We are pleased to offer a range of careers advice sessions. If you want to hear about training and working in environmental law within government, please sign in to your account to register.  If you do not have an account, please create a new account using the sign in box to the right of this page. 

Hear from the following advisers:

• Lorna Matchett - Senior Lawyer, Water and National Permitting Service - Environment Agency
• Joe Newbigin - Government Lawyer - Government Legal Department
• Heather Hamilton - Government lawyer - Defra
• Dr Debbie Legge - Associate lecturer - The Open University

Lorna Matchett

Lorna Matchett began her legal career working as an administrator at the Crown Prosecution Service, where she later trained as a solicitor.  Post qualification, Lorna prosecuted at the CPS for several years before moving to the Environment Agency as a specialist environmental prosecutor.  She did this for some years before moving to her current role, also at the Environment Agency, providing legal advice on matters involving water abstraction and water quality.

Joe Newbigin

Joe works as a Senior Lawyer with the Government Legal Department.  He is currently an advisory lawyer at the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government.  Joe is in the Planning Legal team, where he heads up a mini-team covering environmental, EU and international law and infrastructure.  He was called to the Bar in 2014 and completed pupillage at Francis Taylor Building before moving into the civil service.  Joe was a UKELA Student Advisor for two years, and worked as a Researcher to UKELA’s Brexit Taskforce for a year.  He has also worked as a paralegal at Richard Buxton Solicitors, did a traineeship in the Netherlands through ELSA’s STEP programme, volunteered for PSU and FRU, and served on the PIEL Committee 2013: all of which he thoroughly recommends to aspiring lawyers.

Heather Hamilton

Heather qualified as a solicitor in 2013 after completing an LLM at UCL in Environmental Law and Policy and working as a prosecutor, legal assistant and paralegal. Upon qualification she worked for a year at Richard Buxton Solicitors, followed by four years as a fisheries lawyer at ClientEarth. In December 2018 she joined the Government Legal Department and currently works as a lawyer in Defra Legal Advisers, where she focuses on matters relating to biodiversity and habitats. Heather has been involved with UKELA since her time as a student. She is a past UKELA trustee and sits on the Membership Development Group and Young UKELA. 

Dr Debbie Legge

Dr Debbie Legge studied environmental law as part of her law degree at the University of Sheffield where she also did a phd on the regulation of the water industry. She set up and  taught environmental law and animal law  courses whilst at Liverpool John Moores University. She has written on both areas of law. She was a member of the consumer regulatory body for water and now is an associate lecturer at the Open University where they will soon be teaching  a course on environmental law. She is a member of a number of UKELA working groups  and is involved with Animal law. Debbie has also been involved with a number of environmental and animal law pressure groups.