UCL Laws welcomes new academic staff joining in the 2021-22 academic year

Lecturers in Law

UCL Laws is pleased to welcome eight new Lecturers in Law, who joined at the beginning of the 2021-22 academic year: 

• Dr Isra Black works at the intersection of health law and philosophy. His current substantive interests include end of life decisions and the medical treatment of adolescents.
• Dr Jonathan Chan’s research is in corporate law and corporate governance, with a focus on the regulation of public equity markets.
• Benjamin Douglas works on equity legal history, modern equitable doctrines in real property law, and analytical jurisprudence in equity.
• Dr Emily Gordon’s research interests are in modern private law (mainly tort), and legal history.
• Narine Lalafaryan’s research lies at the intersection of law and finance. Her research interests cover corporate finance, international finance, and law and economics of corporate transactions. She applies multiple legal research methods, with a particular emphasis on economic analysis of law, as well as doctrinal and functional-comparative methods.
• Dr Allison Lindner is a sociolegal scholar interested in the relationship between sustainable development and the informal economy in the domains of waste management, fashion and textiles, and extractives.
• Andrew McLean's research centres on the relationship between competition policy and finance. Trained initially as an economist, Andrew draws on legal institutionalism and law and political economy methodologies. In the current academic year, he is teaching courses in competition law, law and economics, and comparative corporate governance.
• Dr Karen Nokes is an interdisciplinary scholar, who spent her early career in legal practice before working in legal regulation, where she held a number of senior roles. Her research interests include individual and collective action and behaviour within the English legal system, along with a particular interest in the psychological processes of judgment and decision making within organisations and institutions.

Two additional appointments to Lectureships in Law have been made: 

• Dr Haim Abraham will join the Faculty on 1 January 2022 as a Lecturer, and will teach in the Faculty as a Guest Lecturer in Term 1. Dr Abraham’s research focuses on tort law and private law theory, in particular that of public bodies and officials, the intersection between private and public law, and gender and sexuality law.
• Dr Berihun Gebeye will join the Faculty on 1 April 2022. Dr Gebeye teaches and researches comparative constitutional law, human rights, and international law and development with a focus on Africa using interdisciplinary approaches and materials.

Lecturer (Teaching) appointments 

Four new 12-month Lecturer (Teaching) colleagues have joined UCL Laws to support our first year teaching:

• Dr Mohsen al Attar will teach Contract Law.
• Caroline Collins will teach Criminal Law.
• Pawel Guzik will teach Property I.
• Dr Olga Pleshkova will teach Criminal and Public Law.

Research appointments 

UCL Laws has also welcomed a number of research colleagues over the past few months. They will be contributing to various research projects led by, or involving, members of the Faculty:

• Sophia Ayada is a Research Fellow for the AHRC-funded project Gender Equalities at Work: An Interdisciplinary History of 50 years of Legislation, with Professor Colm O'Cinneide as Co-Investigator.
• Céline Chausse is the first PhD candidate for the ERC State Silence project, and her research focuses on non-appearance before international courts and tribunals.
• Dr Andrew Jones is a Research Fellow for the Lex-Atlas: Covid-19 project, with Professor Jeff King (UCL Laws) and Dr Octavio Ferraz (King’s College London) as Principle Investigators and in collaboration with several Faculty members.
• Dr Feja Lesniewska joins UCL Laws and The Bartlett as a Research Fellow working on a cross-Faculty project under the UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre for Mineral-based Construction Materials, with Professor Eloise Scotford (UCL Laws) and Dr Teresa Domenech (The Bartlett) as Co-Investigators.
• Paula Nuno Balmaceda is a Research Assistant for the ERC State Silence project, led by Dr Danae Azaria as the Principal Investigator.
• Dr Petros Terzis is a Research Fellow (Regulating Sensing Infrastructures) for the Real Time Epidemiology Project, supported by Fondation Botnar, with Dr Michael Veale as Co-Investigator.
• Roel Walravens is a Research Assistant for the ERC State Silence project, led by Dr Danae Azaria as the Principal Investigator.

Professor Steven Vaughan, Vice-Dean (Staffing) at UCL Laws, commented:

“Whenever I talk to those who are interested in applying to join UCL Laws, I say that we want to appoint people who are both excellent and kind. Our new hires over the last few months are both in equal measure and we are so pleased they are part of our community.”

We look forward to seeing the contributions our colleagues will make to our teaching, research activity, public engagement and wider Faculty life. Please join us in wishing all new members of UCL Laws a very warm welcome.