Colette Goodson

Host Organisation: Dundee Law Centre 2022

Briefly explain your most recent educational background and any work (paid or voluntary) you were doing before you began your Fellowship?

I recently completed an MSc in Human Rights and Diplomacy in collaboration with the United Nations training body, UNITAR. This course was hugely informative in terms of international human rights law and was a multi-disciplinary course that combined the law, philosophy and politics of human rights. Aside from this I have spent time living and working in India with minority groups and latterly spent time volunteering with a national immigration service in refugee and asylum law, in Scotland. Most recently I have been working in a litigation team within an international law firm, specialising in personal injury law.

Why did you want to apply for a Justice First Fellowship?

I was keen to apply for a role specialising in access to justice as this is a subject that I am passionate about. I have a background in access rights having worked and studied in this area over several years. I was also keen to be part of a cohort of like-minded trainees and be part of a national training programme but at the same time be making a difference locally through the traineeship itself with the Dundee Law Centre. I feel privileged to be a Fellow for the up coming 2 years.

Complete the following sentence: ‘Outside of my legal interests, I enjoy…’

Outside of my legal interests, I enjoy playing guitar and piano as well as singing and songwriting. I have been an amateur songwriter for a number of years and have spent time overseas singing and teaching music to young people. I also really enjoy listening to podcasts relating to healthy cooking and ‘food as medicine’ and whenever I can I like to spend time gardening, having a been raised around horticulture for much of my early life.