Louise Christian is in the second year of a part time MA in creative writing at Birkbeck. In her writing she is trying to explore some of the threads of stories she has come across in a long career as a legal aid lawyer. She co- founded the legal aid firm Christian Khan – previously Christian Fisher- in November 1985 and was senior partner until November 2010 when she became a senior consultant. She has been involved in many human rights cases over the years against the government, the police and public authorities. These include acting for bereaved families in the Marchioness Disaster, Ladbroke Grove and Potters Bar railway crashes, cases against the police over deaths in custody and failing to protect people, medical negligence cases and acting for four British men detained in Guantanamo Bay who sued the government over complicity in their torture. Most recently she acted for bereaved families in the Lakanal House fire. Louise is an ex Chair of Liberty and INQUEST and is a member of their Boards and a patron of Hackney Community Law Centre. She has won several awards for her legal work and has an honorary doctorate from Staffordshire University.