Hackney Community Law Centre is managed by an independent Board of Directors, which is elected each year at the Annual General Meeting from members of the public, or co-opted as necessary in accordance with our organisation’s Articles of Association.
- The Board of Directors is required to have regard to the independent status of the Law Centre (as are all members of staff).
- The Board of Directors has overall managerial responsibility for the Law Centre, its staff group, the services that are provided and all other legal responsibilities of the organisation. In practice, the staff are responsible for day-to-day management, subject to review and approval by the Board of Directors.
- The Board of Directors usually meets every two months for formal meetings and at other times as necessary.
The Constitution
Hackney Community Law Centre’s constitution is available upon request.
The Board of Directors elected to serve in 2017-2018 are:
Cllr Ian Rathbone – Chair
Ian has been a member of the Law Centre Management Committee (now Board of Directors) for around 18 years, and in his fifth year as chair. He has a background in media relations and public affairs work, and in legal and financial advice.
The other members of the Board of Directors are:
Ian Browne
Ian is a legal adviser at a national human rights organisation and has previous experience working in social welfare law in East London. In 2017, he completed a Winston Church Memorial Trust Fellowship in which he researched pro bono legal projects in the US and UK. He is a committee member of the Young Legal Aid Lawyers and the Human Rights Lawyers Association.
Alice Holt
Alice is a retired solicitor who has lived in Hackney for about 35 years. She worked in several law centres and managed Terence Higgins Trust legal advice service in the 90s. She was also a partner in Goodman Ray based in Clapton then on the Waste. She finished her career at the Charity Commission registering and regulating charities. She has volunteered for Hackney with the housing team and now runs an advice session in a food bank for Hammersmith and Fulham Law Centre.
Victor McAllister
Treasurer of Chats Palace, a creative space based in Homerton with a studio, gallery and darkroom, plus a theatre and music performance venue. Victor was born in Guyana before moving to Hackney in 1961, aged seven. Victor studied for a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computing and also has a Master’s Degree in Management. Victor previously ran his own Property Development Company and also worked for the Post Office as its International Operations Development Manager, travelling to countries such as Canada, Sweden and many other countries in Europe. Victor has lived in Hackney for over 50 years and currently teaches Kenshukai Karate to 5 to 55 year olds. He also mentors local teenagers.
Cllr Deniz Oguzkanli
Cllr Deniz Oguzkanli Deniz is from a Kurdish background and has worked as a lawyer for several years, latterly as a criminal lawyer from his firm in Shoreditch. He has been involved in providing advice to the Kurdish/Turkish community for more than 10 years. He has been a local councillor in Hackney since 2006 where he has chaired the Community Safety and Social Inclusion Scrutiny Commission. He lives with his wife and two children a few streets away from the Law Centre.
Adenike Ojo
Adenike was born in Hackney and is a solicitor who works in-house for an IT consultancy. She studied law at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands (as part of the Socrates Exchange Scholarship programme) and completed her LPC at the College of Law (London). Adenike volunteered at the Hackney Community Law Centre.
Tom Stoate
Tom is a civil liberties and public law barrister specialising in inquests, police accountability, mental health and criminal justice. He recently represented a number of the bereaved families in the fresh Hillsborough stadium disaster inquests. He was a residential volunteer at Toynbee Hall free legal advice centre, and has worked on US elections and on death penalty cases in Malawi. Before the bar Tom worked in politics in Westminster. He has lived in East London for a decade (and counting).
Sean Canning - Company Secretary.
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