Justice Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court with Karin Gaudet-Asmus and her classmate, Fawas, in the UC Berkeley LLM Program, at a book-signing event in Berkeley, September, 2015

Karin Gaudet-Asmus has a broad interest in many areas of American, European, and international law, but she is especially intrigued by European matters, the public sector, health care, litigation, class actions, and immigration issues. She is versatile, curious, and interested in procedural and other legal matters.  She has studied law in the Netherlands, England, Sweden, and the United States.

Mrs. Gaudet-Asmus received an LL.M. degree from UC Berkeley, School of Law, where she was elected President of a class of 200 LLM students for the 2015-2016 academic year.  She has a Master’s degree in European law, which she received in 2008 from Stockholm University, Sweden.  Before that, Mrs. Gaudet-Asmus completed two different Bachelor’s degrees at Tilburg University, the Netherlands: European & International Law; and Law & Public Affairs Management.

During her Bachelor’s studies in Tilburg, Mrs. Gaudet-Asmus interned at the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs for the problem-solving network called Solvit. Mrs. Gaudet-Asmus gave citizens advice on enforcing their European rights, for instance on issues of importing cars, paying taxes and the free movement of persons. As the derivative right to move and reside freely within the EU for third-country family members of EU citizens seemed problematic, Mrs. Gaudet-Asmus decided to write her Master’s thesis on this topic.

Through the Erasmus exchange program, Mrs. Gaudet-Asmus studied law at the University of Sheffield in England during her studies at Tilburg University.  One of her courses was Law & Medicine, a comparative law course on health care laws throughout the world, which sparked her interest in health care issues. In Tilburg, Mrs. Gaudet-Asmus followed courses that touched on the subject of the health care sector as well, such as public financing. After graduation from the Master’s degree, Mrs. Gaudet-Asmus worked for CAK (a Dutch governmental agency, focused on long-term healthcare policy and social benefits) for over three years. Next to her full-time job, Mrs. Gaudet-Asmus took courses at Erasmus University on the topic of healthcare management.

Mrs. Gaudet-Asmus worked in various functions for CAK. First, she worked for CAK’s administrative complaints’ department through USG Legal, a legal placement company. Then, Mrs. Gaudet-Asmus moved on to work at the administrative appeals section of CAK. As an appeals officer, Mrs. Gaudet-Asmus wrote administrative decisions and defended them in court when necessary, after writing and filing the briefs with the court. Finally, Mrs. Gaudet-Asmus worked for the policy and strategy section of CAK. As a policy advisor, Mrs. Gaudet-Asmus gave internal parties advice on how to execute health care, administrative and privacy laws properly and she represented CAK in meetings with outside parties, such as Dutch local governments, public agencies and ministries.

Mrs. Gaudet-Asmus resigned from her job at CAK to move to Ireland, where she started working for RJ Gaudet & Associates, LLC. She performs legal research, helps write briefs, assists with trials, and helps the firm with administrative matters.  In 2015, she worked as a volunteer for Las Americas, an immigration advocacy center in El Paso, TX on asylum applications.  In 2015, she taught a summer course on Dutch language and culture at the University of Texas at El Paso.

In 2018, she provided support for a federal trial in Omaha, Nebraska that resulted in a verdict over $700,000 in favor of her clients.  She has also worked on a collective action in Washington, D.C. on behalf of employees of a seafood distribution company, OceanPro Industries. Ltd., who were not paid overtime wages.

Mrs. Gaudet-Asmus is a member of the California bar association and the Texas bar association as well as an active member of the Dutch-American community in El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, New Mexico.