The board of the International Lawyers Project is pleased to announce the appointment of Lucy Claridge as our new Executive Director.
Lucy comes to ILP as an internationally respected leader within the global environmental justice movement with over 20 years’ experience defending the rule of law. We believe she is ideally suited to take over leadership of ILP, thanks to her expertise leading the Strategic Legal Response Centre at the Forest Peoples Programme , and previously in legal roles for Amnesty International and Minority Rights Group International.
Bronwen Manby, Chair of the ILP board, says today: “It’s a real pleasure for us to welcome Lucy Claridge as Executive Director of ILP. I’m excited by the prospect of working together to build the work of the organisation into the future.”
Lucy Claridge says: “I am delighted to step into this role and am hugely looking forward to working with Bronwen, the board, and ILP’s staff and partners to lead ILP into 2023 and beyond. In a world of growing economic inequality, increasing environmental injustice and rising corruption, ILP’s mission to advance economic justice and the rule of law remains much in demand.”
The ILP board also thanks Eva van der Merwe for her excellent leadership as Executive Director over the past two years, in which she has established the International Lawyers Project as one of the leading providers of pro bono expertise to clients in the global south. We are pleased to be able to say that we are not losing Eva completely, since she will be returning to ILP later this year in a senior role, after a period of maternity leave.
We have ambitious objectives for our new strategic period, continuing to deliver and build our anti-corruption, tax and fiscal reform, and access to information programmes whilst also expanding our environmental and sustainable development work, addressing issues such as pollution, deforestation and climate change.
ILP’s unique model, working to even up the scales of justice by mobilising teams of the world’s best lawyers to provide pro bono legal expertise to civil society, communities and government actors, enables access to expert legal advice which would otherwise be beyond their financial reach, and is key to achieving a more equitable and sustainable world.