James Aiken

Experience

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  Irwin Mitchell

  Sept 2017 - Sept 2019

  Training contract

  I completed my period of recognised legal training at a large national firm, qualifying as a solicitor in 2019. Throughout this training I practised, trained, and was assessed on all of the key skills recognised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (Advocacy, Dispute Resolution, Case management, Communication Skills, Client Care, Drafting, Interviewing and Advising, Legal Research, Negotiation). My practice was predominantly in civil litigation, assisting with wins in multiple high value cases, and running several cases under my own name by the end of my contract. During this time, I set up a Pro Bono Committee in one office, and set up our first pro bono project. I was also an active member of the Charity Committee in a second office, helping to set up multiple projects and events. Show less

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  A4ID - Advocates for International Development

  Oct 2019 - Jan 2020

  Pro bono brokerage team

  I worked as an intermediary between elite London law firms and international NGOs (INGOs) to assist them in setting up invaluable pro bono projects to advance the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across the globe. This included analysing practical problems submitted by INGOs, assessing the legal issues in various global jurisdictions, converting the practical language into a technical format, delivering it to law firms with the required specialities and putting together funding contracts. Once the project was completed, I collected feedback information to properly monitor and evaluate each project, and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the overall process. I also drafted and published an article on the legal concept of being an Amicus Curiae, as assisting INGOs with these interventions is, I feel, a particularly impactful form of assistance which they can provide. Show less

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  Enjoy Education

  Nov 2019 - Jul 2020

  Private Tutor

  I tutored sixth formers in London on law. This involved creating a project plan for the entire process, marking KPI targets and milestones, creating individual lesson plans based on these milestones and a review of the student’s progress so far, and conducting my own deep research to ensure I could properly facilitate in-depth discussions with the student.

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  JUSTICE

  Jan 2020 - Apr 2020

  Legal Policy Intern

  Worked with a close-knit team on a number of Law Reform projects, including:- law reform policy reports: I facilitated meetings with key stakeholders (including experienced legal professionals, senior civil servants, distinguished academics and victim advocates), consolidated minutes into concise notes giving an overview of the ongoing argument and action points, conducted research into the topics, drafted parts of the final reports and proofread the writing of others in the team.- parliamentary bill briefings: I kept abreast of key debates in Parliament, conducted deep research into elements which were relevant to our expertise, drafted briefings explaining both the facts and the implications and submitted these briefings to Parliamentarians for debates in the Houses. - prison education project: I assisted a team of people who were coming to the end of long terms in prison with their research tasks as part of their academic qualifications in law; as part of this I facilitated study meetings, offered advice and guidance during discussions, and conducted internet research into the topics (when they were unable to) to submit to the group. Show less

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  Black Protest Legal Support

  Jul 2020 - Nov 2021

  Moving into a new area of law (public law and human rights) I conducted deep legal research and then drafted accessible and practical legal advice articles for members of the public. I also worked as part of the litigation team to assist in strategic litigation, including building and maintaining contact with claimants, witnesses and counsel. I also maintained the group's social media presence across Twitter and Instagram, coordinated case referrals from members of the public who reached out to us for legal representation (sometimes offered pro bono) and built, maintained and populated the group's website. Show less

  • Member Board of Directors

    Oct 2020 - Nov 2021

  • Litigation and Comms Officer

    Oct 2020 - Feb 2021

  • Paralegal

    Jul 2020 - Oct 2020
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  Liberty (National Council for Civil Liberties)

  Feb 2021 - Jun 2023

  Advice & Information Officer

  I worked as part of a small and close-knit team to provide accessible and practical legal information to members of the public on their human rights through a number of projects. These regularly involved work with other teams and departments to coordinate our efforts towards shared goals. - I have personally created, pitched, set up, piloted and managed a project providing tailored legal training to grassroots organisations in order to provide measurable beneficial impact to their work and/or practical benefits to the lives of their members. - I populated our Advice and Information Hub webpages. This includes maintaining an ongoing content plan, reacting to relevant issues which emerge in the public eye, conducting deep and comprehensive legal research, drafting concise and accessible content, building a review system to ensure our work remains relevant and monitoring the success of different pages to ensure that we are offering impactful content. - I manage external volunteers providing written legal information and practical advice to members of the public. This includes supervising the volunteers’ work, offering constructive feedback to build their research and drafting skills, and conducting my own research to ensure that I am certain of the accuracy of the advice being given. - I manage the legal advice line offering legal information and advice to members of the public. This includes supervising legally trained call handlers, discussing legal issues which are raised in calls, providing accurate legal information immediately, and suggesting accessible ways to communicate this information. - I am also involved with the recruitment and training process for both groups of volunteers. For the advice line volunteers, this generally involves liaising with elite London law firms who provide a roster of volunteer lawyers whom we train and then coordinate shifts with. For the written query volunteers this is a complete recruitment drive. Show less

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  A4ID - Advocates for International Development

  Jun 2023 - now

  I work in a tight-knit team to broker pro bono legal projects between International Development NGOs and corporate law firms.- Stakeholder management and networking between extensive networks of both NGOs and law firms across multiple jurisdictions through email, video calls and in-person meetings;- Meticulous project management to source, scope, allocate and follow up on multiple projects a week;- Data management and analysis to gather and record relevant data about projects, partners and other updates to assist with monitoring, evaluation and strategic planning;- Task management to prioritise my own extensive task list, supervise the work of our internal interns, keep up with the work of our projects and properly delegate and take responsibility for work within our team as necessary;- Systems management of our internal systems, including reviewing, updating and improving our case management system, record keeping and due diligence, and recruiting interns across the organisation, to ensure that we were operating at maximum efficiency without sacrificing quality;- Strategic decision making in relation to our team management, to ensure that our internal resources are used properly to sustain our existing projects and expand our programmes into new jurisdictions and areas of work;- Factual research into organisations and law firms to identify matching expertise and motivations, as well as assessing their viability as partners;- Approaching new NGOs and law firms to pitch our services, present to audiences about our work and onboard them as partners;- Legal research into areas of law and practical case work relevant to larger special projects, to allow me to appropriately scope these projects, place them and take on an ongoing coordinator role Show less

  • Pro Bono Legal Services Lead

    Nov 2024 - now

  • Pro Bono Legal Officer

    Jun 2023 - Nov 2024