The Board is very proud to announce the recent internal appointment of 5 new Directors. We congratulate Jenna McKinney, Ofonimeh Umoh, Shahida Ilahi and Veejay Sharma in their new positions as Directors and Heads of Department for Immigration and a huge well done to Anthony Okumah, as Director of our Civil Litigation & Dispute Resolution Department. This is an excellent achievement and these appointments illustrate not only their hard work for Duncan Lewis over the years, but their dedication, loyalty and willingness to embrace responsibility. We sincerely look forward to working with them all in moving both the Immigration and Dispute Resolution Departments from strength to strength in the years to come.
Anthony Okumah – a highly respected civil litigation solicitor with extensive experience representing private high net worth clients. He has been appointed the position of a Director to work with David Head to develop our dispute resolution department and professional negligence work from our City of London office close to Liverpool Street station, which will be opening in August 2012.
Jenna McKinney’s legal development with Duncan Lewis should be an inspiration to many. A magistrate and qualified mentor, having first joined Duncan Lewis in November 2004, Jenna is Level 3 IAAS accredited, a status that illustrates her expertise and experience in Immigration & Human Rights. Her Judicial Review experience, reported cases, assistance in training, and continuous external marketing initiatives means that the Immigration Department will hugely benefit by her new appointment.
Ofonimeh Umoh has been one of our leading advocates since she first joined Duncan Lewis in July 2002. She is a highly personable lawyer that has demanded much respect from her team, over the years and a huge influential presence in our Investors in People Employee Forum since its formation in 2009. We look forward to working with Ofonimeh and developing further our Higher Court Casework with her in the years to come.
Shahida Ilahi, joined Duncan Lewis in October 2003 and has become highly experienced in representing our most vulnerable clients in detention in asylum/bail applications and appeals. Her previous experience with the Home Office enabled her to have an edge over many of her peers. We have been impressed with her ability to supervise and her initiative to drive effective internal training and look forward to working with her to drive this through the department as a whole.
Veejay Sharma's commitment to our clients since he joined us in November 2005 is applauded. A significant presence with our current Duncan Lewis 24hr switchboard initiative, Veejay is also a champion of pro bono work within the local community. A founding member of the Kindness in Communities Group in the UK and his current significant current involvement in Women and Child Welfare Rights projects around the world exemplifies his excellent energy and will act as an inspiration to all those starting in this field.