Carmen Cheung Ka-Man, Executive Director, is a lawyer based in San Francisco, California. She specializes in human rights litigation and has wide-ranging experience engaging in human rights advocacy around the world.
Prior to joining CJA, Carmen was a Professor of Global Practice at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, where her research and practice focused on security and human rights. Carmen has acted as counsel in significant public interest cases in the U.S. and Canada, including litigation over the use of torture and extraordinary rendition by the U.S. government, an inquiry into the transfer of Afghan detainees by Canadian Forces to risk of torture, and the use of indefinite solitary confinement in Canada’s federal prisons. Carmen has made submissions at all levels of federal court in the U.S., including the Supreme Court of the United States, and has also appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada. In addition, she has testified on matters relating to security, anti-terrorism and human rights before governments and human rights bodies.
Carmen began her legal practice as a litigation associate with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in New York. She received her JD from Columbia University and graduated with an AB in Social Studies from Harvard University.
