Sergey Lagodinsky is head of the EU/North America Department of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin. Sergey’s areas of expertise include transatlantic relations, global security and international law.

From 2011-2012 he was an attorney with the Berlin office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. Prior to joining Orrick in 2011, Sergey was a 2010 Yale World Fellow in residence at Yale University. From September 2003 to February 2006, Sergey was program director at the Berlin office of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), where he contributed to raising the political profile of this American non-governmental organization in Germany and Europe. Until the end of 2008, Sergey continued to act as a special advisor to AJC’s Berlin Office. From 2008-2009, he was a fellow with the stiftung neue verantwortung. He was the founder and speaker of the Jewish Caucus in Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), a position from which he resigned in April 2011. He is also a member of the Assembly of Representatives of the Jewish Community of Berlin.

He has appeared on the BBC World Service, Deutschland Radio and other radio stations. He is also a frequent guest and commentator on RTVi (an international Russian speaking TV network) as well as Radio Liberty. His commentaries have been published by the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Der Tagesspiegel, among others.

Sergey holds a law degree from the University of Göttingen and a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University. He received a PhD in law from Berlin’s Humboldt University. His PhD research dealt with issues of human rights, anti-discrimination and freedom of speech. From 2001-2003 he was a McCloy Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In 1998, he was awarded the German National Merit Foundation’s Theodor-Fontane Prize for social work and academic excellence.