The School of Law is delighted to welcome three new staff members!

Three new starters have joined the School of Law, and we are very happy to introduce Dr Justine Bendel, Dr Charlotte Elliott-Harvey, and Claudia Paduano.

Dr Justine Bendel has joined the School as Lecturer in Law. She was previously a Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Copenhagen, Centre for International Law and Governance working on the project: Implementation Issues in Global Environmental Law: The Case of Forests (Interfor). Her project focused on international law and governance of forests, and she teaches international environmental and climate change law. Her monograph Litigating the Environment: Process and Procedure Before International Courts and Tribunals was recently published by E.Elgar, as well as her edited collection Public interest litigation in international law from Routledge. At the School of Law in Leeds, she looks forward to many collaborations and is very happy to be joining such a vibrant environment.

Dr Charlotte Elliott-Harvey holds a PhD in Communications Studies (University of Leeds), and has joined the Inclusive Public Space Project as the Research Project Manager. Prior to joining the School of Law, she worked as the EU Project Manager on a Horizon 2020-funded project on climate change called CONSTRAIN (€8m). After completing her PhD in 2018, Charlotte worked as a PDRA on an AHRC-funded project on press regulation and press ethics at the University of Sheffield. She has published on free speech in relation to forms of creative expression, hate speech, as well as parameters of free expression in relation to racist speech and political hate speech. Charlotte’s professional background includes a range of project management experience, including two years of grassroots development work in Togo, West Africa, promoting girls’ education and women’s literacy, and working for a small sports NGO in Copenhagen, Denmark, on an EU-funded campaign on the benefits of physical activity. Charlotte is looking forward to helping bring the Inclusive Public Space Project to its completion later this year and to being a part of the professional and intellectual community here at the School of Law.

Claudia Paduano has joined us from the University of Edinburgh. She is taking up the post of Lecturer in Business Law. She has experience in teaching Business Entities, Commercial Law, Banking and Financial Law. Claudia’s research interests span across company law, law and economics, and the intersection of company law and sustainability. She is also a New York qualified attorney (non-practicing). She has collaborated with an Italian social cooperative as a researcher, providing her expertise in facilitating professional training and lectures for individuals from non-EU countries to seek employment and family reunification in Italy. On a national level, she helped to write a report commissioned by Amnesty International UK, in which she explored the intersection of business and human rights. The report was used as a consultation paper to the Scottish Parliament regarding a Human Rights Bill for Scotland in 2023.

 She says:

I have a passion for Business Law and the opportunity to share my knowledge and expertise to the students here in Leeds is exciting. It is an honour to join the University of Leeds and participate in such a vibrant academic community.

We’re sure that all three new staff members will be wonderful additions to the School.