We have a core team of directors and founding consultants. Where a project would benefit from a wider range of experience or expertise, we bring in additional consultants, who are all leaders in their fields, that we have worked closely with previously.
Fiona has a background in legal affairs journalism, and in recent years has increasingly combined her writing with research and campaigning. As Just for Kids Law's communications director, she worked with Shauneen Lambe on many of its successful campaigns. She co-founded the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards, and the Act for the Act campaign in defence of the Human Rights Act. Her 2014 research "Chasing Status: If not British, what am I?", was the first to reveal the Home Office failings which culminated in the Windrush scandal. She was deputy chair of Women in Journalism from 2008-2013 and led its research into the impact of media coverage on young people. She is former head of communications for The Legal Education Foundation, and has an MA in criminology from Kings College, London.
Fiona leads on advising Impact clients on communications and building campaigns.
Shauneen is a barrister and attorney, social entrepreneur, and CEO whose strategic litigation work has changed the law 4 times in the past 4 years. A true legal innovator dedicated to the law being a tool for social change, Shauneen has established numerous groundbreaking projects and organisations. As the co-founder and CEO of Just for Kids law (2005-2018) she developed the highly successful holistic model of representation for children. In 2014 she set up the Youth Justice Legal Centre, a centre of excellence in youth justice law, providing legal information, guidance and training for lawyers representing children. In 1999 she helped Clive Stafford Smith set up his NGO - Reprieve. For her work, Shauneen has been awarded and Eisenhower Fellowship, and Ashoka Fellowship, a Shackleton Fellowship, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
Shauneen leads on Impact's litigation and campaigns planning and acts as coordinator and tactician for campaigns that are using the law for social justice.
Lisa has 15 years' experience of studying how NGOs and charities use the law to bring about social change. She has written an award-winning book and more than a dozen peer-reviewed articles on the subject. Lisa has worked with civil society organisations across a range of sectors - from environment to children's rights to the aging sector - in strategic planning for use of the law and in evaluating the impact of legal cases. She acts as learning partner, with Impact colleague Dr Jacqui Kinghan, to a number of grant-making foundations interested in use of the law. She is an associate professor at UCL and holds a DPhil and MPhil in politics from Oxford University.
Lisa supports Impact's litigation and evaluation activities.
Jacqui is a barrister and academic, specialising in the use of law for social change, and holds degrees from Edinburgh and Harvard universities. She is head of teaching and learning in the UCL Centre for Access to Justice and has spent many years establishing clinical legal education programmes with charities, NGOs and law centres. She teaches access to justice and human rights to postgraduate degree level and regularly conducts training and workshops with third-sector organisations. She acts as a learning partner to a number of grant-making organisations with her Impact colleague Dr Lisa Vanhala.
Jacqui develops and delivers workshops and supports Impact's litigation and evaluation activities.
Ruth is a specialist youth justice lawyer specialising in working with children and young people. Her legal career was inspired by her experience as an intern for a charity in Texas, providing representation to people facing the death penalty. Ruth spent 9 years at Hodge Jones and Allen Solicitors, a top tier Legal 500 firm, where she helped to establish a youth specialist team within the criminal department. She then moved on to work with other legal aid firms as a youth specialist criminal defence lawyer, all the while maintaining strong links with Just For Kids Law. Ruth has worked with Just for Kids Law since its inception and is passionate about the impact that charities can have on improving the justice system.
Amelia is a researcher specialising in social justice issues. She has worked with Shauneen Lambe at both Just For Kids Law and Impact, having come from documentary making for both the BBC (1999-2008) and Channel 4.
Cora is a project coordinator and researcher at Impact. She has an MSc in Human Rights and is interested in social inequalities in the UK. Alongside her work with Impact, she also develops projects in business and human rights.
cora@impactsocialjustice.org
We Belong is built on an initial project called Let Us Learn, founded in 2014 and currently hosted by the award-winning charity Just for Kids Law. As Let Us Learn we have successfully organised and mobilised young people who have migrated to the UK and led campaigns that have achieved change on a national scale. We Belong seeks to ensure that those affected by the UK’s hostile immigration policies should be active participants in the conversation to create positive, impactful social change. Our vision is for young migrants living in the UK to be treated equally and fairly in the society they call home. We do so by pursuing two main objectives; engaging youth migrants and ensuring better outcomes and opportunities for individuals; and improving outcomes through systemic change so that barriers to equal and fair treatment are removed.