Who we are
The Child Law Network is a network of 9 leading child legal NGOs. Representatives on the network are senior leaders from these organisations
Members
The Child Law Network is a network of 9 leading child legal NGOs. Representatives on the network are senior leaders from these organisations.
Children’s Law Centre
The Children's Law Centre works to protect the rights of all children living in Northern Ireland particularly those who are the most disadvantaged.
We use the law to access critical services for children and young people and to challenge the discrimination and disadvantage.
We provide a free legal advice service and legal representation for children and young people.
We work to create a society where all children can access all necessary services and opportunities they need to enjoy their childhood and realise their full potential.
We are committed to giving a voice to the most disadvantaged and voiceless children.
Children’s Legal
Centre Wales
The Children’s Legal Centre Wales is a Wales-wide, bilingual service providing information and access to legal advice for children and young people.
Provide legal advice and information services to children and young people;
Provide training and education on the law as it affects children and young people;
Carry out research, data analysis and evaluative studies to change and improve law, policy and practice in relation to children and young people.
We are based at Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law at Swansea University, alongside the Swansea Law Clinic .
Coram Children's
Legal Centre
Coram Children’s Legal Centre (CCLC) specialises in law and policy affecting children and young people.
CCLC provides free legal information, advice and representation to children, young people, their families, carers and professionals including:
The Child Law Advice Service which provides legal advice and information on family, child and education law.
The Migrant Children’s Project advice line which offers free and confidential advice and our website offers comprehensive guidance on issues affecting young refugees and migrants
Coram International, a research institution and consultancy specialising in issues relating to children’s rights around the world.
Just for Kids Law
Just for Kids Law (JfKL) is a UK charity that works with and for children and young people to hold those with power to account and fight for wider reform by providing legal representation and advice, direct advocacy and support, and campaigning to ensure children and young people in the UK have their legal rights and entitlements respected and promoted and their voices heard and valued.
JfKL has gained a reputation for taking the evidence from their direct work with individual children and young people to fight for wider reform through strategic litigation and empowering children and young people to campaign. We lead on monitoring compliance with human rights across the voluntary sector by hosting the Children’s Rights Alliance for England.
Youth Justice Legal Centre
The Youth Justice Legal Centre (YJLC) is a centre of excellence on youth justice law in England and Wales.
They provide comprehensive and up-to-date legal knowledge and expertise on children’s rights in the criminal justice system including:
A resource hub including: best practice legal guides, expert talks and updates on relevant case law, legislation and developments.
Specialist youth justice training and events for lawyers, Youth Justice Services and other professionals working with children in the criminal justice system;
Legal advice for professionals as well as children and their families.
Work at the forefront of youth justice policy issues.
Migrant and Refugee Children’s Legal Unit
MiCLU works closely with Islington Law Centre’s team of lawyers leading and developing specialist legal services aimed at upholding and improving the rights of young people.
Their work is led by the views and experiences of their young clients .Together they are committed to educating young people about their rights and supporting the work of carers and professionals dedicated to helping young people live safe and protected lives in the UK. Their work includes:
Legal advice and representation
Strategic litigation
Legal education and training
Policy research and consultation
The Howard League for Penal Reform
The Howard League for Penal Reform is a charity working for less crime, safer communities and fewer people in prison.
Through legal work, research and campaigning, and with the support of its members, the Howard League discovers and promotes solutions that deliver better justice and prevent people becoming victims of crime.
For two decades, the charity's legal team has helped to transform law, policy and practice for children and young adults in the criminal justice system.
Clan Childlaw Scotland
Clan Childlaw is Scotland's law centre for children and young people.
All their lawyers regularly represent children and young people in court, at Children’s Hearings, and in important meetings and make sure their voices are heard.
They offer training, resources, and a free helpline to make the law easier to navigate for people who support children and young people.
They work with children and young people, so they can see when the law is not working properly to protect children's rights. They ask decision makers to change the law to make sure that children and young people's rights are a reality in Scotland.
Impact – Law for Social Justice
Impact are a team of litigators, researchers, journalists and campaigners.
They offer practical, tailored, advice to organisations on how to use the law, in combination with other key tools, to achieve social justice. Impact combines their legal, campaigning and research skills with clients’ sector expertise, working together they devise a bespoke and achievable strategic plan to take a campaign forward. Impact also offers coaching, mentoring, and leadership development to individuals and organisations who want to understand how to use the law for social change.
Family Rights Group
Family Rights Group’s mission is to create a more socially just society in which the child welfare and family justice systems support children to live safely and thrive within their family, while strengthening the family and community networks of those children who cannot live at home. They do this through:
A free specialist legal and child welfare practice advice service for parents and kinship carers;
By supporting local authorities through the provision of resources, training and consultancy;
By finding innovative family-led ways to improve child welfare;
Promoting families’ voices;
Research and lobbying for legislative and policy changes.
Staff team
Shauneen Lambe
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.
Ruth McGregor Hamann
Legal Project Manager
Ruth is a 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, where she now works. She currently runs the Youth Justice Legal Centre’s advice line, providing legal advice and guidance regarding children’s rights in the criminal justice system. The Youth Justice Legal Centre is a branch of 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.
Katya Moran
Katya is a specialist youth justice lawyer with 14 years’ experience representing children in criminal proceedings. Having spent many years working for legal aid firms as a duty solicitor, she maintains a busy independent practice representing children in the police station and in the youth court.
Having worked with Just for Kids Law when they were first getting started in 2005, she was thrilled to return in 2017 and to become co-head of the Youth Justice Legal Centre in 2019.
Katya oversees the development of YJLC’s interactive legal training programme, writes best practice legal guides on youth justice issues, and regularly delivers lectures and training on youth justice.
Alison Reid
Alison was enrolled as a solicitor in 1996. She worked in civil litigation in private practice for four years before being employed as a Reporter to the Children's Hearings. Having recognised the need for a specialist, outreach, legal representation service for children and young people in Scotland, Alison co-founded Clan Childlaw in 2008 and continues to be employed as its Chief Executive and Principal Solicitor. Alison is a member of the Scottish Civil Justice Council Family Law Committee.
She is a court reporter and curator ad litem in relation to contact and residence disputes in the sheriff court and a curator ad litem and reporting officer in relation to adoption and permanence proceedings. Until recently she was also a safeguarder in the children's hearings system, a member of the Law Society of Scotland's Access to Justice Committee and a member of the City of Edinburgh Council's Child Protection Committee. In 2021, Alison became a Law Society of Scotland Certified Specialist in Trauma Informed Practice.
Sarah Campbell
Sarah is a Trainee Solicitor and Justice First Fellow at Clan Childlaw, Scotland. The Justice First Fellowship was established by The Legal Education Foundation to support the next generation of social welfare lawyers in the UK. As part of her fellowship Sarah is assisting in the creation of the materials for the Lawyers for Children Specialism.
Sarah developed her interest in child law throughout her studies and through her role in the Civil Department at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. She also has experience working with children at a summer camp in America and a language school in Glasgow.
Amelia Gibson
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.
Clementine Mendelson
Clementine is a researcher and youth advisor at Impact. She has worked with Shauneen on different projects, focusing on child rights and improving the ways in which young people and the law interact.
Global Expert Advisory Board
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Caterina Tempesta
Senior counsel at Ontario’s Office of the Children’s Lawyer
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Lidia Rabinovich
Head of the Child Representation Unit at the Legal Aid Department, Israeli Ministry of Justice
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Avril Calder
Former magistrate and Chair of the British Juvenile and Family Courts Society
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Lesslie Heimov
Executive Director at Children’s Law Centre of California
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Benoit Van Keirsbilck
Elected member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
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Bob Schwartz
Founder of Juvenile Law Center USA and Committee Member of National Association of Council for Children
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Prudence Beidler Carr
American Bar Association
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Karabo Ozah
Senior attorney and the Director of the Centre for Child Law, South Africa