First Scottish "Justice First Fellowship" appointee announced

The first Scottish appointment has been announced of the Justice First Fellowship, a new scheme established to support students committed to public interest and social justice issues who want to pursue a career in social welfare law.

Deirdre Flanigan is to be a fellow under the scheme, which has been established by The Legal Education Foundation in partnership with Govan Law Centre and other social welfare organisations across the UK.

Ms Flanigan has an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the Irish Centre for Human Rights and an LLB in Law and a Diploma in Legal Practice from the University of Edinburgh. She was the Outreach Coordinator at the Scottish Human Rights Commission, where her role was to assist civil society in taking a human rights based approach to their work and to engage more with the UN human rights system. She has gained monitoring experience working for a human rights NGO in Nepal, and was a research consultant in developing Scotland's National Action Plan for Human Rights with a particular focus on economic and social rights.

She has also worked as an occasional reviewer of international criminal law cases, and has additional experience with a criminal defence firm in Glasgow and a commercial firm in Argentina, as well as volunteer experience in several fields including advocacy in relation to standards of temporary accommodation for refugees and asylum seekers.