People

Rachel Knowles

Director / Associate Professor (Teaching)
r.knowles@ucl.ac.uk

Rachel is the Director of the Centre and an Associate Professor (Teaching). She has oversight of all of the Centre's activities, runs the UCL Integrated Legal Advice Clinic (UCL iLAC) and is responsible for its regulatory compliance. She teaches on our LLB and LLM access to justice courses and convenes our social welfare law module.

Rachel has practised as a solicitor since 2009 and runs her own caseload of Community care and Education cases at the Clinic. She specialises in representing children and vulnerable young children directly to access the support they need from statutory services and has a particular interest in how young people access justice. She was shortlisted as Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year finalist in the category of Children’s Rights in 2015.

Through her work in legal aid and at CAJ, Rachel has developed an interest in trauma informed practice and trauma informed clinical legal education.

Rachel also sits as a Judge in the First Tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability)

Sonia Kalsi

Deputy Director (Teaching & Learning) / Associate Professor (Teaching)
s.kalsi@ucl.ac.uk 

Sonia Kalsi was called to the Bar in 1997 and, having practised for a number of years in criminal law, is now a door tenant at Chambers.

Sonia joined UCL in 2018 and in 2020 was appointed as a full-time Lecturer (Teacher) in the Law faculty. In addition to her role with CAJ, she supports the Director of UG Programmes in Laws in a Deputy Director role.

Sonia convenes the third-year LLB module Access to Justice & Community Engagement, the access to justice placement programme for HKU-UCL students on the dual degree, and co-convenes a case study on homelessness as part of the innovative student induction programme ‘Laws Connections’. She also teaches on the LLM module Access to Justice: Theory & Practice as well as criminal law tutorials on the LLB.

Sonia has extensive teaching experience having previously taught on both academic and vocational programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level. She has a keen interest in clinical legal education and access to justice issues. She has run a programme on legal aid for students studying the Legal Practice Course (LPC) and was on the board of trustees for Legal Action Group, the access to justice charity, for a number of years.

Shiva Riahi

Deputy Director (Projects) 
s.riahi@ucl.ac.uk

Shiva is one of the Centre's Deputy Director (Projects). She oversees the Faculty's pro bono programme, developing new projects, monitoring outcomes and providing pastoral support for students. Shiva is also responsible for the day to day management of the CAJ, overseeing the Centre's finances, communications, development, and other operational matters across the Centre's activities.  

As a graduate of the UCL Faculty of Laws, Shiva was part of the Access to Justice and Community Engagement course pilot year where she undertook casework with Just for Kids Law. She also holds a BA in Philosophy and International Relations from Tufts University as well as a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from the UCL Department of Political Science. Shiva has also recently returned from undertaking a secondment at the Ministry of Justice as a policy advisor in the Legal Support and Fees Team. 

Professor Dame Hazel Genn KC

Academic Adviser

Dame Hazel Genn is the Centre's Academic Adviser and a Professor of Socio-Legal Studies in the Faculty of Laws at UCL.  She is internationally recognised as a leading authority on access to administrative and civil justice. Her prize winning scholarship focuses on the experiences of ordinary people caught up in legal problems and the responsiveness of the justice system to the needs of citizens.  She has conducted numerous empirical studies on public access to the justice system and has published widely in her specialist fields.  She is author of Paths to Justice: What People Do and Think About Going to Law (1999) a seminal study of public access to justice which has since been replicated in 27 jurisdictions around the globe.

She was the Dean of the UCL Faculty of Laws from 2000-2017. She previously held a Chair and was Head of the Department of Law at Queen Mary, University of London. Before joining London University, she held full-time research posts at Oxford University Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (1974-1985) and the Cambridge Institute of Criminology (1972-74). In January 2006, she was appointed an Inaugural Commissioner of the new Judicial Appointments Commission established under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 and was a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life 2003-7. In April 2009 she was appointed to the Secretary of State's Advisory Panel on Judicial Diversity. She has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 2000, a member of its Council 2001-2004 and was Chair of Communications and Publications Committee (2008-2011). In 2005, she was awarded the US Law and Society International Prize for distinguished scholarship and she holds Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of  Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Hull, Leicester, Keele, Kingston and York . She worked with the Judicial Studies Board for 12 years, serving as a member of the Main Board and the Tribunals Committee, and contributing to the design and delivery of training for the judiciary at all levels. She served for eight years as Deputy Chair and then Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council's Research Grants Board. In recognition of her work on civil justice, she was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in 2000 and appointed DBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in 2006. In 2006 she was also appointed Queen's Counsel Honoris Causa. In 2008 she was elected Honorary Master of the Bench of Gray's Inn.  

Jennifer Akinola

Clinic Manager
jennifer.akinola@ucl.ac.uk

Jennifer is the Centre’s Clinic Manager. She manages the day-to-day running of the UCL Integrated Legal Advice Clinic in Stratford. Jennifer leads the extra-curricular volunteering programme at the clinic.

Jennifer holds a LLB from the University of Warwick and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). 

Ian Browne

Lecturer (Teaching)
i.browne@ucl.ac.uk

Ian joined UCL Faculty of Laws as a Lecturer (Teaching) in 2024.

Ian teaches on the new third-year Social Welfare Law module, the Public Law module and the Employment Law on the LLB. Alongside his teaching on the curriculum, Ian supports students in developing their skills and knowledge in preparation for working at iLAC, undertaking external pro bono opportunities and for future careers doing public interest legal work.

Prior to joining UCL, Ian practiced as a barrister and worked at a number of non-profit campaigning, strategic litigation and legal support organisations. He has particular specialisms in equality, human rights and social welfare law and a commitment to widening access to justice.

Sarah Joy

Welfare Benefits Advisor
sarah.joy@ucl.ac.uk 

Sarah is a Welfare Benefits Adviser in the Centre’s legal advice clinic supporting people with disability benefit claims, reviews and appeals.

She has many years of experience working in welfare rights advice and social research roles in the UK Voluntary Sector including working with refugees and asylum seekers at the British Red Cross. Sarah also works for a local Citizens Advice, in their health outreach service, where she has worked in different GP surgeries and is currently based in a hospital working with Macmillan Cancer patients. She is a firm believer and advocate for the integration of legal advice in local health settings.

Thul Khan

Housing Solicitor
thul.khan@ucl.ac.uk

Thul is based in the Centre’s legal advice clinic, UCL iLAC, in Stratford, London.  As well as managing a busy client caseload Thul supervises students at the Clinic and supports the homelessness case study for Laws Connections.  

Thul graduated from the University of Essex and qualified as a practising solicitor.  Thul has worked for the Citizen’s Advice Bureaux, Shelter and in private practice.  

Thul’s roles included representing tenants at the solicitor duty desk scheme at the Clerkenwell & Shoreditch County Court and volunteering at a local law centre.  Thul’s previous experience includes taking instructions on all types of homelessness and possession cases, including those involving warrants for possession, to trial. Thul has also specialised in housing disrepair and unlawful eviction and he has been successful in obtaining significant damages for clients in such circumstances. Thul additionally has experience in obtaining and challenging community care assessments and in cases involving the provision of services for young people under the Children Act 1989.

Thul has appeared in Legal 500 and described as a “cool customer in a crisis.”

Outside of work Thul enjoys live comedy and theatre.  Thul is a season ticket holder at West Ham United.

Lara Rawson

Paralegal 

l.rawson@ucl.ac.uk

Annika Melwani

Projects Coordinator
annika.melwani@ucl.ac.uk 

Annika is the Projects Coordinator at the Centre. She is the first point of contact for students who wish to be part of pro bono activities through the Centre. Annika assists in the management of the Faculty's pro bono programme by developing new partnerships, advertising projects, recruiting student volunteers, and supervising and monitoring volunteers. 

Ed Veale

Consultant Solicitor
e.veale@ucl.ac.uk 

Ed is a consultant solicitor for the Centre, particularly focussing on the relationship between poor housing and poor health. He is engaged in researching and supporting , in the past having been a legal advisor to the Pathway Homelessness Healthcare project at University College London Hospital. Ed has previously worked as a solicitor at Hodge Jones & Allen, and in-house for an housing association, as well as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Law, and most of his time is spent as an ordained Anglican church minister. health justice partnership activities