News & Events

In April 2022, the Irish Centre for Human Rights hosted a seminar'Queer Human Rights in Practice' which was the launch of a new Queer Human Rights Seminar series.

The event consisted of a welcome introduction from Anna Arstein-Kerslake and Ekaterina Yahyaoui and presentations from civil rights attorney Lucas Cameron-Vaughn (he/him) and immigration attorney Casey Bryant (they/them). 

Lucas Cameron-Vaughn (he/him) is a civil rights attorney who has litigated both civil and criminal matters in United States’ state and federal courts. Lucas is currently serving as the managing attorney for a state court where he works with judges to ensure the constitutional operation of civil trial courts of equity and supervises the staff attorneys. Lucas worked as a private practitioner prior to working in the court system. He has worked at the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee and Transgender Law Center in Oakland, California. Lucas is currently the board chair of the National Trans Bar Association and a board member of the LGBT section of the Tennessee Bar Association. He often teaches and speaks about civil rights litigation as a CLE panellist. Prior to working with the courts, Lucas represented clients in a variety of civil rights related matters and defended people charged with federal crimes. Lucas was a juvenile justice & health law and policy fellow when he investigated and pursued civil impact litigation regarding various constitutional protections for children charged with crimes as adults and held in solitary confinement in adult state prisons prior to trial, resulting in legislative enactment of 2018 Tenn. Pub. Acts No. 1045, which made conditions safer for children in custody in Tennessee. In law school, Lucas completed an AUCD fellowship in disability law and policy. 

Casey Bryant (they/them) is an immigration attorney who represents individuals in removal proceedings in the U.S. Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR), the Board of Immigration Appeals and Federal Court. Casey is the founding Executive Director of the Advocates for Immigrant Rights (AIR) which is a non-profit organization based in Memphis, TN. Casey serves on the Executive Board for the LGBT Section of the Tennessee Bar Association, the Board Chair of OUTMemphis, a local LGBTQ non-profit center, and is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Asylum is the focus of Casey's work, an area of U.S. that applies international human rights law on a domestic level. As the ED, Casey sets policies for AIR that center claims for the most vulnerable populations, especially LGBTQI+ individuals. In addition to individual representation, Casey often presents on topics of immigration law and how it relates to various areas of jurisprudence in partnership with the University of Memphis and several bar associations. Casey is a graduate of the City University of New York, earning a Juris Doctorate in 2010.