Melissa Ruggiero is currently a Staff Attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services (NLS) in Pittsburgh. She provides legal services for the elder law program and represents clients denied Social Security disability benefits. Prior to joining NLS in 2020, she worked for five years as Associate Counsel at the Allegheny County Office of Conflict Counsel representing indigent defendants charged with crimes from disorderly conduct to homicide. She also worked as a Legal Officer in the Appeals Chamber at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague, Netherlands and in the War Crimes Chamber at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo providing legal services and advice regarding international law, international criminal law and procedure to the Judges hearing war crimes cases.
Ms. Ruggiero earned her LL.M in Human Rights and Criminal Justice (Cross Border) from Queen’s University Belfast and National University of Ireland, Galway in 2007. She earned her Juris Doctorate from Duquesne University School of Law in 2003 and a Bachelor of Arts in History from John Carroll University in 1999.
She serves as Co-President of the Women’s Bar Association of Western Pennsylvania since 2018 and served as co-chair of the South Pittsburgh Opioid Action Coalition (SPOAC) from 2018 to 2020.
Courses Taught at Pitt
- LCJS 1581 - International Law
Education & Training
- LLM, Human Rights & Criminal Justice - Queens University in Belfast
- JD - Duquesne University of Law
- BA, History - John Carroll University
Representative Publications
Judicial Bench Book: Working tools to assist the trial judge for Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dec 14, 2011 co-editor; One Door Closes and Another One Opens: The Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Sierra Leone Peace Museum, International Judicial Monitor