November NUI Galway graduate wins Law Student of the Year

A NUI Galway graduate has been named Law Student of the Year at the Irish Law Awards 2021.

Cassie Roddy-Mullineaux, from Rosscahill, Co Galway, graduated with a BA and Bachelor of Laws (LLB), placing first in her year, before graduating with a first class honours LLM in International Human Rights in 2020.

The Law Student of the Year award recognises and celebrates the academic legal achievements and other overall achievements of a student studying law in a third level college or university.

Ms Roddy-Mullineaux was awarded the accolade in recognition of her outstanding achievements while studying at NUI Galway’s School of Law and the University’s Irish Centre for Human Rights (ICHR).

She said: “I am over the moon to have won the award for Law Student of the Year at the Irish Law Awards 2021. Completing the LLM in International Human Rights completely changed my outlook on legal practice and how I wanted to contribute as a lawyer. I'm extremely grateful to the Irish Centre for Human Rights and NUI Galway School of Law for the generous support of the staff and community who afforded me so many opportunities during the LLM and have truly helped to shape my legal career.”

Professor Martin Hogg, Head of NUI Galway’s School of Law, said: “This award is incredibly well deserved and the Law School is delighted for Cassie. Cassie was an outstanding member of our LLM in International Human Rights class, not only distinguishing herself in her studies and research but making impactful contributions in a range of projects on which she worked with her classmates, our staff, and NGOs. We hope that her achievements will inspire current and future students to aim as high as she has.”

Since graduating, Ms Roddy-Mullineaux has been working as a lawyer with AWO, a new data rights agency, at the intersection of data rights and human rights. She advises clients on a wide range of data and privacy issues.

In collaboration with Article Eight Advocacy, Ms Roddy-Mullineaux continued to work with the new cohort of students in the Human Rights Law Clinic at the University’s Irish Centre for Human Rights throughout 2020-2021 on the Mother and Baby data protection hub, an online resource to help survivors of the Mother and Baby Homes request their personal data from the bodies that hold it.

Interim Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, Professor Ray Murphy, said: “Cassie embodies the perfect mix of academic scholarship and human rights activism. We are delighted with the richly deserved recognition this prestigious award gives her.”

Ms Roddy-Mullineaux was involved in a number of projects during her studies at NUI Galway, including:

• Being part of the ICHR representative team at Ireland’s United Nation's CERD (Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination) review in Dec 2019. She spoke to the CERD Committee in Geneva on Ireland’s climate racism. She also contributed to and helped compile the ICHR’s shadow report.
• Being part of the ICHR’s Human Rights Law Clinic, directed by Dr Maeve O’Rourke, she worked on the My Data Rights project, an online resource to help survivors of historical and institutional abuses in Ireland use GDPR to access their personal data.
• Working with environmental group, Safety Before LNG, she co-wrote a legal opinion on the compatibility of a legal ban on fracked gas imports with EU and WTO trade laws.
• Completing a legal research placement with the Global Legal Action Network working on business-related human rights abuses.
• Assisting NUI Galway’s Dr Padraic Kenna with researching European Convention on Human Rights arguments relating to the Case of the Century (climate litigation) in France.

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