International Criminal Court Bar Association

Brian Kennedy is recently admitted to the List of Counsel for the ICC, and is a new member of the ICCBA. Earlier in his legal career, he served as a senior prosecutor in New York City, dealing with major narcotics-related cases and serious violent crimes. Since then, for the last twenty years as defense counsel, he has handled numerous white-collar and complex criminal matters as lead trial counsel. Mr. Kennedy also frequently represents claimants in investment-related litigation, and is an arbitrator with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. He graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in international affairs, and from Fordham University Law School with a concentration in securities law. During law school, he also studied international law in London. Mr. Kennedy holds both U.S. and Irish citizenship, and lives in New York, New York.

Mr Larochelle is one of the founding partners of Larochelle Avocats, a firm specializing in litigation based in Montreal, Canada.  (www.larochelleavocats.com). Since 1998, Mr Larochelle has developed a private practice focusing on civil and criminal law before the Superior Courts, Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. Since 2001, he has also practiced in international criminal law, representing clients before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (Tanzania), the International Criminal Court (The Netherlands) and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (The Netherlands). Mr Larochelle has extensive experience in civil, criminal and aboriginal law, both before Canadian and international courts, including the following cases:

-Acquittal before the Supreme Court of Canada in 2006 (Déry v. The Queen).

-Representing the interests of the Algonquin Makwanini First Nation since 2008.

-Acquittal of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2011 (The Prosecutor v. Bicamumpaka).

-Condemnation of Canada by the Committee against Torture in 2012 (Régent Boily v. Canada).

-Confirmation of the decision not to confirm the charges before the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court in 2012 (The Prosecutor v. Mbarushimana).

-Acquittal in R. v. Mungwarere, genocide trial before Canadian courts in 2013.

-Conviction of the Minister of Youth Affairs and Cooperatives by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2014 (Prosecutor v. Nzabonimana).

-Member of Narcisse Arido Defence team before the International Criminal Court in 2015.

-Defence Counsel for the interests of Hussein Hassan Oneissi before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon 2014-2016.

-Revision case for Éliezer Niyitegeka before the IRMCT in 2015-2017.

-Condemnation of Canada by the Committee against torture in 2018 (Mugesera c. Canada).

-Defence of Jean-de-Dieu Ndagijimana, facing contempt charges before the IRMCT since 2019

-Condemnation of Rwanda before the African Court on Human and Peoples Right in November 2020 (Mugesera c. Rwanda). Mr Larochelle participated as a panelist in conferences on international criminal law in Canada, The Netherlands and France. He has also published articles on the subject in both French and English.

Iain Edwards is a barrister at the Bar of England and Wales (practising since September 2001). Since 2009, the focus of his practice has been defending in international criminal cases. He has represented, or assisted in the representation of, clients in a total of nine cases before the ICTR, STL, IRMCT and ICC. He is currently associate Counsel for Mr Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman (Darfur) before the ICC, and Counsel for Mr Alphonse Nteziryayo before the IRMCT. He was also ad hoc associate Counsel for Mr Al-Hassan (Mali) towards the end of the Prosecution case, and during the victims’ case, before the ICC. Iain is the current Vice-President for Defence of the ICCBA, and a member of the Defence Committee. In 2016-2017, he was chair of the inaugural Training Committee and Professional Standards Advisory Committee. He is the alternate member of the ICC Disciplinary Board. Iain works just as comfortably in French as he does in English, an important advantage given the often multilingual nature of the work of the Court.

Jean Flamme has been an attorney at the Bar of Gent ( Belgium ) since 1974. He has mainly been active in criminal law, international criminal law, torts, professional liability and commercial law. He was also active as a deputyjudge in the Tribunal of Commerce in Gent for 20 years. Jean Flamme has been the secretary-general and later the vice-president of AsF Belgium ( lawyers without borders ) for the beginning years of this NGO which he helped greatly to develop. He became, later on, the secretary-general of International Criminal Bar ( ICB ) and advocated for the creation of an official and independent Bar at the ICC. He was the first defence counsel to handle a case before the ICC ( Lubanga v/ Prosecutor ) but decided to leave the case because he did not get the sufficient means to work properly. He afterwards acted as defence counsel in the Bemba II case where he still experienced the same kind of problems to an even worse extent. He has been acting as defence counsel for several Rwandese persons accused of genocide in Belgium, France, The Netherlands and Norway and before the ICTR. He is the co-author of the text-book “Code of International Criminal Law and Procedure, annotated 2013 ( Larcier Law annotated ) and wrote a book about the genocide in Rwanda and international criminal justice under the title “Rwanda 1994, the conspiracy of the powerful ( Van Haelewyck ed. ). He also is a co-author of “defence rights, international and European developments” ( maklu ed. 2012 ) and wrote the part “The fundamental right to a full and fair defence before the ICC, on the confines of common law and roman-german law : an analysis” .

Kimberley Motley has been a litigator for 20 years, with a focus on international criminal law, human rights, and victim rights.  She is admitted lawyer in the ICC as Counsel, U.S. Supreme Court, Federal District Courts in Wisconsin, Colorado, and Oklahoma, the U.S. Appellate Courts in the 2nd, 4th, 7th, 9th, and 10th districts.  In 2008 she an international law practice in Afghanistan and became the first and only foreigner litigating in the criminal, civil, and commercial courts.  Her success has included securing a Presidential Pardon for an Afghan woman charged with adultery which subsequently decriminalized running away as a crime in Afghanistan, successfully working on international child abduction cases which resulted in the return of British and Australian children between the ages of 2 to 10, and representing the Prime Minister of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim. Her work has been internationally reported and she has trained and/or mentored thousands of lawyers around the world on how to practice law in their respective jurisdictions.  Additionally, her work was profiled in an award-winning documentary entitled MOTLEY’s LAW.  She has written a book entitled LAWLESS, and her TED TALK  on:  How  Defend the Rule of Law has garnered over a 1.2 million views.

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Born in France, Sarah VALDURIEZ grew up in the United States. She is bilingual. Attorney since 2009, located in Paris and then in Versailles (France), she defends her clients before national and international courts. Her experience in criminal law has led her to represent both victims and defendants, particularly in cases of terrorism and organized crime. She was a member of the Executive Council and the Defense Committee in 2022-2023  and she is  currently on the defense team in the SAID case before the ICC.