International Affairs Team

Marissa Jackson is General Counsel for the Mayor's Office for International Affairs. In this capacity, she manages a broad swath of legal and compliance matters involving the Mayor's Office for International Affairs and its partners and constituents, ranging from questions concerning land use and real estate to those centered on diplomatic immunities. Prior to joining the Mayor's Office, Marissa was an Acting Assistant Professor of Lawyering at the New York University School of Law, where her scholarship focused on the development and implementation of human rights law and legal norms. While at NYU, Marissa was selected as a 2015 recipient of the Martin Luther King Faculty Award for excellence in teaching, leadership and social justice. Marissa was previously a litigation associate at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, and she also clerked for the Honorable Sterling Johnson, Jr., of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and the Honorable Damon Keith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Marissa also developed a human rights and education initiative in Dakar, Senegal, in support of the country's Gender Parity Act of 2010. Marissa has a Bachelor of Arts from Northwestern University, a law degree from Columbia Law School, and a Master's of Laws in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She lives in the Bronx with her husband, Yerim, their son, Babacar, and their cat, Marley. She enjoys taking dance classes at the Alvin Ailey Extension and loves outside concerts in Central and Prospect Parks during the summers.