Human Trafficking Survivors Inspire

Written by Olivia Putnal Tuesday, November 15 2011

Snapshot: Martina E. Vandenberg, partner, Jenner & Block LLP
As a partner in the law firm Jenner & Block LLP, Martina Vandenberg’s experience is both broad and deep. She is a partner in the firm's litigation department and a member of the following: complex commercial litigation; media and First Amendment; and election law and redistricting practices. And she is a member of the firm’s pro bono committee.

Vandenberg advises corporations on compliance with federal regulations against human trafficking. She has testified on human trafficking before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, the House Armed Services Committee, the Helsinki Commission, and at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

She has an extensive pro bono practice, representing victims of human trafficking. In 2007, she led a trial team to victory in a federal civil suit brought under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. In 2008, she led a legal team filing a RICO civil suit against two defendants convicted of trafficking. She was honored with the Albert E. Jenner Jr. Pro Bono Award for her work representing human trafficking victims and for her legislative advocacy efforts to combat human trafficking.

Before she joined Jenner & Block, Vandenberg investigated war crimes, the trafficking of women for forced prostitution, and other violence against women as a Human Rights Watch researcher. In her five years with Human Rights Watch, she conducted extensive research in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Russian Federation, Uzbekistan, and Kosovo.

A Rhodes Scholar and a Truman Scholar, she graduated cum laude from Pomona College in 1990 with a bachelor’s in international relations. She received a master’s in Russian and East European studies from Oxford University in 1992, and she graduated from Columbia Law School in 2000, where she was named a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.

Womenetics: As a partner at Jenner & Block, you are involved with the fight against human trafficking. How can individuals get involved and help to stop this?
Martina E. Vandenberg: Individuals can take three steps. First, take the time to learn. The press presents a myopic view of human trafficking, focused entirely on the sex industry. Trafficking victims around the world – and in the United States – are held in forced labor, domestic servitude, forced begging, as well as forced prostitution. The Department of Justice has prosecuted traffickers in the United States for forcing young women to labor in nail salons, holding children in domestic servitude, and trafficking men into forced landscaping work. Take the time to learn about all forms of trafficking, including forced labor.

Second, think about what you see. Have you noticed a child in your neighborhood that never goes to school or outside to play? In one case in Orange County, Calif., a child was held in domestic servitude for years until a neighbor noticed that the child was doing dishes in the middle of the night. She called child protective services and it turned out that the child had been trafficked for forced labor in the home. Federal authorities arrested the traffickers, who served time in prison.

Third, volunteer. Trafficking survivors need tutors, interpreters, and pro bono attorneys. Contact a local service provider to see how you might be able to get more involved. The Freedom Network, a coalition of non-governmental organizations or NGOs providing services to trafficking survivors throughout the United States, may have a member near you. Please check the website at FreedomNetworkUSA.org.

Womenetics: Who or what inspired you to become so active?
Vandenberg: As an attorney, I handle pro bono cases for human trafficking survivors. My clients inspire me every day – they have persevered through unimaginable hardships. It is humbling.

Womenetics: Being a Human Rights Watch researcher must have been difficult, emotionally. How did you handle this?
Vandenberg: I have a wonderful support system, and I’ve learned that humor is the best antidote – one must never forget to laugh.

Womenetics: Tell us about a turning point in your career – perhaps an incident that inspired you to keep going.
Vandenberg: In 1999, I traveled to Kosovo. NATO had just entered the province after a long bombing campaign. As a Human Rights Watch researcher, my mission was to interview women who had suffered rape as a war crime. I traveled from village to village, seeking witnesses and victims, and one day I met a woman who had been gang raped by Serbian paramilitaries. She was nine months pregnant at the time of the rapes. She sat, holding her newborn baby, and described her experience. She later testified against Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Whenever I feel discouraged, I remember her unrelenting courage.

Womenetics: What has been your biggest challenge? Did you have to prove to anyone in your field that, yes, you could do this, as a woman?
Vandenberg: There is certainly a dearth of women partners in law firms. The statistics are quite abysmal: fewer than 20 percent of law firm partners nationwide are female. Several more senior women in my firm served as superb role models. I did not have to prove that women could succeed; they had already done it for me.

Womenetics: What are some association memberships that have helped you in your career?
Vandenberg: Alumni associations have provided an excellent outlet for my volunteer energies. These associations have also provided introductions to people outside my field, people I might have never met otherwise. Always maintain a diverse community of friends. Who wants to spend all their time with lawyers? Not I.

Womenetics: Who has encouraged you/mentored you the most along your very successful journey?
Vandenberg: Several slightly older women have provided encouragement, guidance, and the occasional course correction. I would not be here today without them.

Womenetics: What have been the lessons learned – what would you have done differently?
Vandenberg: Given a chance to do life over, I would stay abroad even longer than I did. I lived in the United Kingdom for two years, in the Russian Federation for nearly four years, and Israel for approximately eight months. I traveled extensively for Human Rights Watch, but there is no substitute for living and working abroad.

Womenetics: You’ve attended school and lived all over the world. How has this helped you become so successful?
Vandenberg: It has given me a heavy dose of perspective.

Womenetics: And last, do you take time for yourself and if so, what do you do?
Vandenberg: British comedies fill my free time – Black Adder is a particular family favorite.

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Olivia Putnal is a writer and editor in Atlanta. She formerly wrote web articles and blogs for WomansDay.com in the areas of health, fitness, beauty, fashion, entertainment, news, and food.