Maru Cortazar is a nonprofit executive and strategic advisor specializing in Latin America with more than 20 years of experience in access to justice, pro bono leadership, civil society strengthening, and human rights. As Executive Director of Appleseed México (2005–2026), she led the organization’s growth into a national leader in pro bono mobilization, building alliances with international donors and more than 70 leading law firms as members of Appleseed’s Pro Bono Network in Mexico. Her expertise spans governance, institutional development, migration, child protection, fundraising, and cross-sector
partnerships. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of New Perimeter (DLA Piper) and
advises initiatives focused on legal empowerment and social impact.

A lawyer qualified in Hong Kong and England and Wales, Ryanne Lai co-founded ForeverGift.hk 遺善最樂 with her father in 2021 to promote legacy giving in Hong Kong.

As a social enterprise sponsored by the Lee Hysan Foundation and the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund, ForeverGift.hk works with pro bono lawyers and offers a free, professional and user-friendly Will-writing service to the general public, making it possible for anyone to leave a legacy and create a lasting impact on causes closest to their hearts. To date, legacy gifts made through the service have exceeded $1.4 billion Hong Kong dollars with over 330 charities named as beneficiaries.

In addition to Will making services, ForeverGift.hk has joined hands with social enterprises “Keep It Simple” and “One Take” to provide a one-stop professional platform called “5 Blessings”, which allows members of the public to engage lawyers, doctors, social workers and/or funeral planners to arrange for one’s (1) Will, (2) Enduring Power of Attorney, (3) Advanced Directive in relation to Medical Treatment, (4) Advanced Funeral Planning and (5) Life Story.

Previously, Ryanne worked at an international law firm and co-founded a legal-tech company that offers modern legal solutions to SMEs across Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Masha Lisitsyna is a human rights advocate living in New York. Masha brings three decades of experience in civil society organizations and philanthropy. She spent the last 15 years with the Open Society Foundations (OSF), where she served in several senior program manager roles. Her work with OSF’s Global Programs included a focus on the protection of human rights defenders and civic space, and with Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), she led the work to advance prevention, accountability, and reparations for torture around the world. Prior to OSF, Masha served as a Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, and earlier in her career was the founding executive director of a human rights NGO in Kyrgyzstan.

Masha has been on the forefronts of protection and expanding civic space in her own country, where civil society for two decades was able to push back against repressive NGO laws. She has been engaged in legal and policy reforms on expanding civic space through strengthened Constitutional guarantees as a member of 2005 Kyrgyzstan’s Constitutional Assembly, new law on freedom of information and other. While at OSF, she was responsible for a part of global portfolio on democratic freedoms. In addition to discussing funding, sustainability and governance with the organizations in almost every region of the world, she was part of strategy discussions, training and joint advocacy efforts.

Among other publications, she recently co-authored global studies on judicial reparations “Repairing from the Bench” and on investigations of crimes committed by the police “Who Polices the Police?”. Masha has also published op-eds in Bloomberg Law, Americas Quarterly, Just Security, Nation (Kenya) and other. Lisitsyna has been recognized by the World Economic Forum in 2009 as a Young Global Leader.

Garth Meintjes was the executive director of PILnet from 2015 through 2021, he also served as a Senior Consultant based in the organization’s New York office and is now an Advisory member. Prior to joining PILnet, Garth served as the executive director of ISLP for nearly five years. In this role, he led the integration of the organization’s operations in the United States and Europe. Previously, Garth was chief operating officer at the International Legal Foundation, where he oversaw the expansion of their programs in Afghanistan and Nepal. Before this, he led the JEHT Foundation’s international justice program, which focused on challenging U.S. exceptionalism to international justice, particularly in its national security policies. Garth has a B.A. from the University of Stellenbosch, an LL.B. from the University of Cape Town, and LL.M. and JSD degrees from the University of Notre Dame.

Eleanor Thompson is a public interest lawyer and founder of Citizens’ Barray, a platform for empowering citizens to drive social change in Sierra Leone. She is also in private legal practice and formerly worked as an Associate at GPKLegal, one of Sierra Leone’s top law firms. As a public interest lawyer, she has helped communities understand and use laws to protect their rights while influencing positive legal reform in Sierra Leone by co-drafting Sierra Leone’s progressive new land laws and securing three landmark judgments from the ECOWAS Court on female genital mutilation; discriminatory loitering laws; and torture in the context of protests. Eleanor holds a BA (Harvard), JD (American University), and Masters in International Human Rights Law (Oxford). She is licensed to practice law in Sierra Leone, New York State and Washington, DC.

Adam joined ClientEarth, an environmental NGO, in March 2020, as Head of Ocean, Plastics, and Chemicals. Since July 2022, Adam was the Director of Programmes for Europe, he is now the current Chief Programmes and Impact Officer. Adam is involved in all ClientEarth’s work across Europe, using the power of law to protect people and the planet. That work ranges across food, ocean and land use, energy, transport, materials, and legal and economic systems. Before joining ClientEarth, Adam had a wide-ranging practice at the European Roma Rights Centre, including litigation spanning eighteen countries, with cases before national courts, the European Court of Human Rights, UN treaty bodies, and the European Committee of Social Rights. Before that, Adam worked at the AIRE Centre in London, working on migrant rights under EU law and the European Convention on Human Rights. Adam is a member of the board of the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (Brussels) and is the Chair of Trustees of Focus on Labour Exploitation (London). He has published numerous academic articles and blogs and has trained lawyers, judges, and NGOs. He holds an LLM from King College (University of London), a JD from Columbia
Law School, a diplôme études approfondies from the University of Paris-IV (La Sorbonne), and an undergraduate degree from Harvard University. He speaks English, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Hungarian.

Jaime is a passionate advocate for access to justice and equality rights, with over a decade of experience in nonprofit programme design and organisational governance to drive social impact.

In her current role as Manager, Strategic Growth Initiatives at Equal Justice, Jaime leads efforts to grow the organisation and expand community legal access to disadvantaged people in Hong Kong. Previously, Jaime was Co-Head of Office at Justice Without Borders Hong Kong, where she led capacity-building programmes that empowered migrant domestic workers to become community caseworkers.

Jaime is a Co-Founder of the Access to Justice Fellowship, winner of PILnet’s Law for Change Student Competition 2019, and she currently Board Secretary of Resolve Foundation. She has facilitated workshops at One Young World, the Annual Conference of the Berkeley Centre on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law, PILnet Global Forum, and the Asia Pro Bono Conference on topics such as trauma-informed practice and the “4-18 Rule”. She has also served on various boards and governance committees of international and local NGOs.

Jaime earned her LLB and PCLL at the University of Hong Kong.