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Chadwick Boseman was an African American actor who in 2018 played a superhero called Black Panther. The film having a predominantly Black cast that represented several identities in the African diaspora, was a cultural phenomenon as it became one of the highest grossing films of all time, proving that the world would pay to see Black stories on the screen. With the passing of Chadwick Boseman earlier this year, ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ selected the Black History Month theme of “Young, Gifted, and Black,” in memoriam, inspired by Boseman’s acceptance speech at the SAG Awards in 2019. 

Following this theme, join ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Deparment of Law's Dr Abenaa Owusu-Bempah and a panel of Black alumni to discuss career paths, pathways into law careers, and experiences of working the legal sector, and to provide advice to current students.

 is a common law barrister at Thomas More Chambers. Prior to coming to the Bar, Joy spent time working at the heart of government in the Home Office and later as a Private Secretary for the then Minister of State for Courts and Justice. Joy was awarded the John Smith Scholarship for Law and later the City Law School Human Rights Scholarship. Joy takes a keen interest in issues of diversity and inclusion and has been elected to sit on Thomas More Chambers’ equality and diversity committee.

 is a Law graduate from the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ and trainee solicitor at a leading magic circle law firm. In her first year at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳, she launched a social enterprise called Hi-R Education which assists students from state-schooled backgrounds with applying to leading universities. Over the past three years, Hi-R has assisted students from all over with world with gaining admission into top universities and has built a team of over 30+ mentors. Hi-R Education’s success has earned Tosin the recognition of being published as one of the UK’s black future leaders in 2018 and she was invited to 10 Downing Street to celebrate this success. In her spare time, Tosin enjoys creative writing and travel. 

 is an LLB graduate and recent LLM student currently working in the Law Department as the Student Experience and Programme Delivery Officer. A committee member of ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ EmbRace (ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳’s BAME staff network) championing equality and diversity for BAME staff and students at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳.

 sits as Deputy Chair on the Alumni Leadership Board of the Sutton Trust – the UK’s leading charity on social mobility. He currently reads the BCL at Oxford University as a 4 New Square Scholar, after graduating from Harvard Law School as the youngest Kennedy scholar to study the LLM in over 10 years. While he now teaches contract and tort law to first-year law students at the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳, he was formerly a Lord Benson scholar graduating from ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Law with numerous academic prizes and scholarships. Aside from law, Josiah co-founded a food-tech start-up in 2019 and works in the M&A and Strategy team of a unicorn fin-tech. He is state school educated and grew up in the suburbs of North-East London.

 joined the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ in 2017 as Assistant Professor of criminal law and criminal evidence. Prior to joining the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳, Abenaa was Lecturer in Law at City, University of London. She has also held positions as Lecturer in Law at the University of Sussex, Teaching Fellow at UCL, and as a research assistant at the Law Commission for England and Wales.  Abenaa holds a PhD from UCL, an LLM in Criminology and Criminal Justice from UCL, and an LLB from the University of Bristol. Abenaa is a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy and an Associate Fellow of the Ghana Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.

Abenaa’s research interests lie primarily in the areas of criminal procedure, the law of evidence and criminal law. Her current research focuses on fair trial rights and the participatory role of defendants in criminal proceedings. Abenaa also has expertise in hate crime legislation and the legal process for prosecuting hate crime.