OUR TRUSTEES & STANDING VOLUNTEER TEAM
Meet the Team
A-Law is governed by a Board of Trustees who oversee the charity's work and compliance with charity and company regulations. The charity is assisted by a standing volunteer team, who fulfill executive functions involved in the running of the charity and by other volunteers who contribute to A-Law's project, policy and research work.
SENIOR POLICY TEAM
CHAIRPERSON & TRUSTEE
Paula Sparks
Paula is Chairperson of the UK Centre for Animal Law (A-Law). She was previous in practice as a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers. Paula has an interest in animal law and regularly lectures and writes on topics around animal law and policy; she is currently a visiting lecturer at the University of Winchester where she teaches animal law and policy. She also has experience in the voluntary sector, where she worked prior to starting independent practice as a barrister.
LEGAL AND POLICY DIRECTOR & TRUSTEE
Alan Bates
Alan is A-Law’s Legal & Policy Director. He is a barrister who specialises in competition, procurement, public/administrative and EU law. From 2000–2001 he worked at the Law Commission, auditing the compatibility of legislation with the ECHR. He advises campaign organisations on Parliamentary procedure and the legal aspects of their lobbying strategies.
SENIOR POLICY ADVISOR
Judith-Anne MacKenzie
Judith-Anne is now retired after a career: (1) as an academic lawyer; (2) in the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (who draft primary legislation and advise the government on parliamentary procedure); and (3) in the Government Legal Service, in a range of government departments (Energy, Trade and Industry, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Transport). She is a specialist in public and administrative law, and in land law. Judith-Anne is also special adviser to the Save Me Trust on Whitehall matters.
SENIOR POLICY ADVISOR
Frances Allen
Frances Allen is a barrister who specialises in public law. She has a long-standing interest in animal rights and studied Zoology at University. On gaining tenancy in 1997, Frances co-founded ALAW - UK Centre for Animal Law with Jeremy Chipperfield. She is currently on ALAW’s Senior Policy Team.
STUDENT TEAM
UNIVERSITY LIAISON & TRUSTEE
Mike Radford, OBE LLB
Mike is a Reader in Law at the University of Aberdeen. He leads A-law's work with universities and academics and has taught and lectured on animal law widely, in addition to working extensively on the development of animal welfare law and policy with politicians, officials, veterinarians, NGOs, and other interested parties. Mike is presently a trustee of Dogs Trust, the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare, and OneKind; a member of the All Party Group on Animal Welfare; and a visiting lecturer at both Edinburgh and Glasgow Vet Schools. He was a founder member of both A-law and the Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law Veterinary Association. Mike was appointed OBE in 2008 for services to animal welfare law.
LEGAL SUPPORT OFFICER
Tiffany Mitchell
Tiffany is employed as Legal Support Officer to provide student support and academic outreach, as well as providing legal support for A-law's other project, policy and educative work. Tiffany is from Newfoundland, Canada. She graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland with a BA in Law & Society and German with a certificate in Criminology. She then graduated in 2018 with a LLB from the University of Leicester. Tiffany was a recipient of the Advancement of Animal Law Scholarship awarded by the Animal Legal Defense Fund, a US Animal Law Charity. She also founded and chaired the UK's first SALDF Student Society at Leicester University Law School. Tiffany aspires to use her legal education to create change in the field of animal protection law.
STUDENT CO-ORDINATOR
SAM GROOM
Sam is a law student and a Student Co-ordinator for A-law. After studying Modern and Medieval Languages at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a Senior Scholar, he took the GDL course at City, University of London. There he set up the Cecilia Moot with A-law, the UK’s first animal law mooting competition. He is excited to lead the Cecilia Moot in its second, nationwide incarnation this academic year, and to get more students involved in animal law. He is about to start the BPTC supported by a Major Scholarship from the Inner Temple and a Postgraduate Scholarship from City.
EDITOR OF 'ANIMAL JUSTICE UK'
Natalie Harney
Natalie is Editor of A-law's eMagazine for students, Animal Justice UK. Natalie holds a degree in English from the University of Birmingham and completed the GDL with Distinction in 2018. Natalie has a long-standing interest in animal law, particularly enforcement and the accountability of public authorities and private bodies responsible for farmed animal welfare. She works full-time for an animal welfare charity and is also Co-chair of A-law's Farming Special Interest Group.
Moot co-ordinator
Ankita Shanker
Ankita earned her post-graduate degree in law from Oxford University in July 2016, and was called to the Bar of England and Wales in November 2017. After c. 1.5 years of legal practice at international criminal courts/tribunals, she is now working towards her doctorate in animal rights law and policy (with research fellowships funded by the Finnish National Agency for Education and the Swiss National Science Foundation), in addition to her roles as moot court coach at the University of Lucerne, research assistant at the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law, and moot court training expert at the International Commission of Jurists-Danish Institute for Human Rights (where she is developing an international human and animal rights law moot court competition).
Journal team
EDITOR & TRUSTEE
Jill Williams
Jill is a non practising solicitor and editor of A-law’s Journal. She joined A-law as a director in 2009 and has continued to play a significant role in the group’s work. Jill has both a health and legal background. She originally trained as a nurse before qualifying as a solicitor, and is currently working in the field of public health in a non-legal capacity.
communications team
SOCIAL MEDIA OFFICER & TRUSTEE
Abigail Scott
Abigail finished her law degree with the Open University and recently started her training as a barrister. During her studies, Abi was Chair of the Open University Law Society and received the title of UK Environmental Law Association Junior Moot winner, as well as being awarded student prizes in employment law and European Union law. Abigail is marketing manager in her family’s motorcycle dealership, Two Wheel Centre. Abigail is passionate about animal welfare issues and has been a trustee since 2013.
BLOG EDITOR
Randi Milgram
Randi is an American attorney from Philadelphia, currently living and working in London. Her legal practice has focused on intellectual property, specialising in copyright law. Randi also practiced in urban housing law before moving to the UK. Randi is a freelance writer as well as a lawyer, with a background in journalism. She volunteers with A-law on various projects.
Trustees (non-executive functions)
TRUSTEE
Jeremy Chipperfield
Jeremy is Co-founder of ALAW. He is a barrister and Assistant Coroner in West London and in Oxford. Jeremy’s civil liberties experience includes defending the first criminal prosecution of the new offences (re animal research organizations) under s 145/6 Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 and various proceedings relating to the activities of activists around the country; civil actions against the police and defending High Court actions and Committal applications brought by claimants including Monsanto, Huntingdon Life Sciences, John Lewis and Circus King.
TRUSTEE
Simon Cox
Simon is an Associate Tenant of Doughty Street Chambers. He is employed as the Migration Lawyer for the Open Society Justice Initiative, where he develops, implements and manages legal strategies and projects to promote the rights of international migrants worldwide. Before taking up his current post in October 2011, Simon was a tenant of Doughty Street Chambers where he acted for many civil society organisations, including Amnesty International, the AIRE Centre, Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, Refugee Legal Centre, Child Poverty Action Group and BUAV.
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