'How can we effectively be a voice for care-experienced clients and share their stories in court if we do not yet understand, or give visibility to, care experience? For care-experienced people, access to the profession is access to justice'
Lucy Barnes, Our Co-Founder and CEO (14th June 2024 Bar Council article 'Raising the Bar: care-experienced people belong here.'
Fostering care-experienced talent in legal careers.
Care-experience led
Aspiring for inclusion
Raising the Bar
Erasing barriers
“The Lawyers Who Care initiative is a brilliant one that I fully support. The purpose to give some targeted support to care-experienced aspiring lawyers is both unprecedented and absolutely focussed on a cohort of legal talent that both needs the initial support, and which has historically been underserved, even ignored. It’s fantastic to see a number of chambers have already signed up as members and I am sure that many barristers will be keen to act as mentors.”
Sam Townend KC, Chair of the Bar Council of England and Wales
"On behalf of the Law Society of England and Wales I would like to welcome the Lawyers Who Care initiative. Those who have been in the care system have unique experiences that often go unacknowledged. It is important that care-experienced individuals are given the opportunities and support they need to access and thrive in the legal profession. We are pleased to see solicitor firms taking the initiative to sign up to Lawyers Who Care too. We wish the scheme every success. “
Nick Emmerson, President of the Law Society of England and Wales
What we do
Facilitating long-term Mentoring
Creating the UK's first mentoring organisation to support care-experienced aspiring lawyers with long-term mentoring (2+ year).
Facilitating paid work experience
Liaising with our legal network to create paid opportunities for care-experienced aspiring lawyers. We also consult with firms/chambers on paid work experience.
Community Building
Building a sense of community accross the legal profession for care-experienced people by providing inclusive events and opportunities to network. Because we are stronger together.
About Us
Lucy Barnes
(Co-Founder & CEO)
Future Pupil Barrister at East Anglian Chambers | TEDx Speaker | Keynote Speaker | 100 Faces Universities UK
Lucy Barnes is a care-experienced Future Pupil Barrister at East Anglian Chambers (commencing October 2024). She is also a TEDx speaker, keynote speaker and advocate for care-experienced people, speaking often on inclusion and diversity within the profession. She is passionate about bringing trauma-informed law to England and Wales, having passed the Scottish accreditation course in 2023. She most recently spoke on BBC4 Women's Hour on CEP in higher education and was recently selected by Universities UK as one of the 100 faces of their #100faces campaign.
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For more information on Lucy, visit her website: lucykatebarnes.co.uk
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Kate Aubrey-Johnson
(Co-Founder)
Leading Barrister at Garden Court Chambers | Mediator | Child Rights Specialist
Kate Aubrey-Johnson is a leading barrister and mediator at Garden Court Chambers. She is a youth justice and children's rights expert, author and trainer. She regularly advises on issues affecting children in the criminal justice system and has an extensive mediation practice. She works to ensure lawyers have the specialist skills and expertise to represent children. Kate chairs the Youth Justice Quality of Advocacy Working Group (QAWG) and is the Executive Director of Child Rights and Youth Justice CIC. Kate is co-author of the leading textbook Youth Justice Law and Practice (LAG, 2019) and consultant editor for Halsbury’s Laws of England, Vol 27, Criminal Procedure (5th Edition). She is co-author and creator of the 2023#DaretoCare Guide
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For more on Kate, visit her page on Garden Court Chambers' website here.
Gemma Creamer
(Chief Operations Officer)
ICCA Bar Student | Keynote Speaker
Gemma Creamer is a care-experienced Bar Student currently studying with the Inns of Court College of Advocacy (ICCA) to later qualify as a family barrister. After moving up to London from her hometown of Brighton back in 2020, Gemma completed her LLB at The University of Greenwich and was awarded the John Bowater Memorial Award for her outstanding voluntary contributions to Law outside of education, including her commitment to improving the prospects of Children in Care coming into the legal profession.
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For more on Gemma, visit her LinkedIn page.
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The truth is, we all just need someone to care, even if it were just one person. That one person could change your life.
Gemma Creamer, Our CEP Chief Operations Officer
Our CEP-Led Steering Committee
We are led by a group of care-experienced aspiring lawyers, who all have unique gifts and strengths to evolve with LWC. Whilst we keep our CEP committee anonymised, we are proud to be led by the voices of lived experience in furtherance of our mission and goals.
We strongly believe in listening to care-experienced voices and prioritising them.
Our Team
Annie Bell (Communications Co-Lead)
Aspiring Public Children Law Solicitor | Care-Experienced
Annie Jin Lei Bell is a care-experienced aspiring solicitor and SQE Candidate. An international adoptee and former ward of the state, she plans to specialise in public children law. Annie graduated with a BA Economics and BA Psychology from Smith College, studied the GDL at the University of Law and completed the MSc Criminal Justice Policy at The London School of Economics and Political Science. She is an experienced paralegal, having assisted on criminal, public inquiry, and family law matters.
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Annie is an absolute powerhouse at LWC and her contributions (like everyone's on our team) have been phenomenal.
For more information about Annie, please visit her LinkedIn.
Shimron Walters (Communications Co-Lead)
Project Manager | Care-Experienced
Shimron is a care-experienced project manager, bringing a range of professional and project management expertise to help LWC manage the growing interests of our CIC. He joined Lawyers Who Care because he is passionate about helping care-experienced people into law and increasing the representation of care-experienced legal professionals.
He has worked with the Drive Forward Foundation for over 5 years with a focus on addressing the criminalisation of children in care, helping to deliver both the London wide protocol for reducing criminalisation of looked after children and care leavers, and the 2023 #DaretoCare guidance for barristers and legal professionals, written by our Kate Aubrey-Johnson (Co-Founder).
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We are so lucky to have Shimron's mind at LWC and very proud of him.
For more on Shimron, visit his LinkedIn.
Our Community Outreach and Events Team
Chloe Pomfret (Community Outreach Lead)
Human Sciences Student | Care-Experienced
Chloe is a Human Sciences student at the University of Oxford. She spent much of my childhood in foster care and she's now one of a small handful of care-experienced and estranged students at Oxford university, campaigning for greater awareness and support whilst here. She's incredibly excited to support LWC as the Community Outreach Lead, building our connections, and supporting our mentees and mentors. From her university experience so far, she's noticed the lack of representation and support for care-experienced people and is now providing this during her time with LWC!
Fun fact: A fun fact about Chloe is she loves calligraphy and used to have a social media account to share her work.
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For more information about Chloe, please visit her LinkedIn.
Louisa Foyle
LLB Undergraduate | Care-Experienced | @LOUNUH
Louisa is our absolute outreach powerhouse. Working for the Care Leaver Council in London, Louisa has many years' experience both in law and in working with care-experineced young people. We are very proud to have Louisa on our team at LWC. You will see her leading events, chairing our webinars and working alongside us to provide the most value to our mentees.
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Fun fact: Louisa is also an incredibly talented musician as her stage name LOUNUH. Check out her music: https://www.youtube.com/@LoulouDeRose
More information about Louisa can be found on her LinkedIn page.
Leah Jayne
Psychology Masters Graduate | Care-Experienced | @leahjaynedesigns
Leah is 24 and care-experiened. She entered the system at 13 years old. She graduated with a master's degree in psychology and is now training to become a teacher. She's passionate about social mobility, connecting young people with opportunities they once thought out of reach and elevating the voices of our care-experienced community.
Fun fact: Leah has started a business which is focused on art, website design, branding, social media management and content creation, please do give it a cheeky follow! @leahjaynedesigns
Lisa-Maria Elliot
Global Law Student Queen Mary University | Care-Experienced
Lisa-Maria is studying Global Law at Queen Mary University. She lives in New Zealand but comes from Brighton. She loves learning languages and travelling. She speaks German, English, French, Spanish and Italian along with some basic Japanese. In her free time, she loves ice-skating. She is a care-leaver and loves to help make positive changes and therefore LWC is the perfect fit for her!
Fun fact: She is obsessed with tiramisu ice cream!!
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More on Lisa-Maria can be found on her LinkedIn page.
Maleekah Burden- Kaizra
LLB (Hons) Graduate | Aspiring Barrister | BPC LLM Student | Care-experienced
Maleekah is an LLB (Hons) Law graduate and aspiring barrister, dedicated to advancing representation within the legal profession and advocating for neurodiversity and social mobility. As she embarks on her Bar course and LLM, she actively contributes to Lawyers Who Care, driven by a belief that diversity, mentorship, and representation are essential to meaningful change.
She serves as a director of Child Rights and Youth Justice CIC and has collaborated with the Drive Forward Foundation for over five years through their policy forum, focusing on decriminalising care-experienced youth and addressing the barriers they face.
A respected public speaker and trainer, Maleekah has delivered professional training to organisations such as the Judicial College and played a pivotal role in launching the Dare to Care manual in partnership with our Kate Aubrey-Johnson.
For more on Maleekah’s journey, visit her LinkedIn.
We always bring a little spark in some way, and that’s just waiting to be found.
Lucy Barnes, Our Co-Founder and CEO, discussing care-experienced people on BBC4 Women's Hour