Justice Melissa Mendez
Melissa joined the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law in January 2017. She is originally from Trinidad and Tobago and completed her PhD at Cardiff University in January 2019. Her doctoral thesis explored the subjective lived experiences of detained young male offenders in Trinidad and Tobago in the context of state legitimacy and procedural justice.
In addition to a PhD, Melissa holds an LLB (Hons) from the University of the West Indies, a Legal Education Certificate from the Hugh Wooding Law School, an LLM from UCL, and an MSc in Social Science Research Methods from Cardiff University. Melissa is an attorney at law qualified to practise law in the West Indies since 2006. Her interests include legitimacy, state crime, sentencing, penology, and youth justice.