Speaker details

IBA Global Showcase

25 Oct - 29 Oct 2021

Online, England

Speaker information

Satoko Tomita

Biography

As one of 24 first staff attorneys of JLSC, Ms. Tomita established a JLSC’s law office in an island where 65,000 people resided with only one lawyer. While dealing with a huge number of cases brought into her office, she also tried to reach out the people who cannot come to the office by making a network with local stakeholders in the island, which was later developed to one of the models of legal social work of JLSC by her successors. After JLSC transferred her to Okinawa District Office, she mainly handled court-appointed criminal defense cases including qausi-jury trials that were newly introduced in Japan in 2009. As a member of Okinawa District Office of JLSC, she took a strong initiative to organize a number of local events, which contributed to establishing the substantial collaborations. Ms. Tomita explored the social structures that push people to the prison by studying for her master degree in Sociology (Criminal Justice) in the USA. Before moving to Nepal for a project implemented by JICA and Supreme Court of Nepal, she worked for a lawyers’ collective for the victims of the Nuclear Disaster in Fukushima. After that she returned to JLSC HQs and started working as a full-time director. Currently she is working as the director of International Affairs Office of JLSC HQs as well as one of staff attorneys of JLSC in Tokyo.