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.

Acting 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.

Supervisor

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.

Supervisor

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.

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

Employment Law Supervisor

Family Law Supervisor