Walker Syachalinga
Trainee
Walker is a trainee in the asbestos team
Walker is a trainee in the personal injury department assisting Vijay Ganapathy on industrial disease and complex injury cases arising from exposure to asbestos.
Prior to starting his training contract in September 2021, Walker joined the international team at Leigh Day in 2019 as a paralegal. In that role, Walker:
- Assisted Martyn Day and Oliver Holland on the landmark Vedanta v Lungowe case in which 2,577 Zambian villagers successfully settled a claim for damage to their land and waterways from copper mining effluent and emissions;
- Assisted Richard Meeran in an environmental claim involving a group of Colombian campesinos who secured an urgent interim freezing injunction against oil company Amerisur Resources Plc;
- Assisted Martyn Day with cases on behalf of political activists living in the UK for their alleged targeting with foreign spyware.
Before joining Leigh Day, Walker interned at and volunteered with various human rights organisations including Friends of the Earth UK, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), Liberty (National Council for Civil Liberties) and Redress.
Education
- LLB (Hons) - University of Kent
- Called to the Bar of England and Wales - Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn
- LLM in International Law - University College London
- Distinction in LPC results
Academic Prizes
- John Kish Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Kent Law School
- Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn Overseas Placement Fund
- IBA Education Trust Internship Fund
Appointments
- Walker campaigns on issues of climate change and road safety as London Cycling Campaign’s Climate Safe Streets Champion for the London Borough of Greenwich.
News and blogs
Hydropower, racism and the denial of justice
For Black History Month, trainee solicitor Walker Syachalinga discusses the history of the Tonga - an indigenous tribe in Zambia - to highlight the racism suffered by indigenous communities during large dam projects and call for a rights-based approach to such projects.
Fixing the Modern Slavery Act: A new dawn for supply chain transparency?
Oliver Holland and Walker Syachalinga from our international department discuss the new amendments to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and what impact they could have.
Unequal: the legacy of English law on slavery?
In the first of a series of blogs for Black History Month, Walker Syachalinga and Martyn Day from the international department look at how the law treated African slaves during the slave era and consider how justice and equality can be achieved for those who continue to suffer from the legacy of slavery.
Access to remedy and COVID-19 in the Business and Human Rights field
Walker Syachalinga and Oliver Holland assess the risk to access to remedy in the second of their blogs discussing the impact of COVID-19 on the justice system.