Naomi joined the Board of AdviceUK (still FIAC then) in 1996, subsequently becoming Deputy Chair, and now Chair, a position she accepted on an ‘interim’ basis, but has ended up holding for 6 years.
Naomi was born in London, took a law degree at the London School of Economics and carried out labour law research in Cambridge. Many years later, she gained a ceramics degree at Westminster University. She has been involved in the voluntary sector, as a volunteer and trustee, all her adult life.
In her first ‘proper’ job, she was based in Dublin, as a tutor for Irish Transport and General Workers Union. There, over four decades ago, she started using equality law, pursuing many equal pay claims for ITGWU women members, then moving to Belfast to work for the Equal Opportunities Commission for N Ireland in charge of its unusually adventurous litigation strategy. She was subsequently Legal Officer for COHSE (the health union that is now part of UNISON) and then spent many years in the (mostly health related) voluntary sector.
She wrote the first book on Irish Labour Law and co-authored another on bringing peace to Northern Ireland. She is a founder member of campaigning organisation, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, and is Secretary of the British Shalom-Salam Trust, a unique grant-making charity supporting grassroots projects across the whole territory encompassing Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan.
Many years ago, she fell in love with the enabling, democracy-affirming commitment to independent advice-giving that underpins AdviceUK. In, particular, she respects the AUK culture: thinking bottom-up, not top-down, and speaking for the independent advice sector, while serving the very practical daily needs of its member groups and their users, as efficiently, responsively and imaginatively as it can.
