Black Solicitors' Network Directors

Stephen Friday - Chair of BSN Board

Stephen Friday is a partner in the practice of Percy Short & Cuthbert a solicitor’s practice which has been established for over 100 years. He heads the non contentious department at the firm and deals with conveyancing, wills, probate and non-contentious commercial matters.

He sits on the Law Advisory Panels of De Montfort University and the College of Law at Store Street, London.

Stephen’s interest in the academic stages of the training of potential solicitors led to a position on the Law Society Legal Practice Course Board in 1996, a position which he held for four years. He is also an Assessor for the Legal Practice Course.

He was appointed an Honorary Industrial Adviser to the University of North London in January 2002 and appointed to the Joint Academic Studies Board in February 2002.

Mr. Friday has maintained strong links with the African Caribbean community throughout his career. He taught English and Maths at the Lemuel Findlay Supplementary Saturday School in Tottenham for six years. This school has been established for over twenty years assisting children from the African and Caribbean community to supplement their main stream education. He joined the African Caribbean and Asian Lawyers Group shortly after it was formed in 1991. The group was established to help students from African, Caribbean and Asian backgrounds to pursue their career in law. After sitting on its board of directors for three years he became Chair of the group in October 1998 a position which he held until October 1999.

Daniel Bazuaye - Mentoring and student development

Cordella Bart-Stewart

Cordella Bart-Stewart was articled with Maxwell and Gouldman, a general practice in Bloomsbury. She then worked with Dundon Ede and Studdert in Battersea. The firm specialised in criminal litigation. She was admitted in 1987. Post qualification she moved to Stoke Newington to work in a general practice and become more involved in the local community. She opened her own practice" Stewart and Co", based in Tottenham in 1990.

The firm specialises in family and immigration law and holds a Legal Services Commission contract in both areas. It also acts as Privy Council agent for a number of firms in the Caribbean. Cordella is a member of the Solicitors Family Law Association, the Immigration Law Practitioners Association and member of the Law Society Family panel. She was public relations officer for North Middlesex Law Society and held the post of President for a number of years. She is presently an executive committee member of Middlesex Law Society. She has been a Privy Council Agent since admission as a Solicitor. In June 2000, she was appointed a part-time Immigration Adjudicator.

Cordella is a founder member of the Society of Black Lawyers and she served as secretary of this group between 1982 and 1985. She was instrumental in organising a number of conferences, seminars and social functions for this group. As a member of this group she was involved in lobbying the Bar Council and the Law Society to establish race relations (now equal opportunity) committees.

She has worked with a number of community groups as voluntary legal advisor or as a member of their management committee. For over 10 years, she was honorary legal advisor for two local Citizens Advice Bureaux and legal adviser to the African Caribbean Medical Society. She represents the Black Solicitors Network on the Law Society's Pastoral care working group.

Yvonne Brown - Honorary Board Member

Yvonne Brown is the Principal of Yvonne Brown and Co. Solicitors, which was established in Hackney in October 1994. Having qualified in 1985, she worked for 4.5 years as an Assistant Solicitor with Dowse and Co. In 1989 she joined the West End firm of Claude Hornby and Cox, where she was made a partner and remained there for some 2.5 years following which she established her own firm. Yvonne is a founding member of the Black Solicitors Network and is currently the Chair of the Group.

Yvonne is a member of The Law Society's Children Panel and a substantial proportion of the work undertaken by her at her firm is in relation to public law care proceedings. The firm holds Legal Aid Franchises in the areas of family and education. The firm was the first in Hackney to gain a Legal Aid franchise in the area of education law. Yvonne is committed to the education work undertaken by the firm as she considers that unless black children are afforded a proper opportunity of securing a good education, then the whole black community will suffer in the longer term.

Yvonne has participated in several community and professional groups throughout her professional practice. She is a member of the Association of Lawyers for Children, the Solicitors Family Law Association and the Education Law Practitioners Group. For four years she was the vice-chair of the Inner and North London Panel of Guardian ad Litem which had responsibility for practice standards.

In 2002 she was invited to contribute to the Life with Britain Series by delivering a lecture to the George Padmore Institute in Islington. Yvonne was a member of the Black Music Industry Association where she was the Secretary. She was a Trustee of the Avenues Youth Project in West London and a number of mental health groups within East London.

Lynton Orrett - Chair - Membership and Special Interest Committee

Nwabueze Nwokolo - Chair - BSN Midlands

Mrs Nwabueze Nwokolo is dual qualified (England and Wales 1995) and in another Commonwealth jurisdiction (barrister and solicitor, Supreme Court of Nigeria 1978). She is the Law Society Council Member for Minority Ethnic concerns, Chair of the Steering Committee, Black Solicitors Network Midlands (BSN) and Director of the parent national BSN.

Nwabueze is a family mediator and a member of Mediation UK and Resolution. She is a certified mortgage specialist (CeMap), holds a diploma in Mortgage Lending and is a member of the Institutes of Financial Services and Leadership and Management respectively. Nwabueze is committed to equality and diversity and does work in this respect for the Law Society (EAD Committee), the British Methodist Church (Chair, Committee for Racial Justice and Council Member) and the Prison Service (Independent Monitoring Board-IMB).

Yagazie Nwaigwe - Chair - Consultation Committee

Michael Webster

Michael Webster is a joint managing partner of city firm Webster Dixon which was established in January 1998. Michael qualified in November 1989 with the Knightsbridge firm Barber Young Burton and Rind and thereafter joined the firm Sprecher Grier as an assistant solicitor. Following a stint in house with Lehman Brothers International, Michael joined Conway and Co. Solicitors as Head of Litigation in 1993. He was made a partner in February 1994 where he remained until forming Webster Dixon.

Michael is head of both Company/Commercial and Business Disputes, acting for a wide range of clients from large corporations with an annual turnover of £50 million to small and medium-sized enterprises and sole traders.

For four years Michael was the secretary for the Society of Black Lawyers as well as being an active committee member. Michael regularly sits as a member of the Legal Services Commission Appeals Panel. Michael also is a founding committee member and Company Secretary of the African Caribbean Business Network (ACBN), an organisation set up in November 2001 to assist the business development of African Caribbean businesses in London. Michael is a Trustee and Chairman of the Accra Crawford Youth Centre, a charity based in Brixton that helps to provide recreational activities for young people.