Yana Lantsberg

Yana is an attorney with a background in structuring energy and infrastructure projects in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. She served as Associate General Counsel at Generate Capital, and prior to that practiced for over a decade in the project finance groups at Paul Hastings and Allen & Overy. Focused in Latin America, she has long been a trusted advisor to developers, financial institutions, and governmental organizations in structuring, financing, and negotiating multi-year, cross-border energy and infrastructure projects. She also lived and worked in Moscow for several months in 2012.

During her law firm practice, Yana built a pro bono program that represented people seeking asylum in the United States. It grew to involve more than 30 other attorneys and successfully obtained asylum for dozens of clients from around the world, including post-Soviet, Middle Eastern, and Latin American immigrants. Yana was born in Kyiv, and immigrated to the United States in 1991 as a Soviet Jewish refugee. She believes immigrants are at the root of America’s exceptionalism, and works to pay forward the opportunities she and so many others have received by being welcomed here. She created and leads the CBE Justice League, a group of volunteer lawyers, at Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, where she is a congregant. She volunteers with a range of New York-based immigrants’ rights and advocacy organizations, and works to strengthen collaboration and coordination among them.

Yana holds a Bachelor’s from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs with certificates in Latin American Studies and Russian Studies, and a JD from Columbia University, during which she studied at the European University Institute in Fiesole. She has guest lectured for law students on “Negotiations Across Cultures.” She serves on the Board of Directors of Kvartira, a Brooklyn-based community center and event space for the Russian-speaking diaspora. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two young kids.