Plenary Speakers

Jens is Professor of Comparative Law at Aalborg University, founding director of the Nordic Centre for Comparative and International Family Law (NorFam), Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape and an Academic Door Tenant at Queen Elizabeth Building, London. Until August 2022, he was Professor of Comparative Law at the University of Cambridge where he also founded the Cambridge Family Law Centre. He has held visiting positions i.a. at universities in Sydney, Auckland, London, Vienna, Barcelona, Padua, Leuven, Louvain-la-Neuve, Hong Kong and Melbourne.

Jens is the editor of the International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family and book series editor of the ‘Elgar Comparative Family Law Series’. In2025 he was appointed as independent expert to the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on Access to Origins and has advised law reform bodies in England, Germany, Denmark, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

Michelle Cottier is Full Professor and Vice-Dean for Research at the Faculty of law at the University of Geneva.

Her fields of specialization include Swiss and comparative family law, sociology of law, interdisciplinarity in law, and the study of gender, sexuality and law.

Michelle Cottier has been principal investigator for the projects funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation “The practice of family law during the Covid-19 pandemic: digital justice and gender inequalities” (2023-2026), “The negotiation of divorce agreements and gender (in)equality in Switzerland (2019-2023) and “Integrity, autonomy and participation in child protection: How do children and parents experience the proceedings of Child and Adult Protection Authorities? (2018-2022).

She is the Swiss expert and member of the Coordinating Group of FL-EUR Family Law in Europe: Academic Network, a member of the expert group for the review of Swiss parentage law commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office of Justice, co-editor of the Swiss journal specialized in family law “FamPra.ch and of the German Journal of Law and Society”.

Formerly she has been an Assistant Professor at the University of Basel, a Visiting Professor at Humboldt University in Berlin and a Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School as well as at the Universities of Kent, Cardiff, Keele and Utrecht.

She is one of the founding partners of NSN LAW FIRM. She has been practicing maritime law since 1995. She is a gradute of Istanbul University, Faculty of Law and completed her LLM in Yeditepe University in Istanbul. Her LLM thesis is “ Salvage under Turkish Commercial Code” and such thesis has been published as a book. Her areas of expertise in maritime law consists of marine pollutions, salvage and wreck removals, fires on board, charter party disputes, cargo claims and crew claims. She has handled major casualties occurred at the Bosphorus, Dardanelles, Izmir and Iskenderun. She is currently performing her PhD in Piri Reis University on “ Pollutions arising from vessel fuels”.

She is a member of Turkish Maritime Lawyers Association, a member of the executive committee of WISTA INTERNATIONAL and WILAT / CILT.

Capt. Damla Gerzeli is a Master Mariner with a maritime career spanning approximately 18 years, primarily on oil and chemical tankers. She graduated from Istanbul Technical University with a degree in Maritime Transportation and Management Engineering. Having progressed from cadet to master, she has gained first-hand insight into both the operational demands of shipping and the human realities of life at sea.

She is an alternate board member of the Turkish Ocean-going Masters’ Association (TURKKAPDER), a member of WISTA Türkiye and a delegate to the Turkish Maritime Federation (TÜRDEF).

Alongside her professional work, she contributes to maritime discussions through writing, speaking and mentoring, with a particular focus on seafarers’ welfare, fair working conditions and people-centred leadership. She was named among All About Shipping’s “Top 100 Women in Maritime 2024.”

Burcu Berrak, who graduated from the University of Istanbul with a degree in Marine Transportation and Management Engineering, worked for three years in the chartering department at Bora Denizcilik. She spent two years in container forwarding and logistics, working with leading companies such as Borusan Logistics and Frans Maas International Freight Forwarding. She began her marine insurance career in 2003 at a P&I Club correspondent office, where she handled a wide range of marine claims, with a particular focus on P&I matters. In January 2014, she joined Türk P&I as Claims Manager and later advanced to the role of Claims Group Manager. As of January 2025, she is a part of the Lockton Omni claims team.

Gretchen Rubel has practiced family law exclusively for more than 25 years, is a Certified Family Law Specialist with the California State Board of Legal Specialization and a member of the IAFL, AAML, and AFCC.  She is a principal of Hersh FamilyLaw Practice and has headed the Firm’s child custody and visitation and domestic violence practice since she joined the Firm in 2007.  Her practice includes dissolutions, legal separations, actions under the Uniform Parentage Act, and actions under the Domestic Violence Prevention Act.  Gretchen possesses particular expertise and knowledge in complex child custody and visitation and domestic violence issues, including child custody evaluations, domestic and international parental relocation, substance abuse monitoring, parental mental health monitoring, and other parenting and co-parenting issues.  She serves regularly as a volunteer settlement conference officer and attorney volunteer for the San Francisco Unified Family Court and the Marin County Superior Court, Family Law Division. She also provides domestic violence representation training to attorneys at other law firms.