AREAS OF ADVOCACY PRACTICE
Virginia Lindsay joined Perren Buildings Chambers as an International Member in 2009. She focuses on criminal defence of individuals before international criminal tribunals.
BACKGROUND
Ms. Lindsay obtained her Juris Doctor degree in 1987 from Hastings College of the Law, University of California at San Francisco. She was a Stewart Stiller Fellow at the Georgetown University Criminal Justice Clinic in Washington, D. C. from 1988 to 1990, where she earned an LLM in Trial Advocacy in 1994. She earned an LLM in international and comparative law in 1998 at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels.
NOTABLE CASES
Ms. Lindsay’s legal experience includes seven years of pre-trial and appeal representation before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Court, five years of appeals and habeas corpus representation in capital cases in Texas and California; and four years of trial representation in the District of Columbia and California. Her notable cases include Galberth v. United States, 590 A.2d 990 (D.C. 1991), where she conducted trial and appeal litigation in a landmark case on the use of police roadblocks within the District of Columbia; Blackmon v. Scott, 22 F.3d 560 (5th Cir. 1994), where she argued before the Fifth Circuit and won a remand for evidentiary proceedings in a capital habeas case; Aldape-Guerra v. Collins, where she exhausted claims in Texas state courts that later formed the basis of a successful federal challenge resulting in the release of Mr. Aldape-Guerra. See 916 F. Supp. 620 (S.D. Tex. 1995). Ms. Lindsay drafted a winning motion challenging the form of the charges in Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo. See Decision adjourning the Hearing pursuant to Article 61(7)(c)(ii) of the Rome Statute, ICC-01/05-01/08-388 (4 March 2009). Her "Motion for Leave to File Proposed Amicus Curiae Submission of the International Criminal Bar Pursuant to Rule 103 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence" was the first unsolicited amicus application ever to be granted by the International Criminal Court. See Prosecutor v. Lubanga, ICC-01/04-01/06-1289 (22 April 2008).
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Ms. Lindsay has taught public international law and trial advocacy at universities in the United States, France and the Netherlands and has been a regular faculty member in professional training programs held in countries around the world focusing on the substance, procedures and practice before the International Criminal Court. She is currently a Bynkershoek Fellow teaching international criminal law in the LLB program at The Hague University. She acts as Legal Advisor to the Executive Committee of the International Criminal Bar and is one of seven representatives of List Counsel elected to serve on the governing Council of the International Criminal Bar.
