Roisin Duffy-Gideon, Civil Rights Attorney in Chicago, Illinois

Roisin joined Miner, Barnhill & Galland, after completing clerkships in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Roisin is a litigator who practices in the areas of environmental, consumer, and anti-discrimination law. She counsels and represents individuals who have suffered discrimination and sexual harassment in their schools and workplaces, and in public accommodations, and she is passionate about working closely with clients to identify and fight for their goals and priorities in cases large and small.

Roisin works on cases at all stages of litigation. She is currently on the team representing a class of Illinoisans seeking recovery for property-related injuries resulting from a fire and series of explosions that occurred in June 2021 at a chemical plant in Rockton, Illinois. She also coordinates the firm’s representation of clients exposed to toxic chemicals during military service. She has briefed and argued various motions in state and federal court, including an argument in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Roisin is proud to have been a member of the trial team that secured a Illinois record $363 million verdict for plaintiff Susan Kamuda in the Willowbrook Ethylene Oxide Litigation. As a result, she was a recipient of the 2023 Trial Lawyer Excellence Award for achieving the Highest Reported Illinois Verdict or Settlement for an individual plaintiff, from the Jury Verdict Reporter and Law Bulletin Media.

Roisin graduated with high honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where she was a Comments Editor on the Law Review and Co-President of the Public Interest Law Society. During law school, Roisin worked in the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic and took part in the clinic’s groundbreaking litigation against the ATF’s selective enforcement of federal firearm and narcotics laws. She also represented indigent clients in housing court and on other matters in the Civil Action Practice at the Bronx Defenders. Roisin co-chaired a team of students that conducted the Law School’s first ever comprehensive study on the experiences of women students.

Before law school Roisin worked at the City Bar Justice Center in New York City, assisting low-income families in foreclosure cases and representing families experiencing homelessness at public benefits hearings. She also lived for a year in Chiapas, Mexico, and worked at a grassroots community development non-profit. Roisin graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 2012.