Our team

Director

Awarded an OBE in 2011 for his services to the legal profession, Donald became Director of the Essex Law Clinic in 2017 after founding both the University of Bristol Law Clinic and the multi award winning University of Strathclyde Law Clinic. Donald sat on the Law Society’s Access to Justice Committee and was a founding Director of LawWorks Scotland, and is still a Trustee of the Clinical Legal Education Organisation.

Deputy-Director

Liz's interests include social welfare law, family law, care proceedings and children’s rights. She set up and managed projects aimed at improving access to justice for vulnerable young people, particularly those in care, in both a local law firm and national charities. She is a member of The Law Society’s specialist Family Law Committee which considers law and policy on a national basis, and is a former member of its Children Law Sub Committee and Children Panel. Liz has campaigned on access to justice issues, particularly around children and young people.

Lecturer

Lucy’s interests are in social welfare law, focussing on housing law and issues relating to homelessness. She brings practical experience in legal aid housing law provision, welfare benefits, and debt advice from her previous work with Shelter and Citizens Advice. She balances her work at the Law Clinic with her role as the Housing Legal Aid Supervisor at Suffolk Law Centre, the sole legal aid housing provider across Suffolk and North Essex. Within the Law Clinic, she supervises advice, public legal education, and the homelessness and housing project and runs a weekly advice outreach at a homeless support centre in Colchester.

Olayinka worked as Academic Director of The Law Clinic at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. There, he implemented the expansion of the Law Clinic’s clientele, advice provision, and volunteer numbers. ‘Yinka previously worked as a solicitor for a number of years within the UK and abroad in various areas of law including petroleum law, commercial law, civil litigation, and immigration and asylum law. He has interests and expertise in immigration and asylum law and is passionate to provide immigration advice and training.

Supervisor

Osita joined the Law Clinic as Supervisor in September 2022. He is a Barrister and Solicitor in Nigeria and a Solicitor Advocate in England and Wales, where he holds a current practising certificate. He is also a Chartered Tax Adviser and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation in the UK. Osita has practised law in Nigeria and in England and Wales at various times since 2000 and has many years’ experience in various areas of law including tax law, welfare benefits law, employment law, administrative law, and human rights law. He was a lawyer for His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) from 2007 to 2013. In 2014, he was awarded the Middlesex University UK Whistleblowing Award for “exposing a tax settlement between HMRC and Goldman Sachs.” Osita is very passionate about social justice, access to justice, and public legal education.

Law Clinic Administrator

Michele Stephens holds a PhD in Latin American History from the University of Oklahoma and an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex. Michele has taught Latin American and Native American history at the university level for more than a decade and is looking forward to working with Law students and faculty in a different capacity. She is especially interested in learning more about England’s legal system and the needs of the Essex community, particularly in matters relating to women’s access to justice.

Project Lead

Project Lead

Project Lead

Project Lead

Project Lead