Amb. David Scheffer holds an endowed professorship at Northwestern University School of Law and serves as the Director of the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern. He also currently serves as the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Expert on U.N. Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (also known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)). He was selected by Foreign Policy Magazine in 2011 as one of the “Top Global Thinkers”. Previously, Amb. Scheffer was the first U.S. Ambassador at-Large for War Crimes Issues from 1997 to 2001. In this position, he led the U.S. negotiations for the creation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Criminal Court, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and the ECCC. Amb. Scheffer also headed the Atrocities Prevention Inter-Agency Working Group from 1999 to 2001.

In the early years of his legal career, he worked at the international law firm Coudert Brothers, Singapore office. He also served as counsel to the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the senior advisor to Madeleine Albright, member of the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council from 1993 to 1996. He has published extensively on international legal and political issues and appears regularly in the national and international media. Amb. Scheffer received a B.A. from Harvard University, a B.A. from Oxford University, and an LL.M. from Georgetown University.