Join us for an inspiring discussion with Jacqueline McKenzie in recognition of 75 Years since Windrush
HMT Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury docks in 1948, bringing more than 800 passengers from the Caribbean. This is a historic moment that saw mass migration and shaped modern Britain. On 22 June 2023 we marked its 75th anniversary, where communities came together to celebrate the contributions of the Windrush Generation and their families in the UK.
Join us in person for an inaugural Windrush 75 lecture by Martin Forde KC at Bloomberg’s London office in partnership with the Voices of Windrush. The lecture will be followed by an inspiring and interactive panel featuring Jacqueline Mckenzie, Partner, Head of Immigration and Asylum at Leigh Day, Kayne Kawasaki, Cultural Theorist and Martin Forde KC, moderated by Sonia Meggie, Bloomberg D&I Client Partner for News & Media. We will close the evening with nibbles and networking.
This is an in-person networking event.
Agenda
- 18:00 – 18:30
Registration
- 18:30 – 18:35
Opening Remarks
- Speaker: Richard Abiade
- 18:35 – 18:40
Welcome
- Speakers: Jacqueline McKenzie
- 18:40 – 19:10
Inaugural Lecture
- Speakers: Martin Ford KC
- 19:10 – 19:45
Panel Discussion with Q&A
- Speakers: Jacqueline McKenzie, Martin Ford KC, Kayne Kawasaki, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP
Moderator: Sonia Meggie - 19:45 – 19:50
Closing Remarks
- Speakers: Richard Abiade, Jacqueline McKenzie
- 19:50 – 20:30
Networking
Speakers
Jacqueline McKenzie
Jacqueline McKenzie is a partner at human rights law firm, Leigh Day, and the Head of its Immigration and Asylum Team.
She leads a team which specialises in a wide range of immigration matters, including cases representing asylum seekers and refugees, people facing deportation at the end of criminal sentences, administrative removal, EU citizens seeking settlement post Brexit, undocumented migrants seeking regularised status, claimants seeking entry clearance or citizenship, and victims of modern slavery. Her team also acts in actions against the state, including for unlawful detention and false imprisonment, and in claims of discrimination and racism against a range of defendants. Her work covers acting in the first instance, but also in the senior courts and the European Court of Human Rights.
For the past four years she has emerged as the UK’s leading advocate for victims of the Windrush Scandal. In addition to representing hundreds of claimants, she was a member of the Independent Advisory Group set up by the government to oversee the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, sat on the Home Office’s Windrush Stakeholder’s Advisory Group, sat on the Administrative Justice Council’s review of the Windrush Compensation Scheme, and conducted research for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation into the capacity of community sector organisations to respond to the scandal, leading to the establishment of a fund for capacity building of £1 million. She gave oral and written evidence to the Parliamentary Home Affairs and Justice Committees on the Windrush Compensation Scheme, and the conditions of female foreign nationals in UK prisoners, and has an academic article published in the Discrimination Law Journal on the Windrush Lessons Learned Review.
Prior to becoming a lawyer, Jacqueline spent 20 years in local and central government in several roles including equalities, community development and regeneration. She taught law and international relations at US university, Schiller International, and law and ethics at Queen Mary’s College, London University, sits on several boards pertaining to human rights, including Detention Action, and has won several awards for her legal and campaigning work, including the Legacy Awards Lifetime Achievement Award (2018), the European Diversity Awards Campaigner of the year (2019), The Black solicitors Network Small Law Firm of the year (2019) and the Black Excellence Humanitarian Award (2020). Jacqueline is also number 7 and number 10 on the Black Excellence Power List in 2021 and 2022 respectively and is a judge of the British Diversity Awards 2023. She is currently a member of a working committee set up by the Labour Party to produce a white paper on a Race Equality Act.
Martin Ford KC
Martin Forde KC has a practice which covers all aspects of Health Law. He appears regularly in all the Regulatory and Disciplinary tribunals predominantly for practitioners including doctors, dentists, osteopaths, chiropractors and optometrists.
In 2021 and 2020, the Powerlist named Martin as one of the most influential people for their impact on Politics, Law & Religion. He was listed in The Lawyer’s Hot 100 lawyers of 2019. In June 2020, Counsel Magazine interviewed Martin about Windrush, citizenship and diversity at the Bar as their front cover feature.
He has acted for the General Medical Council and the General Dental Council. He has appeared in a number of major cases in the Privy Council and has been involved in medical related judicial review hearings in the Administrative Court as well as judicial review hearings involving mental health and immigration issues.
His clinical negligence and personal injury practice is exclusively undertaken in the High Court involving injuries of maximum severity.
His experience of Inquests is extensive particularly in cases involving a mental health element.
He has appeared on many occasions in the Employment Tribunal acting for NHS Trusts and medical practitioners. He has appeared in HC (90) 9 proceedings, internal Trust and PCT hearings and has an extensive FHSAA practice.
He has been recognised as a band 1 practitioner by Chambers & Partners since 2010. He was the Independent Advisor to the Windrush Compensation Scheme (2018 – 2021). Recently, Martin succeeded in a legal first for a freedom of speech claim.
Martin was the independent advisor to the Windrush Compensation Scheme and recently investigated claims of racism in the Labour Party culminating in the Forde Report.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP
Bell graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science with Ethics & Philosophy of Science from the University of Bradford in 2006 before going onto complete a Master of Arts in Medical Law & Ethics at Queen Mary University of London, awarded in 2007, and later a Graduate Diploma in Law at BPP Law School, awarded in 2015.
Bell sits on the Women & Equalities Committee in Parliament. She also chairs the APPG on Afrikan Reparations. She served as Chief of staff and political advisor to Diane Abbott MP and worked as a Lambeth school governor. During her time in Parliament, Bell has been a strong voice for equalities and consistently speaks about health inequalities and a fair and humane immigration system.
Kanye Kawasaki
Kayne Kawasaki is a Cultural theorist and UK Black History educator from Peckham, South East London. He began his career
teaching in Secondary Schools in his hometown. He has now shifted the focus of his teaching skills towards teaching UK Black history outside the four walls of his classroom. Since taking to social media Kayne has amassed close to a million likes on TikTok. Without concluding he has a Ted Talk under his belt and has consulted/created for the likes of
English Heritage, Lenovo, Notting Hill Carnival, The Home Office and TikTok to name a few.
Kayne has quickly become one of the go-to-voices for factual, historical and statistical inform regarding race relations and was recently featured on TikTok’s nationwide Black History Month campaign.
Richard Abiade
Richard is part of the management team at Bloomberg, looking after their London Hedge Fund business. His 15 year career has so far seen him take on many roles across Bloomberg’s sales and relationship management department including recently overseeing our Emerging Markets Europe and Central Asian business with previous posts managing our Swedish Buyside wider London Buyside. He has also been Co-chair of the EMEA Black Professional Community since 2021 and key stakeholder in Bloomberg’s D&I efforts for the last 5 years including developing mentorship and recruitment programs.
Sonia Meggie
Sonia is a D&I Partner at Bloomberg. She was previously employed within the Inclusion team at Business in The Community (BITC). She is a Rising Star alumni and runs two social enterprises focused on the empowerment of women and the Black community.
She has led on Race Equality training, gender pay gap, diverse recruitment, mentoring, awards and diversity policies and strategies. She’s supported organisations such as Sky, Deloitte, Hachette, Michael Page, Tate and Pearson and sport England to name a few; helping them to understand their D&I strengths and identify business improvements, enabling them to re-prioritise activities and rationalise their priorities