Guernica 37 is Delighted to Announce that Mónica Roma Wilson has Joined Chambers in London

Mónica Roma Wilson is a Portuguese-British attorney. She has lived and worked in Lisbon, Brussels, London, Islamabad, Beijing, New York, and The Hague.

Having started in private practice in Lisbon specialising in constitutional and administrative law, she moved to the Comparative Law Bureau at the Attorney General’s Office, negotiating on behalf of Portugal at the European Union, UN, OECD and the Council of Europe. Her work on international instruments and European legislation focussed in particular on judicial cooperation, as well as measures to combat money laundering, corruption, terrorism, and cybercrime.

At the Portuguese Representation to the European Union, in Brussels, she took part in setting up Eurojust and the European Judicial Network, creating the European Arrest Warrant, defining the principle of mutual recognition, sentencing guidelines and agreeing common definitions of crimes such as terrorism, counterfeiting and financial crimes, trafficking in drugs and human beings, and crimes against children.

Mónica has extensive experience in training legal practitioners. In China she worked as a consultant on projects to promote the rule of law and human rights. She advised on reforms to the role of defence lawyers in criminal trials. She also worked on projects that aimed to reduce the application of the death penalty, through technical seminars that focussed on evidence analysis, sentencing guidelines and the role of the victim in criminal trials. She worked in Lusophone Africa on training seminars for the judiciary.

In The Hague, Mónica worked with the International Criminal Court to refine its strategy for the recovery of criminal assets and build new processes, internal and external, so it can continue to fight impunity, protect the dignity of victims, and achieve its objectives, while reducing the financial burden on States Parties.

In addition, Mónica has direct experience of working with business and think tanks. In New York, she worked with Ainsworth Associates, a strategic advisory company, where she was specifically involved in projects designed to marry public and social objectives, including environmental protection, with private investment. In London, at the Centre for European Reform, she worked to demystify complex European justice and home affairs procedures and legislation for a generalist audience.

Mónica is bilingual in English and Portuguese, speaks fluent Spanish and French, and has simple Mandarin. Combining these skills with her strong technical knowledge has made her unusually adaptable and sensitive to cultural context in countries with very different jurisdictions and legal traditions. Her extensive international experience have served to strengthen her passion to promote and defend human rights and the fundamental principles that underpin the rule of law.