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Meet our Volunteers

We are grateful for the support of our volunteers. Meet the BIICL Ambassadors below.

   

Isabella Taylor, University of Cambridge

Isabella Taylor is a final year law student at the University of Cambridge. She is an aspiring barrister and will begin her Bar Course in September supported by Gray's Inn as a Lord Justice Holker Scholar. Before volunteering for 18 months with BICIL as a Youth and Engagement Volunteer, Isabella spent one year with St Mungo's, volunteering in temporary accommodation for people leaving prison homeless. Isabella has also spent 18 months volunteering at Rights of Women, a charity that offers free legal advice to women. In the summer of 2022, Isabella volunteered full-time for a month at Advocate, the Bar's official pro bono charity. She is dedicated to protecting access to justice and promoting public legal education.

   

Josephine Gillingwater, University of Birmingham

Josephine Gillingwater is an aspiring barrister. She has an LLB from the University of Birmingham (First Class Honours) and an LLM in International Law from the Geneva Graduate Institute. Having volunteered with various legal charities, including Support Through Court, Advocate, the Environmental Law Foundation, and the Free Representation Unit, she is committed to access to justice. Josephine was previously a Legal Assistant to the International law Commission (ILC) at the United Nations. She has also worked at the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) and in the international arbitration groups at WilmerHale and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

   

Mustafa Mert Dicle, Queen Mary University

Mustafa Mert Dicle did his LL.B. at Istanbul University Faculty of Law and graduated in 2017 Summa Cum Laude. At the university, he founded the Dispute Resolution Club and acted as the founding president of the club for 2 years. He has done summer internships at Clifford Chance and ICBC Bank and upon his graduation did his legal internship in the dispute resolution department at Paksoy Law Firm. He was admitted to the Istanbul Bar Association in 2018. After that, he worked in the dispute resolution department at Hergüner Bilgen Üçer Attorney Partnership for 4 years. Mert received a Chevening Scholarship in 2022 and as a Chevening Scholar, he graduated from the Comparative and International Dispute Resolution LL.M. program of Queen Mary University of London, School of International Arbitration with distinction. His dissertation titled "Making Türkiye More Arbitration Friendly with Respect to the Existence and Validity of Arbitration Agreements" also got a distinction. At the same time, he is the UK Representative of EDAC. Also, he is a contributing editor at the "E-Mails to a Young Lawyer" project. He acted as an arbitrator in many moot court competitions. He has speaking engagements on several topics related to international arbitration before ICC YAAF, ISTAC - Arbitration School, ASA Below 40, and Istanbul Bar Association's Arbitration Center. He has publications on international arbitration as well. At the same time, he is an author at Kluwer Arbitration Blog. He also gained different perspectives, and got international experience as a visiting lawyer in London respectively at Bench Walk Advisors, White & Case LLP, CANDEY, and Alaco. Currently, he is working as a senior associate in the dispute resolution department of Pekin Bayar Mizrahi (in alliance with Norton Rose Fulbright).

   

Modupe Faith Allen, University of Nottingham

Modupe Faith Allen is a final year law student at the University of Nottingham. She is an aspiring solicitor with a deep-rooted interest in topics surrounding Legal Technology, such as Intellectual Property, Data Protection and Cybersecurity. Having established the initiative to grow interest within Legal Tech and allow students to express their views on related topics, Modupe runs and recruits for the Law & Tech Group Blog at her university. Additionally, she has previously volunteered with Lawyers Without Borders to produce a white paper on international legislation covering content curation and moderation policies for Privacy International. Modupe enjoys coding in her spare time, and has recently won a Hackathon organised by her university's Hack Society.

   

Tansulpan Ismagilova, University of Law

Tansulpan Ismagilova is an aspiring solicitor. Currently she studies the PGDL course at the University of Law. She has the undergraduate degree in Mathematical methods in Economics and Master's degree in Law with distinction, her Master's thesis was related to international financial law. She represented clients in civil litigation cases in her home country. In addition, Tansulpan can speak six languages - her mother tongue Bashkir, Russian, English, Arabic, French and Turkish. She worked with NGOs teaching foreign languages to kids and helping migrants and international students to adapt and integrate. Now she is a member of the managing team of Islamic society of the University of law. While living in Istanbul, she was a moderator of a community of English-speakers that comprised more than 25000 people, organizing meetings and events promoting diversity and inclusivity in society. 

   

Dylan Kawende FRSA, University of Cambridge

Dylan Kawende FRSA is an award-winning change-maker and Lead Innovator at The NEW BLXCK, a media startup. He's a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and holds a BSc in History and Philosophy of Science from UCL and an MA in Law with Senior Status from Cambridge University (intermitting). Dylan has been given various awards and scholarships in recognition of his leadership skills including a Top 10 Future Leader Award (ranked 8th nationally), a Princess Diana Award, a Freshfields Stephen Lawrence Scholarship, a Baroness Valerie Amos-UCL Scholarship and a David Karmel Scholarship by the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn. Dylan has interned at Goldman Sachs, Linklaters, Freshfields and Matrix Chambers.

Over the course of 1.5 months, Dylan raised over $106,000 (£80,000) to cover his Cambridge law fees through his crowdfunding campaign '#GetDyl2Cambridge'. His campaign attracted over 1,600 donors and was featured in major news outlets including the Times, BBC Radio London, The Guardian, the Metro, and Legal Cheek. Dylan is passionate about the rule of law and restorative justice. He volunteers at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law and was awarded the Rule of Law Session of the Year in 2022 as part of its Public and Youth Engagement Programme. Dylan is leveraging his background in law, philosophy and history of science to be an expert in the ethics of emerging technologies

   

Kevin Khoo, London School of Economics

Kevin Khoo is a final year student at the London School of Economics, and is expected to pursue his LLM at either Cambridge University or the LSE. His academic interests are broadly public-oriented, including public international law, EU law, and public law. At the LSE, he is the president of the International, Comparative, and European Law Society, and has previously served with multiple student societies, including the Law Society, Tax Law Society, and the London Globalist. He is an active volunteer, working with Amicus ALJ before BIICL and the Bingham Centre. Kevin is a keen mooter, and has represented the LSE at multiple moot competitions, alongside several internal moots. In his spare time, he boxes as part of the LSE's Fight Night team. 

   

Jeff Kwon, King's College London

Jeff Kwon is a second year Philosophy, Politics and Economics student at King's College London. He is an aspiring law student with interests in public international law, especially in the area of migrations and human rights. At KCL, he is also Co-President of the KCL Pro Bono Society and a Student Ambassador for the university. Additionally, he actively volunteers through his position as Young Champion at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Having lived in 6 different countries around the world (United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, France, Hungary, Portugal), Jeff seeks to utilise his international experience to help youth from diverse backgrounds gain proper legal protection and education.

    

Dorotea Nemčić, University of Law

Dorotea Nemčić is an MA graduate from King's College London, currently en route to her second MA in Law from the University of Law. She is an aspiring solicitor and her professional interests broadly include Human Rights, International, Commercial, Criminal, Family, as well as Animal Law. In addition to her role as a BIICL Ambassador, Dorotea currently volunteers with Citizens Advice as a Specialist Adviser. She also volunteers with the ULaw Legal Aid clinic on drafting and developing policy documents for charities and small businesses on a variety of issues including GDPR, bribery, anti-corruption and dispute resolution. At the University of Law, she has co-founded the International Law and Human Rights Society for which she acts as a Trustee. 

    

Rukevwe Otive-Igbuzor, University College London

Rukevwe Otive-Igbuzor is a young lawyer and youth development worker. She pursued her undergraduate studies at University College London, where she obtained a bachelor's degree in law. Subsequently, she underwent training at the Nigerian Law School to qualify as a barrister and solicitor in Nigeria. Having worked with various law firms, non-governmental organisations, think tanks, and legal advice clinics, Rukevwe has gained cross-sector experience in law and youth development. Her passion for human rights led her to enrol on the Erasmus Mundus Master's Programme in Human Rights Policy and Practice, where she is currently studying.

   

Selma Darkaoui, University Panthéon-Assas

Selma Darkaoui is a fourth-year law student from the University Panthéon-Assas in France, currently completing her first year of master degree at University College London. She is an aspiring French lawyer as well as English solicitor with a deep-rooted interest in topics surrounding business law and management. Her academic interests are broadly private-oriented, including mergers and acquisitions, private international law and entrepreneurship. At UCL, she is an active member of diverse student societies, including UCL entrepreneurs' society, the Dance Society and the Law society. She has previously served as the President of the Student Union of her French university and was involved in the legal clinic of the school where she provided legal counsel pro bono in corporate law. She was also involved in many charity projects as a volunteer such as the creation of a Unicef Club in her high school.

   

Yasmin Farooqui Caliz, SOAS

Yasmin Farooqui Caliz is currently a student in research for international development masters at SOAS London having obtained a law degree from UCL looking to ground understanding in the importance of social research in understanding the workings of global economic actors in international development. Yasmin would like to look at social justice, more specifically looking at transitional justice for corporate crime in the developing world, as a potential PhD candidate with research following the indigenous vision of justice within the Andean community in regards to human rights violations by the mining industry. The volunteer roles at the following charities have been undertaken: Indo-American Migrants and Refugee Organization, the IWGB Trade Union, UCL-Integrated Legal advice clinic and Somers Town Legal Advice Corner; leading to the solving of complex issues spanning community care to immigration.

    

Ruth Noruwa, University of Reading

Ruth Noruwa is a first-year law student at the University of Reading. She has a particular interest in Tort and Contract Law which stems from her interest in the interplay between human rights and legal responsibilities as well as the fact that they allow her to explore real-life scenarios, providing a practical aspect to her studies. In addition to her academic pursuits, after being inspired by her volunteer work, and writing for an international women's blog during lockdown, Ruth has created her legal blog aimed at aspiring lawyers in sixth form and secondary school and hopes to positively impact their legal journeys. She has high expectations for herself regarding her academic career and hopes to someday practise as a solicitor.

   

Sophia Dyvik Henke, University of Law

Sophia Dyvik Henke is an aspiring barrister with a particular interest in public environmental law. She studied a politics and anthropology BA at the University of Cambridge and will shortly begin a law conversion MA at the University of Law Bloomsbury. In her future legal work Sophia hopes to bridge her interests in the climate crisis and human rights. She has served as Chair of Cambridge University Amnesty International and as an activist and spokesperson for the UK school climate strikes. She is also passionate about addressing educational inequality in the UK and works as a volunteer SATs teacher at the Rugby Portobello Trust. She is therefore excited to support the cause of public legal education with BIICL and spread knowledge about the intersections between the rule of law, human rights and the climate crisis.

   

Selen Alkhan, Queen Mary University of London

Selen Alkan obtained her LL.B degree from Istanbul University in 2018 Cum Laude. She was trained to qualify as a lawyer at Canaz Yilmaz Law Firm and was admitted to the Istanbul Bar Association in 2020. Following her qualification, she worked as an associate at Solak and Partners Law Firm and advised FinTech companies, including challenger banks, payment service providers, crowdfunding, and crypto trading platforms. At the same time, she acted as a UK country reporter for noybeu. She was awarded the Jean Monnet scholarship to pursue an LL.M. and she obtained her LL.M. degree in international business law at Queen Mary University of London with distinction in 2022. Her dissertation titled "Dual-Class Listing under UK and EU laws: Is It Compatible with Corporate Governance Principles?" also received a distinction. While pursuing her LL.M. degree, she worked as a legal intern at Divido, a FinTech scale-up. She also acted as a student legal adviser at qLegal, a commercial law pro bono clinic of Queen Mary University of London. Currently, she is working as a contract analyst specialising in technology transactions at Post Office. She is also acting as a student mentor for law students at Queen Mary University of London. She is an active member of the Society for Computers and Law (SCL) and International Technology Law Association (ITechLaw).

   

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