Advisory Board

Antonia Kirkland

Antonia Kirkland is a human rights lawyer with an intricate working knowledge of how to use international law and human rights mechanisms to advance gender equality, with over two decades of experience. She is currently the Director, Legal Equality & UN Liaison at Equality Now. In this role, Antonia provides thought leadership and technical legal support to hold governments accountable under international law to uphold all women’s and girls’ rights. She serves on the Steering Committees of UN Women’s Equality in Law for Women and Girls by 2030 coalition, the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, and the Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law, and served on the Global Programme Advisory Committee (GPAC) of the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women for 10 years.

Antonia has contributed to Equality Now’s work in the reform of over 140 laws and published widely and spoken on the issues of legal/constitutional equality, sex/gender discriminatory laws, sexual violence, and feminist leadership at the United Nations and the World Bank. She has been quoted in The Guardian, Reuters, and The New York Times, in addition to television and radio interviews.

Her writing and commentary have been published by Inter Press Service and Ms. magazine, among others, and she has co-authored and contributed to many reports, legal briefs and model laws, including:

• Supplement to the Handbook for Legislation on Violence against Women: Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence against Women and Girls (forthcoming)
• Unlocking Women’s Economic Rights through Family Law Reform
• Word and Deeds – Holding Governments in the Beijing + 30 Review Process
• Amicus brief in the Equal Rights Amendment case, Commonwealth of. Virginia, et al v. Ferriero
• The State We’re In: Ending Sexism in Nationality Laws and Proposed select draft articles on nationality rights to ensure gender equality
• We Change the Rules podcast

Antonia holds a B.A. in International Relations from Brown University, an M.Sc. in Gender Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law.

Jeffrey Lawrence

Jeff Lawrence, a Newark, New Jersey native, graduated from Rutgers Law School (Newark) in 1977.

Following service as legal counsel to a commissioner at the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Jeff practiced transportation, antitrust, and energy law in private practice for over 40 years, with a focus on the business, finance, antitrust, and regulatory aspects of the international shipping, offshore oil, and logistics industries.

Jeff chaired the Transportation and Trade practice group at the Cozen O’Connor law firm until 2022. In recent years he was the Executive Director of a trade association representing major international container shipping companies serving US ports. He also served as CEO of a US based company that managed over 100,000 intermodal chassis used in the US to move intermodal containerized freight. Under his guidance, the company was ultimately sold to a major private equity fund in 2023.

Jeff is a former President of the Washington DC- based Maritime Administrative Bar Association, a Board member of the London-based European Maritime Law Organization, and a former Chair of the International Transportation Committee of the ABA International Law Division. He was inducted into the International Maritime Hall of Fame in 2025 and received the Lifetime Achievement award from the Containerization and Intermodal Institute in 2022. He has also served as an officer and Board member of several Washington DC area non profit organizations.

Jeff lives in Silver Spring, Maryland with his wife Donna. They have four children and ten grandchildren.

Barrington Lopez

Barrington Lopez is currently a board advisor and investor in early-stage technology start-ups in AR / VR and AI in Business Process Automation, EdTech and Robotics. He was previously Vice President and General Counsel for the 16-state U.S. Midwest division for Verizon Wireless, where he was a member of the executive team and legal advisor on strategic policy and legal matters for business and sales operations, regulatory compliance, litigation, and state enforcement agency matters. He has held prior roles in areas of joint ventures, privacy, commercial transactions and regulatory law

Mr. Lopez received his JD from Rutgers Law School and his BA in economics and journalism from New York University. He is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, a STEM focused public high school in New York City. He is a strong believer in our obligation as change agents and mentors to ensure future generations of leaders fully realize their potential.

Marcia L. Nordgren

Ms. Nordgren is the founder of the Law Offices of Marcia L. Nordgren, a corporate law practice based in Washington D.C., that specializes in cross-border finance transactions in emerging markets. Ms. Nordgren is also an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Law International Transactions Clinic, where she supervises students providing pro bono legal services to clients with impact investment missions and lectures on third-party closing opinions. Ms. Nordgren began her legal career in New York at Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander & Ferdon and Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, where she specialized in aircraft, railcar, equipment and project finance. After moving in-house to Rolls-Royce plc as an aircraft finance attorney, Ms. Nordgren was Assistant General Counsel at the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), where she closed complex cross-border structured finance and political risk insurance transactions in emerging markets. Prior to starting her practice in 2010, Ms. Nordgren was legal counsel to several international development finance institutions, including Global Communities, FINCA International and Small Enterprise Assistance Funds.

Ms. Nordgren graduated from Rutgers Law School in 1987, where she was Managing Editor of the Rutgers Computer and Technology Law Journal. She is a cum laude graduate of Middlebury College, where she received degrees in Political Science and French, with a minor in International Relations. Ms. Nordgren also studied at Dartmouth College and l’Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. In 1994, Ms. Nordgren was chosen by the New York State Bar Association to join the United Nations as an International Elections Observer for Mozambique’s first democratic elections.

Ms. Nordgren has served on the boards of several non-profit community organizations in the Washington, D.C. area and provides pro bono legal services to several clients. She is licensed to practice in New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia.

William E. Schroeder

William E. Schroeder is Of Counsel at Charles Law PLLC. He previously served as Special Counsel at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in the Litigation Group where he practiced law from 1986-2022. Bill has represented a wide range of clients in a variety of litigation and governmental investigation matters. He has extensive expertise in matters relating to energy trading, commodity futures trading, complex derivatives transactions, commercial banking, white-collar criminal investigations, transnational disputes and antitrust matters. Mr. Schroeder has appeared in response to numerous investigations before the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as well as appearing in response to investigations by self-regulatory organizations. Mr. Schroeder has also appeared before courts in the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom and Switzerland during witness examinations pursuant to the Hague Convention on Taking Evidence Abroad.

Mr. Schroeder has led compliance training programs for businesses in a number of jurisdictions, including the United States, Canada, Australia, China, Japan, India, South Korea, England, Germany and South Africa.

Mr. Schroeder serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School teaching transnational litigation and dispute resolution, international law and international court advocacy and at The Maurice A Deane School of Law at Hofstra University teaching Federal Criminal Law. Mr. Schroeder has participated in a number of public service activities, including advising not-for-profit agencies, serving on the boards of youth and family services organizations and serving as secretary to the Council on Children for the New York City Bar Association. He served on Sullivan & Cromwell’s Diversity Committee and as Coordinator for the Pipeline Crisis/Winning Strategies Initiative. Bill is President of the Board of Camp Friendship Brooklyn.

Mr. Schroeder earned a B.A. from Fordham College, an M.S. from Columbia University and a J.D. from Rutgers-Newark Law School