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Staff

The PILS Project has three staff members:

 

Project Manager & Solicitor: Melissa Murray

Melissa studied law at Trinity College Dublin and qualified as a solicitor in Northern Ireland in 2005. She worked with Sheridan and Leonard solicitors, a Belfast based firm, from 2003-2005 as an apprentice, and from 2005-2009 as a solicitor, specialising in criminal law, whilst also managing a public law and family law caseload. Melissa joined the PILS Project in 2009 when it was first established and has helped build the work of the Project since then in her role as Project Manager and Solicitor.                   

    

                                         

Development Officer: David Hawkins

David studied Law with French at Queen’s University Belfast, graduating in 2003. As part of his degree, he spent a year studying at the Université Catholique de Louvain, at Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium. He studied at the Institute of Professional Legal Studies and qualified as a Solicitor in 2006. After qualification, he worked for a firm specialising in the area of criminal defence work. In September 2009 he joined Housing Rights, an NGO dedicated to the prevention of homelessness, where he was part of a team that sought to prevent the repossession of homes due  to mortgage arrears. He joined the PILS Project as Development Officer in May 2012.      

 

 

Project Officer: Emma Cassidy

Emma joined the PILS Project in November 2018, taking on the role of Project Officer. She is responsible for leading the Project’s communications work to raise awareness of public interest litigation and its impact. In addition to this work, Emma also assists with event organisation, office management and initiatives designed to break down barriers that prevent people accessing justice.
 
Before joining The PILS Project, Emma worked in Brussels (with ILGA-Europe, the umbrella organisation for LGBTI activists in Europe and Central Asia), Budapest (with PILnet: the Global Network for Public Interest Law) and Dublin (at FLAC, the Free Legal Advice Centres). Emma studied Economics, Politics and Law at Dublin City University and was awarded an LLM in Human Rights and Criminal Justice from Queen’s University Belfast. She is particularly happy to return to Belfast, having previously volunteered with CAJ, who are among PILS’ neighbours at Community House.