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

  • Caterina Tempesta

    Senior counsel at Ontario’s Office of the Children’s Lawyer

  • Lidia Rabinovich

    Head of the Child Representation Unit at the Legal Aid Department, Israeli Ministry of Justice

  • Avril Calder

    Former magistrate and Chair of the British Juvenile and Family Courts Society

  • Lesslie Heimov

    Executive Director at Children’s Law Centre of California

  • Benoit Van Keirsbilck

    Elected member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

  • Bob Schwartz

    Founder of Juvenile Law Center USA and Committee Member of National Association of Council for Children

  • Prudence Beidler Carr

    Prudence Beidler Carr

    American Bar Association

  • Karabo Ozah

    Senior attorney and the Director of the Centre for Child Law, South Africa

Read Expert Advisory Board bios