Dr Vivienne O'Connor is the Principal of TransformLaw LLC. She has twenty years of experience in the fields of rule of law, justice and security, transitional justice, human rights and peacebuilding as an advisor, practitioner, trainer and academic.
Vivienne worked from 2001 until 2007 at the Irish Centre for Human Rights as its Rule of Law Officer, where she led the Model Codes for Postconflict Criminal Justice Project. During this time, she worked as a consultant and trainer for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Folke Bernadotte Academy. In 2007, she joined the US Institute of Peace as a Senior Rule of Law Advisor. There, she developed and led an in-person Rule of Law Practitioners Course. Vivienne also created a 3-day rule of law course for the UK government and the Australian government. In 2009, she was the curriculum developer for the inaugural Training for Judicial Affairs Officers for the United Nations Department of Peace Operations.
Since 2003, Vivienne has been engaged in rule of law projects in countries including Afghanistan, Burma, Haiti, Liberia, Nepal and Syria. She has been an Adjunct Professor at William & Mary Law School and the University of Melbourne Law School.
Vivienne has been at the cutting-edge of research and practice that integrates transdisciplinary approaches to rule of law, justice, security and human rights. Working with the US Institute of Peace from 2016-2020, she researched, and wrote on, the intersection of peacebuilding and systems thinking. Vivienne worked as Senior Rule of Law and Change Management Advisor with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, developing training for criminal justice professionals on the intersection of change management,rule of law and atrocity prevention.
She holds a Bachelor of Civil Law, a Master’s Degree in International Human Rights Law (LLM) and a PhD from the National University of Ireland, Galway. Vivienne is the author of several books, including the Model Codes for Postconflict Criminal Justice (Volume I and Volume II) and Combating Serious Crimes in Post-Conflict Environments: A Manual for Policy-Makers and Practitioners.