Millicent Lewis-Ojumu
Millicent Lewis-Ojumu is a City trained corporate Solicitor of England and Wales with over 18 PQE experience and a qualified Mediator/Arbitrator of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She pioneered the renowned Centre for ADR in Sierra Leone and is a co-founder of the online ADR platform: Global Online Dispute Resolution.
She is experienced in handling transaction and projects in the development sector across anglophone and francophone West Africa resulting in excellent multi-office programme management skills and Prince2 Practitioner skills in project design and supervision. Having worked in various high level negotiations across West Africa, she is admired by her peers for top class stakeholder management skills and providing strategic technical advice to donors, governments and public/private sector stakeholders.
Millicent is passionate in promoting the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). She is uniquely skilled in using ADR methods for resolving corporate disputes and in peace and conflict mediation work where her corporate experience across West Africa serves her well in developing niche expertise in natural resource management and conflict resolution practice.
She is fluent in four languages, a double honours Law and French graduate of Keele University, UK and a licence graduate of the University of Montpellier Faculty of Law, France.
Wayne Murrell, LLM, FCIArb
Wayne began his career as an attorney-at-law in Barbados, and after pursuing postgraduate studies in International Business Law at the University of Wales (Aberystwyth), he further developed his practice skills at the firm of Haavind Vislie, Oslo, Norway, following on as a Research Fellow at the Centre for International Legal Studies, Salzburg, Austria. Upon resettling in London, Wayne worked in the city firm of McFaddens Solicitors LLP as an Associate Solicitor for an initial three years, followed on by various stints in industry and local authorities.
Whilst in his current role as Contracts Manager at Imperial College London, Wayne qualified as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and as an ADR group Accredited Mediator (Civil and Commercial/Workplace). He currently assists as a lecturer and tutor in the Domestic Arbitration, Law of Obligations and the Mediation modules run by CIArb, He is a panel member of the Civil Mediation Council and is keen to develop an ADR practice with worldwide reach.
Andy Duerden
Andy Duerden is a Consultant Solicitor at De Jure Chambers.
A fully-qualified solicitor and mediator, Andy actually began his career as a musician and has twenty years’ experience in the music industry. His 5* musical BLISS starred Emily Blunt, and he has written for film, TV, and theatre, as well as having a book published on song-writing: How to Write a Song – Learn how to bare your musical soul with confidence! Andy completed his LPC at Guildford College of Law in 2013 and qualified as a Civil and Commercial Mediator in 2018. His background in music gives him a rare and insightful perspective which he brings to his work as a lawyer.
Andy has experience in all areas of litigation, but specialises in civil litigation. His work on a number of difficult and high-profile cases has given him a reputation for concerted negotiation skills which are guided by a sensible and pragmatic approach to problem solving and dispute resolution. Andy’s belief in the importance of communication and negotiation led him to develop his own mediation company, Concordia Mediation, where he is uniquely positioned to assist musicians and other creatives to solve their disputes, having a profound understanding of the creative industries himself.
Andy has developed a way of working which puts clients at ease, instils confidence and gets the right results. He has always been a people person and is just as comfortable working with judges and lawyers as he is with musicians and media outlets – what matters to Andy is achieving the best possible results for clients.
Aspiring Lawyers and Support Staff
Jack Osborne, paralegal
Jack is a paralegal at De Jure Chambers with particular interest in contract law, employment law, professional discipline and regulatory law. Jack cares deeply about increasing access to justice, improving legal awareness, and offering advice to those who may otherwise be unfamiliar with their legal requirements and obligations. He is therefore keen to avoid legal jargon when talking to clients and uses plain English wherever possible.
As part of his commitment to accessible justice, Jack volunteered as a student adviser for two years at the Nottingham Law School Legal Advice Clinic where he advised on a variety of matters pro bono, including discrimination at work, land disputes, and contractual disputes.
Whilst at De Jure Chambers, Jack has successfully applied for a sponsorship licence on behalf of a client whose care home may otherwise have closed due to lack of staff following Covid-19 and Brexit. He has built up a wealth of experience in drafting business documents and contracts.
Jack achieved a 2:1 in Law (LLB Hons) and Merit in the BPTC LLM during which time he pursued his interests in professional discipline and criminal litigation. He is due to be called to the bar by Inner Temple in March 2022.
Ellen Coombe, paralegal
Ellen is a paralegal at De Jure Chambers. She is passionate about using her skills and experience to support those who face barriers to accessing the legal system, and has worked with survivors of domestic abuse and human trafficking victims. At De Jure Chambers she has specialised in housing and property cases, but has also gained experience in many other areas including commercial, personal injury, immigration, and family. She values justice, integrity, and efficiency.
Ellen is a Law graduate from the London School of Economics, having completed her Qualifying Law Degree in 2018. She has since held a position as the in-house Legal Officer for a housing association and there developed expertise in housing, tenancies, evictions, and anti-social behaviour law. In this role, Ellen carried out advocacy at court for a successful special measures application.
Ellen has also been a caseworker at a domestic abuse service, which involved advocating for survivors of abuse to community and statutory organisations to ensure the safety of at-risk families. She has taken up numerous volunteering opportunities over the years such as a legal research internship at a human trafficking organisation in India, pro bono work at the East London Family Court supporting litigants in person, and casework at the City of London Appeals Clinic on behalf of a person convicted of murder. She also completed the Charityworks Leadership Programme endorsed by the Institute of Leadership and Management in 2019 to gain insight into the non-profit sector and how this intersects with legal services.
At De Jure Chambers, Ellen has overseen and helped negotiate a settlement agreement worth almost £200,000 in an employment and shares dispute. Ellen also drafted a letter which caused our client’s opposing party to drop their debt recovery case, and alongside others in the team, achieved a successful sponsorship licence application for 20 certificates of sponsorship on behalf of a care provider client.
Client review:
As a landlord for supported living service providers, we approached De Jure Chambers for advice on a couple legal matters. One concerned eviction proceedings based on the existing tenancy agreement with a difficult tenant. The other concerned options for alternative tenancy agreements, mindful of our service offering. In both cases, De Jure Chambers engaged with high professionalism and fully met our expectations with the quality advice it produced. We are extremely satisfied and would highly recommend De Jure Chambers.
Winter Wanjiku, paralegal
Winter Wanjiku is a paralegal at De Jure Chambers, interested in property law, residential conveyancing, criminal law, personal injury, clinical negligence, and working with private clients. She values transparency, diversity, and respect.
Winter has lots of experience dealing with contracts, including employment contracts, recruitment contracts, terms of business and international contracts with joint ventures. She has a background in data, having worked for Lexis Nexis as a student associate and trained students on the basics of using the Lexis Nexis Library. Winter also worked with the Human Brain Project as a Data Law and Research assistant, which helped her to become familiar with how Artificial Intelligence may be implemented in future policies. She is currently studying for her LPC and aims to complete it by next year.
Client review:
Just had a meeting with Winter over my T&C - what a lovely person she is! I feel I'm in very safe hands. I was struck by her personable nature - that is a skill which is hard to teach. She was warm, confident and reassuring. And not afraid to admit that she would consult on one point over which she wasn't sure of the best approach. She's definitely going to make a great solicitor. Positive: Professionalism, Quality, Responsiveness.
David Ndeh, paralegal
David Ndeh is a paralegal at De Jure Chambers, specialising in immigration and OHADA laws procedures.
David has twenty-one years of experience as a Barrister at the Cameroon Bar association and worked for five years as a foreign lawyer at the French Brussels Bar association. As a former European Immigration Adviser in Belgium from 2013-2019, David successfully represented and defended asylum seekers before the Belgian administrative authorities and protection officers. He had worked for the Rhema Project in Bedford, a youth placement centre specialising in the support of young people, unaccompanied minors, and asylum seekers. David gained his Bachelor of Laws in the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon, and a Masters in International Human Rights Law in the University of Saint Louis in Brussels.
David values striving for excellence and upholding standards, as well as respect, honesty, and integrity. In his spare time he keeps up with politics and sports, and enjoys travel and listening to music.
Anna Gorna, paralegal
Anna is a paralegal at De Jure Chambers. She is interested in Human Rights and all the areas of law related to it, including immigration law, family law, general public law, international public law, and international criminal law.
Anna achieved a Distinction in the BPTC with the LLM Extension and graduated with first-class honours in her LLB. She has worked in Human Rights since 2017, building experience specifically in the areas of modern slavery and human trafficking, in the contexts of criminal law, corporate responsibility, and ethical supply chains. She has worked on legally aided out-of-time criminal appeals for modern slavery and human trafficking victims, and her research on the measures that business can take to ensure that modern slavery does not occur in their supply chains has made a valuable contribution to her field.
As a paralegal at De Jure Chambers, Anna has drafted commercial documents and contributed important work to a variety of matters, including child arrangements, family property disputes, construction disputes, and employment with a focus on redundancy and settlement agreements.
Anna personally values individuality and learning, and strives towards continual self-development. She is committed to being both dependable and professional in her dealings with clients and colleagues alike.
Paul Ngum, paralegal
Paul Ngum is a paralegal at De Jure Chambers with a strong technical and commercial understanding of legal issues.
With over a decade of information technology experience from both the public and private sectors, Paul specialises in all aspects of technology, data protection and privacy law, as well as the legal issues involved in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchains.
Paul’s interests include global data privacy and security issues, cloud computing, and information law covering the entire privacy and security spectrum.
Paul is a professional member of the Society for Computers and Law, a fellow of the National Association of Licenced Paralegals, and a chartered IT professional
Rodney Wright
Rodney Wright works closely with De Jure Chambers on matters of estate management and financial advice.
Rodney set up the Cambridge Will Writing Company after becoming a full member of the Institute of Professional Willwriters (IPW). As an estate planning consultant, he offers a range of services including wills, lasting powers of attorney, trusts, care fee advice, probate advice, and also gives advice to the business sector on sole traders, partnerships and limited companies.
Before setting up the company, Rodney wrote wills with a National Company for ten years whilst also working as an Independent Financial Adviser. He was a consultant at Oxford & Cambridge Independent Advisers and has been in the Financial Services Industry his whole working life, gaining a wealth of experience in solving clients’ financial objectives.
DE JURE CHAMBERS
LONDON
Address: 5 Chancery lane, London WC2A 1LG
Tel: +44 208 798 0917
Fax: +44 207 406 7403
CAMBRIDGE
Address: F21 Stirling House
Cambridge Innovation Park
Denny End Road, Waterbeach
Cambridge CB25 9QE
Tel: +44 01223 643580
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