Mindful Accountability: Investigating and Prosecuting Atrocity Crimes

Join OPIA as Wasserstein Fellow Lisa Biersay shares her journey as a former state, federal and international prosecutor who now consults with civil society working towards accountability. She will talk about the rewards and challenges of working against impunity for the most serious crimes that require regular consumption of graphic stories and materials and exchanges with sensitive and traumatized witnesses. She will also discuss the relevance of how we meet conflict in our personal and professional relationships when working with violent content.  Lisa will also speak about the important role of mindfulness in her work. Lunch provided. Please RSVP!

Lisa Biersay is an Atrocity Crimes Prosecutor and Consultant, specializing in International Criminal Investigations and Law. Currently, she is engaged primarily as Senior Legal Advisor by Dignity – Danish Institute Against Torture regarding potential crimes against humanity committed in the aftermath of the 2020 election in Belarus. For over 13 years prior, she worked with the United Nations to prosecute a broad spectrum of serious crimes—including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes— committed in the former Yugoslavia (2007 to 2017) and Rwanda (2018 to 2021). Before her tenure with the United Nations, she worked as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Minnesota and as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the New York State Office of the Attorney General. She was a Law Clerk to The Honorable Ann D. Montgomery, US District Judge in the District of Minnesota. She received her B.A. from Columbia College, Columbia University in New York, and her J.D. from the University of Texas in Austin School of Law. She is a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher, trained and qualified by the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2017. 

If you or an event participant requires disability-related accommodations, please contact HLS Accessibility Services at accessibility@law.harvard.edu two weeks in advance of the event.