Philippe Sands sat in his office on the second floor of his house in Hampstead, an upscale area of London, with his favorite recording of Leonard Cohen's "Anthem" playing in the background. On that day in April, the lawyer, law professor and French-British writer had been talking about his countless activities for four hours.

Switching between French and English, the 63-year-old talked, in no particular order, about his work on the special tribunal project to try Vladimir Putin for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, his passion for the London football club Arsenal and his opinion on the International Criminal Court prosecutor (ICC), Karim Khan, a former student. "This is your idea of paradise," said his wife, Natalia Schiffrin, a family court judge in London.

It's true, Sands loves to tell stories – to journalists, to judges, to his readers and on stage to an audience. His life is already organized into a narrative, questions rarely provoke hesitation and he peppers his answers with phrases found in all his interviews. A judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations' highest court, dubbed him the "storyteller." "It's not a criticism," said Sands. "They love it when I argue because I tell stories. But I'm also a lawyer. And there's a great link between the two."

Books, shows, podcasts and opinion pieces

Sands is currently advising the Palestinian Authority at the ICJ, which, for the first time, will rule on the legality of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. His presentation on February 19 went viral on social media, with clips showing him in a wig, delivering a relentless argument for the Palestinians' right to self-determination. He received hundreds of messages. "It was crazy!" he said.

With his best-selling books, which have been adapted into musical performances, podcasts (such as La Filière, on France Culture, which attracted 2 million listeners), as well as graphic novels, powerful opinion pieces and the interviews he generously grants, Sands has above all become one of the few – if not the only – international lawyer to reach a wide audience.

In 1998, he refused to represent the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who had been arrested in London. Instead, he represented the opposing side as counsel for the NGO Human Rights Watch before the House of Lords, the UK Parliament's upper house. In a landmark ruling, the House of Lords rejected the former dictator's immunity.

Since then, Sands has joined the select circle of around 10 lawyers that governments from around the world consult for representation. While he declined to work for Saddam Hussein (he says he turns down 95% of requests), he advised Bashar al-Assad in 2007 – "before all the atrocities," he said, without apologizing either – and in 2020, he advocated for the recognition of the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar.

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