Alexander McLean (Law, 2007) is Founder and CEO of Justice Defenders, Senior TED Fellow, Ashoka Fellow and UK Young Philanthropist of the Year – and speaker at our recent Live talk here on campus at Lakeside Arts.

Alexander detailed how overcoming failure and rejection is inherent to the identity of Justice Defenders, which addresses the global justice gap by equipping justice defenders through legal education, training and practice. Alexander shared his journey from Nottingham to Founder and CEO, tracing the evolution of Justice Defenders from aiding the defenceless at its outset to reforming the system altogether.

With our highlights from the event, learn from Alexander how to reimagine failure as a gateway to success, how setbacks can lead to growth and how even a failing system can still propel you to achieve greater things.

A passion for justice

Alexander began his studies at Nottingham following, "a really transformative" gap year, during which he travelled to Uganda.

Here he visited prisons and hospices, fundraising to provide better health facilities and educate Ugandan inmates about the law.

His experiences in the country drove him to first establishing the 'African Prisons Project' as a student society while here in Nottingham – combining his studies in law with a passion to support those imprisoned who are failed by their justice systems. 

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After graduating from Nottingham, he moved to Kampala where he created a team of local and international staff and volunteers to develop the work of the African Prisons Project. Now called Justice Defenders, Alexander's vision has grown to a charity employing 350 people working across three African countries.

Nottingham is a beautiful place to be with incredible, passionate lecturers, wonderful facilities academically, but also for sports and in the arts. It was special to be in this environment of people, dreaming together about what we might do with our lives and how we might make a difference in the world. I grew during my time at Nottingham and I took it absolutely as a responsibility in what I receive, I share with others. I received so much here in the sense that my potential is limitless. So when I'm in prisons in Uganda, Kenya or elsewhere, it's the same sense of potential that I want to convey to others of belonging, of being side by side with our students, to support them, to nurture them, to love them so that they can be the change that they dream of in their families, in their communities, in their nations. In the same way that I had that opportunity here.
Alexander McLean

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