Alumnus/Alumna of the Month

David Pressman '04

Read an Interview with David Pressman.

David Pressman is a civil and human rights lawyer, currently working with civil rights/criminal defense attorney Ron Kuby in New York City.

Pressman recently led an advocacy initiative designed to focus international attention, raise awareness about and agitate for action on the continuing genocide in Darfur. After returning from Sudan, where he was working with the United Nations, Pressman devised, implemented and led a mission to smuggle actor/director George Clooney, his father Nick Clooney and a cameraman into the Darfur-region. Pressman then led an advocacy campaign that resulted in extensive international coverage (including George Clooney’s address to the United Nations Security Council on September 14, 2006).

Prior to leaving for Sudan, Pressman worked at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Chicago, where he managed a diverse docket including litigation, public speaking/education and advocacy. A member of the Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab, he received a fellowship from the Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers to assist opera director Beth Greenberg on her production of Turandot at New York City Opera.

Pressman served as special assistant to Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. At the State Department, he worked directly with the Secretary, developing and implementing communications strategy, managing special/sensitive projects and facilitating the Secretary’s policy and diplomatic initiatives as one of her traveling advisers (a task that included extensive travel with the Secretary to a wide variety of regions and inter-governmental forums including, among others, Brunei, Belfast, Bangkok, Columbia, Croatia, the Middle East Peace Summit at Camp David and sessions of the United Nations General Assembly). Prior to arriving at the State Department, Pressman served as a press lead for the Clinton White House.

Pressman has clerked for the Supreme Court of Rwanda and the Southern Poverty Law Center. At the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, he was involved in the Center’s, ultimately successful case challenging the constitutionality of State Chief Justice Roy Moore’s placement of a two-and-a-half ton monument of the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the State Judicial Building. In Rwanda, Pressman’s work focused on evaluating post-genocide transitional justice initiatives, including the Court’s controversial Gacaca program (localized criminal tribunals designed to foster healing through retributive justice).

Pressman was a member of the Wesley Clark 2004 National Security Working Group, and worked on the Kerry/Edwards presidential campaign.

David Pressman graduated magna cum laude and Order of the Coif from New York University School of Law and received his undergraduate education at Brown University.