Clarissa Rodio (Junior Associate) Guernica 37

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Clarissa has been a junior associate since January 2021.

Overview

As a junior associate, Clarissa has been cultivating her professional experience in international criminal law, international human rights and extradition. She is currently part of the legal team working on a case before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague that involves allegations of offences against the administration of justice. She is also collaborating with the team of barristers who are assisting the Government of the Netherlands in obtaining justice and accountability for all the victims of torture in the Syrian Arab Republic. Further to this, Clarissa has been cooperating with barristers in drafting submissions to the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Unit (SO15) on crimes linked to Syria.

Throughout her time at Guernica 37, Clarissa worked for Toby Cadman, the Head of Chambers, on drafting legal memoranda, opinions and submissions on various international and human rights law issues involving, inter alia, Syria, Russia, Romania, Montenegro, India.

Background

Clarissa completed her BPTC at City University of London in 2020 and has recently achieved an LLM with Distinction, which was undertaken concurrently with the BPTC. She will be called to the Bar of England and Wales in July 2021.

As an LLM student and Intern at Guernica 37, she worked pro bono as an advisor for a Legal Advice Centre, interviewing and advising clients coming from disadvantaged backgrounds in the following areas: debt, employment law, welfare benefits and housing. During the BPTC, she had the opportunity to specialise in Financial Crime and Company Law, and to obtain a deeper insight into these fields in practice. Throughout the BPTC, Clarissa worked pro bono as a caseworker for APPEAL, a charity law practice that fights miscarriages of justice and her role entailed analysing criminal cases, conducting legal research involving grounds for an appeal against conviction, analysing the Judge’s summing-up and identifying gaps in the evidence as well as various inconsistencies that rendered each case unsafe. Furthermore, she was appointed as City Law School BPTC Student Representative, responsible for addressing concerns on behalf of the student body to the members of Staff and discussing viable solutions in relation to the issues in question.

Before commencing the BPTC, she has completed the GDL and received a Scholarship from City University of London. Prior to this, Clarissa has undertaken an LLM in Criminal Justice at Queen Mary University of London with a particular focus on international law, specialising in a range of subjects from terrorism and counter-terrorism, international criminal law and human rights of women to EU law and migration; she also received the Queen Mary University of London LLM Scholarship on the basis of academic merit.

Clarissa graduated with a BSc (Hons) Criminology from London Metropolitan University, and she earned the distinction of being appointed as a Professor’s assistant and student mentor by the Principal lecturer of the Criminology department. She worked in this role for the duration of her final two years as a Criminology student. Throughout that time, she also worked pro bono as a Criminology student panellist for the Oxford University Press, which involved reviewing pre-publication chapters of Criminology academic textbooks as well as offering opinions about new publishing ideas.

Education

BSc (Hons) Criminology, London Metropolitan University (First Class Honours)

LLM Criminal Justice, Queen Mary University of London (Merit)

BPTC, City Law School (Very Competent)

LLM, City Law School (Distinction)

Memberships

The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn

Association of Young International Criminal Lawyers (AYICL)

Defence Extradition Lawyers Forum (DELF)

E X P E R T I S E

Extradition & Mutual Legal Assistance

Rule of Law Development