to data privacy and processing personal data, marketing campaigns, internal privacy practices, data classification schemes, and privacy training for clients, colleagues and other attorneys. She began her career as an intellectual property attorney focusing primarily on copyright matters advising companies and creators on protecting and maximizing proprietary assets.  She also has general familiarity with US trademark law.

Since 2018 Maia has been living and working in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.  First, as a data privacy subject matter expert for one of the big consulting firms.  She is now Senior Privacy Counsel and Regional Director for a privately held multi-national corporation.

Before attending law school, Maia worked as a broadcast journalist for radio and television news organizations in California, Texas and New York.