Courtney Spivey Urschel is a nonresident senior fellow with the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council. Previously, she served as the deputy chief overseeing the human rights portfolio at the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions section of the US Department of Justice from 2019 to 2025. In addition to tripling the number of human rights prosecutions during her tenure, she directly supervised the first two war crimes indictments ever brought under the US War Crimes Statute, addressing atrocities that occurred in Ukraine and Syria. Additionally, she oversaw the indictment of four torture cases, including the convictions following federal court trials in United States v. Micheal Correa and United States v. Ross Roggio. In her role as deputy chief, Urschel represented the Department of Justice at Eurojust’s Genocide Network and the Ukraine Joint Investigative Team. Urschel has also overseen investigations and prosecutions arising out of allegations of genocide, rape, enlisting child soldiers and extra-judicial killings, seeking justice on behalf of survivors from Rwanda, Bosnia, Liberia, Haiti, Iraq, and The Gambia, among others.

For over ten years, Urschel served as an assistant US attorney in Washington, DC, conducting federal investigations domestically and overseas of offenses including terrorism, war crimes, murder, espionage, narcotics trafficking, and export violations, and trying over forty-five cases to verdict. She has been recognized for her work with numerous awards, including the Attorney General Award for Distinguished Service. Urschel graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Rhodes College and holds a JD from Vanderbilt University Law School.