Who knows about law? Largely graduates in highly skilled employment working in professional services. Who needs to know about law? Absolutely everybody. The UN Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor found that 4 billion people across the world are denied the opportunity of improving their lives through escaping poverty.
I’ve spent a major proportion of my career trying to change that.
- Creating an online course, ‘Citizenship and the Rule of Law’ with over 23,000 students from every nation and territory across the world;
- Leading ‘The Rule of Law for Citizenship Education’ I have given over 100 lessons to school-age children on the rule of law;
- Working with the international law firm DLA Piper, I teach an annual summer school on the Rule of Law. It has taken me to Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania, meeting students from over 30 countries in the three years that I have led the course;
- In the UK I was a Visiting Lecturer at Middlesex University from 2017 to 2022. In 2020 I was appointed as a Lecturer in Law at London South Bank University, and after a productive and impactful four years moved to Goldsmiths University in September 2024. These roles mean a lot to me because they enable me to help build the lawyers of tomorrow.
At the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, I established an incredibly exciting initiative, the ‘Public and Youth Engagement Programme’. This programme trains young lawyers to run lessons in schools on the rule of law and human rights. Get involved here!
Abiodun Michael Olatokun 