Chair
Dame Alison Saunders DCB is a qualified barrister and partner at Linklaters. Before joining Linklaters in 2019, Alison was the most senior public prosecutor in England and Wales, as the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), only the second woman to hold the post. Alison served as deputy legal adviser to the Attorney General from 2003 to 2005, returning to establish organised crime division of the CPS and serve as the chief crown prosecutor for London from 2009 to 2013. She previously sat on the Sentencing Council. Alison has been a member of JUSTICE since 2018, when she was appointed to the JUSTICE Council. Alison was elected to the Board in October 2019.
Board members
Nick Benson was previously a finance manager at Genesis Housing Group where he was responsible for the Group financial planning. He worked on a number of significant acquisitions and disposals of the Group’s housing stock and on the raising of the Group’s first own-name bond issue. Reporting to the CEO at Choices for Grahame Park, a 3,000 home regeneration scheme in North London and one of the largest self-funding projects in Europe, Nick was responsible for the scheme financial management. He has also held senior roles in corporate treasury and investor relations. Working with the founding trustees, Nick set up and ran the financial reporting and governance for newly formed City based charity, Suited and Booted. Nick is a qualified accountant and has been a member of the Justice Finance Committee since 2018.
I. Stephanie Boyce is a previous President of the Law Society of England and Wales (March 2021 – October 2022), where she was the 177th, the sixth female and the first black, first person of colour to become president. I. Stephanie has chaired, or been a member of, several high-profile organisations, made appearances before Parliamentary committees (Justice Select) and engaged with Ministers in all parts of the United Kingdom and abroad. She holds a Master of Laws in public law and global governance from King’s College London. A Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute and a Fellow of the Society of Leadership Fellows, an Honorary professor of King’s College, Dickson Poon School of Law and hold two Honorary Doctorates from Keele University and the University of East London. I. Stephanie was elected to the Board in 2022.
Ruth Crawford KC has been a practising member of the Faculty of Advocates since 1993 and took silk in 2008. In her “day job”, Ruth specialises in public and administrative law, public procurement, planning and environment and commercial dispute resolution, and has extensive experience of “high profile” cases. Ruth was elected Treasurer of the Faculty in 2020. As Treasurer Ruth has overall responsibility for the Faculty’s finances and assets, as well as working with her fellow office bearers to ensure the Faculty continues to sit at the heart of the Scottish justice system. Currently, Ruth is steering the Faculty through its Culture Review, addressing issues such as governance, equality and diversity, outreach and well-being. Outside of the Faculty, Ruth is a Board member of LawScot foundation, a charity established to fund and mentor students from disadvantaged backgrounds who wish to study for an LlB and DiplLE (Scottish post-graduate requirement for solicitors). Ruth is also a Board member of Foursquare, an Edinburgh based charity seeking to alleviate the effects of homelessness and support vulnerable people. In addition, Ruth is the Vice-Chair of the National Library of Scotland, having been a Board member since 2018. Ruth was elected to the JUSTICE Board in November 2023.
Alastair Livesey is a senior lawyer at Shearman & Sterling, where he acts as counsel in a range of high-value international arbitrations, litigations and white collar/regulatory matters. Al also regularly advises on public international law and business and human rights matters, and has assisted clients to develop and benchmark their ethics and compliance programmes. Al previously worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and for several law reform and human rights organisations, including JUSTICE. He has previously served on the Board of Bail for Immigration Detainees, and sits on the Legal Advisory Board for Mermaids. Al has been a member of JUSTICE since 2013 and was elected to the Board in 2021.
Sara Mansoori KC is a barrister at Matrix Chambers and an ADR Group Accredited Civil and Commercial Mediator. She practices in the field of media and information law, predominantly for claimants in libel, privacy and data protection claims. Prior to joining Matrix she was a barrister for 10 years at the media set, 5RB, and then a senior lawyer in the Ministry of Justice for two years. She has been active in legal social mobility and diversity projects. In the past Sara has been involved in several Legal Assistance Programmes with the Bar Human Rights Committee including a Judicial Visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran, a Library Resources Project in Sudan and Commercial Law Training Project in Sudan. Sara was elected to the Board in 2022.
Maryann McMahon was head of litigation for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions at Morgan Stanley from 2002 – 2022. She also served for a number of years on Morgan Stanley’s European Diversity Advisory Council and the Firm’s Franchise Committee. She was, for 13 years, a Board Trustee of the Morgan Stanley International Foundation which is the philanthropic arm of Morgan Stanley in EMEA working in partnership with, and directing funding to, a number of charitable organisations and not for profits. Prior to her time at Morgan Stanley, Maryann was a partner at Clifford Chance LLP. She is a Board Trustee of the International Law Book Facility which provides legal research resources to not for profits globally. She has recently become a member of the Development Board for the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law. Maryann brings with her a wealth of experience of development opportunities across the charity sector and strategic insight as well as deep knowledge of the justice sector. She has also recently been heavily involved in the initiation and development of our ‘Major Corporate Partnership’ programme. Maryann was co-opted to the Board in December 2023.
Alice Coates was a young Trustee for the membership charity Endometriosis UK from 2014- 2019, joining when she was 18 years old. She has recently joined the Trustee board for Astriid; a charity which bridges the gap between the millions of skilled people in the UK with long-term health conditions and the working world. She has also worked in in International Business Development as a Director for an award-winning tech head-hunter consultancy. Alice was elected to the Board in October 2022.
Christian Weaver is a barrister at Garden Court North Chambers where his practice encompasses inquests, public inquiries, actions against the state and parole board work. Having previously worked at INQUEST and Liberty and having been a member of the UK’s delegation to the Congress of the Council of Europe, Christian has a broad and practical understanding of human rights, the rule of law and the justice system. Christian invests time educating the public on their legal rights and is author of ‘The Law in 60 Seconds: A Pocket Guide to Your Rights’. He co-facilitated ‘The Law in 60 Seconds Public Legal Education Conference’ in collaboration with the legal charity, The Defendant and The University of Manchester. This was the UK’s first public legal education conference. Christian is on the Management Committee of the Black Barristers’ Network and is a trustee of The Defendant. Christian was elected to the Board in October 2022.
Charles Wynn-Evans is a partner in Dechert LLP’s London office, having trained at the firm and qualified as a solicitor in 1992, and is the Firm’s International General Counsel. As chair of Dechert’s London pro bono committee and a member of its international pro bono committee he is closely involved in the development and delivery of the Firm’s pro bono work. Formerly a fee paid employment judge and deputy chair of the Central Arbitration Committee, he is a CEDR accredited mediator, a fellow of the RSA, a Liveryman of the City of London Solicitors’ Company, a Trustee of Walworth Garden, and author of The Law of TUPE Transfers (third edition, Oxford University Press 2022). Charles was elected to the Board in November 2023.