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 is a solicitor (non-practising) with many years experience in representing clients in social welfare law, in particular family law, care proceedings and children’s rights. She set up and managed projects in law firms and local and national charities aimed at improving access to justice for vulnerable young people. She has also campaigned on access to justice issues plus has written for the legal press about this. She is a former member of the Law Society’s Children Panel and its Children Law Sub Committee. In September 2019 she was appointed to the Law Society's Family Committee which considers legal and policy issues. In 2023, she was ‘highly commended’ for her community work in the national Lexis Nexis Family Law Awards. She has a Creative Writing MA and writes novels, plays and scripts with legal themes.

Supervisor

Lucy’s expertise is in housing law and issues relating to homelessness. She brings practical experience of legal aid housing law advice provision, mediation and welfare and debt advice through her work at Shelter Legal and Citizens Advice. Lucy has continued her connection with legal practice and was Housing Legal Aid Supervisor at Suffolk Law Centre until December 2023 and remains active in housing law practice as a housing possession court duty adviser at Ipswich, Chelmsford and Bury St Edmunds County Courts and a member of the Citizens Advice Housing Expert Panel. Since joining the Law Clinic, Lucy has developed the Clinic’s capacity to provide housing and homelessness advice on campus and at community outreach, expanding opportunities for student work in the community and supervising public legal education and advice work in housing law.

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 recently worked on a British Academy-funded research project exploring the experiences of abuse survivors in family court. In her spare time, she serves as an expert witness researcher for the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (US), helping US immigration attorneys secure asylum for victims of gender-based violence from Mexico and Central America.

Project Lead

Project Lead

Employment Law Supervisor

Family Law Supervisor