Andy Griffiths: Media Lawyer to International Justice Mission Regional President

The world needs more people like Andy Griffiths. His work has taken him into brick kilns in India where he lead a team of freedom fighters rescuing people who had been subject to enforced slavery, and to the West Bank in Palestine where his organisation ran a program to create harmony and peace between Israelis and Palestinians through sport.

But Andy started out his career in a very different way. I met Andy years ago when he was the Group Legal Director for ITV the UK’s biggest commercial TV broadcaster and production company. He went on to achieve what is the career pinnacle for any media lawyer, by becoming the General Counsel of the worlds largest independent TV production company, Endemol. But it was when he realised that the pursuit of profit was not fulfilling for him that he turned his attention to the not-for-profit sector.

He talks about the challenges he faced in going from a successful corporate role as a lawyer to running an office in Chennai, India, for the International Justice Mission. We also talked about how failures can be the catalyst to progression, and how to highlight the transferability of your skillset when you are looking to move into a different sector or role. But most inspiring of all, Andy shares some truly heart breaking stories about the people he and his teams have rescued from slavery and how those perpetrators of slavery and violence have been brought to account.

From his childhood growing up in a remote town in Brazil (living part of that time with indigenous tribespeople) to being involved in truly heroic work against slavery and violence, Andy is one of the most inspiring guests I’ve spoken to on Freedom Hunters.