Samantha Maher - Justice First FellowshipJustice First Fellowship

Host Organisation: Merseyside Law Centre

Samantha Maher is our new trainee solicitor, who joins us as part of the Justice First Fellowship Scheme run by the Legal Education Foundation. Prior to joining us Samantha had worked for 15 years campaigning for labour and human rights, specifically in the garment and textile industry. As a case worker for the Clean Clothes Campaign, she worked on numerous cases of trade union repression, wage violations and unsafe workplaces, most notably working on the design and implementation of two multi-million-dollar compensation funds for victims of the Rana Plaza and Tazreen factory disasters in Bangladesh. After deciding to retrain in law Samantha studied part time for her GDL and LPC at MMU and achieved a distinction in both. In 2018 she was shortlisted for the “Best Contribution by an Individual Student” award at the LawWork Student Pro Bono Awards for her work as a student welfare rights advisor at Greater Manchester Law Centre.

Project

Merseyside Law Centre receive many enquiries, particularly from tenants in the private sector, in relation to disrepair and fitness for habitation issues, but due to legal aid restraints we are unable to provide advice. This project aims to look at how we can provide first and second tier early housing advice services, which aim to support tenants to take action to address housing disrepair issues and housing issues which currently fall out of scope for the majority of housing advice services.

The 2020 Fellows

Abi Wood Alexander Sherman Catherine Dodson Cecilia Correale Claire Poppleton David Tully Elisa Jenkins Erin Stanbury Gary Steel Hana Cogingsford Hanna Nicholls-Findlay Hannah Moxsom Kajal Maisuria Krysta Yan Kulthum Dambatta Lauren Francis Nerys Cookson-Williams Rebecca Dooley Samantha Maher Sarah Campbell Shannon Thompson Suzanne Mahoney