About Lawyers Who Care
Our Founders
Lucy Barnes
(Co-Founder & Co-Director)
Future Pupil Barrister | TEDx Speaker | Keynote Speaker
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, particularly in relation to being a part of a more diverse and inclusive profession. She is passionate about bringing trauma-informed law to England and Wales, having passed a Scottish accreditation course in 2023. She most recently spoke on BBC4 Women's Hour on CEP in higher education.
For more information on Lucy, visit her website: lucykatebarnes.co.uk
Kate Aubrey-Johnson
(Co-Founder)
Leading Barrister
Kate Aubrey-Johnson is a leading barrister and youth justice and children’s rights at Garden Court Chambers. She qualified in 2001 and represented many children and adults in criminal and prison law cases. She is Director of the Youth Justice Legal Centre and delivers training programmes for Just for Kids Law and the Prison Reform Trust and has given evidence before the Joint Committee on Human Rights. She is also an author - and creator of the 2023 #DaretoCare Guide
For more on Kate, visit her page on Garden Court Chambers' website: https://www.gardencourtchambers.co.uk/barristers/kate-aubrey-johnson
It’s important to empower young people and make them believe in themselves because there is a skill-set and unique strength in every single care-experienced person that’s waiting to be found. So why couldn’t it be found by lawyers? Why couldn’t it be us that supports them, makes them feel safe and makes them feel seen.
Lucy Barnes, Our CEP Co-Founder
Our Story
Our Care-experienced Co-Founder's Story
LWC was born out of a desire for Lucy to ensure others like her didn't face the same barriers she did. When she connected with Kate, who was already a strong advocate for children, LWC was born.
Lucy's Barriers to Accessing the Legal Profession:
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Lack of mentoring: Lucy did not have a supportive mentor to guide her, so found applications in law challenging. She did not benefit from any of the currently available schemes, as none currently exist for care-experienced people in law;
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Lack of a legal network: Lucy did not know a single lawyer before university and had to build her connections from scratch which was challenging;
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Lack of support network: Lucy is estranged which meant that Lucy did not have the same encouragement from her family as he peers, which left her feeling isolated;
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Stigma: Lucy had felt pitied by her peers during mini-pupillages, which impacted her self-esteem as they were not CEP-trained;
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Financial: Lucy could not rely on family or local authority support so she had to self-fund her mini-pupillages and work experience because only 1/7 paid for her time and expenses. As a result, Lucy had to work overtime at her two part-time jobs which impacted her studies;
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Cultural: Lucy had no training in the legal etiquette, language, or unwritten codes of the profession, so felt quite alien to it, knowing no other CEP legal professional.
Our Directors
Gemma Creamer
(Chief Operations Officer)
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.
For more on Gemma, visit her LinkedIn page.
Lucy Barnes
(Co-Founder & Director)
Future Pupil Barrister | TEDx Speaker | Keynote Speaker
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, particularly in relation to being a part of a more diverse and inclusive profession. She is passionate about bringing trauma-informed law to England and Wales, having passed a Scottish accreditation course in 2023. She most recently spoke on BBC4 Women's Hour on CEP in higher education.
For more information on Lucy, visit her website: lucykatebarnes.co.uk
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.
What we do
LWC is committed to breaking down barriers for care-experienced aspiring lawyers
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Facilitating both long-term (2+ year commitment, 1 hour a month) mentoring for care-experienced aspiring lawyers (18+) by leading barristers and solicitors and short-term 'drop in' mentoring for applications and interview advice with our wider LWC network of lawyers;
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Facilitating training for long-term mentors in care-experience and trauma, in turn helping care-experienced aspiring lawyers feel seen;
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Providing a service to virtual schools and colleges to bring the law back down to earth by facilitating workshops for care-experienced young people (ran by care-experienced lawyers/aspiring lawyers) in legal rights, legal pathways and roleplay moot courts/mock trials;
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Creating resources for care-experienced aspiring lawyers e.g. our 'Inclusion Inventory' which details paid work experience opportunities;
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Creating networks with law firms and chambers to provide more paid work experience opportunties;
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Providing a sense of community and belonging for care-experienced young people to feel seen in the profession for who they are;
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Erasing stigma and empowering care-experienced aspiring lawyers to believe in themselves in legal professions.