Michael Sullivan

Michael Sullivan serves as Senior Consultant for International Investigations and Post-Conflict Transitions at Lexpat Global Services. With over 20 years of experience as an attorney, academic, and international relations professional, he specializes in international law, transitional justice, and the documentation of war crimes and human rights abuses. In addition to his international fieldwork, Michael currently serves as an adjunct professor at American University in Washington, D.C., a law faculty member with the Afghanistan Law & Political Science Association (ALPA) in Exile, and a Visiting Researcher at the Faculty of Political Science at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.

At present, Michael’s fieldwork focuses on Myanmar and Ukraine. In Myanmar, he addresses federalism, transitional justice, and war crimes investigations, supporting efforts to document human rights abuses, strengthen accountability mechanisms, and prepare for potential transitional processes. In Ukraine, he collaborates with organizations on war crimes investigations and related accountability efforts. His programs integrate field-based evidence collection with cyber-enabled investigative methods, including open-source intelligence (OSINT), equipping local and international stakeholders to document abuses, enhance investigations, and build robust cases for justice. This expertise builds on his work as Senior Program Manager with the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (2022–2025), where he managed programs delivering OSINT training to support anti-money laundering (AML) efforts for Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) across the Greater Mekong region.

Michael’s focus on training and investigative innovation stems from over a decade of experience in some of the world’s most challenging conflict zones. He was seconded by the U.S. Department of State to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (2014–2021), where he held prominent roles, including Kramatorsk Team Leader, managing over 150 personnel operating on both sides of the line of contact in Donetsk Oblast. Prior to this, he served in Kandahar, Afghanistan, with the U.S. Department of State (2010–2013). In this role, he established the U.S. rule of law program at the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team (KPRT) and later served as Director of Rule of Law (ROL) for Regional Platform South, overseeing ROL efforts across Kandahar, Zabul, and Uruzgan provinces.

Earlier in his career, Michael lectured for the U.S. State Department’s Antiterrorism Assistance Program, training senior foreign officials on humanitarian law and human rights in crisis situations. In Baghdad, Iraq, he supported Iraq’s Constitutional Drafting Committee during a pivotal transitional period and managed the National Democratic Institute’s Executive Program. As a relief worker during the Bosnian War, he contributed to humanitarian efforts and conducted war crimes investigations in Kosovo with Physicians for Human Rights.

A licensed attorney in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, Michael holds a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, specializing in International Security Studies. His accomplishments have earned him several prestigious honors, including the U.S. Department of State Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards, the NATO Non-Article 5 Medal, and the U.S. Department of State Expeditionary Award. He has co-edited two legal volumes for the American Bar Association: The International Human Rights Law Sourcebook and The International Humanitarian Law (Law of Armed Conflict) Sourcebook. Michael is a member of the Truman National Security Project’s Defense Council in Washington, D.C., Chatham House in London, and the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand in Bangkok.