Board of Directors

Bruce Lasky

Co-Founder/Co-Director

Bruce Lasky, J.D.; LL.M. is the Co-Founder/Co-Director of the international not-for-profit, access to justice/legal education organization BABSEACLE, and a Pro Bono Legal Advisor for the legal firms, The Legal House Thailand, Lanna Lawyers and The Legal House Laos, all of which have a strong and fervent pro bono focus and practice.

He is a Co-Founder of the Asia Pro Bono Consortium Roundtables, as well as a Co-Founder, and International Organizing Committee Member of the regionally and globally led Asia Pro Bono Consortium and Conference, and Access to Justice Exchange. This initiative has helped to co-organize and hold globally attended pro bono events in Laos (2012), Vietnam (2013), Singapore (2014), Myanmar (2015) Indonesia (2016) Malaysia (2017), Hong Kong (2018), Nepal (2019) Globally/Virtually (2020), Globally/Virtually (2021), Globally/Virtually (2022), and the Philippines (2023), Thailand (2024), and soon to be held in Mongolia (2025).

He has decades of experience in assisting pro bono initiatives, legal aid, clinical legal education, and justice training work. He began his career in 1991 as a practicing criminal legal aid attorney. This experience includes decades of working in developing countries and countries in transition, implementing education and community empowerment projects, including much of that work focusing on pro bono, clinical legal education, access to justice and legal aid.

He is also a Steering Committee/Board of Director of the Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE) as well as a Steering Committee member and Board of Director for the not for profit network organization, SEALAW and a Co-Founder/Director for the international not-for profit organization Sustainable Cambodia.

Wendy Morrish

Co-Founder/Co-Director

Wendy Morrish is the Co-Founder/Director of the not-for-profit organizations BABSEACLE, and BABSEACLE Foundation (Thailand), where she provides technical and education advisory support for pro bono and justice education programs through the Asia region.

Wendy, originally from Australia, is recognized internationally for her dedication and promotion of access to justice, pro bono, legal ethics and professional responsibility through a collaborative and inclusive approach to trainings, curriculum development, good governance, and technical support. With more than 15 years of experience working in developing countries and countries in transition, Wendy’s work primary has focused on initiatives that implement and/or strengthen justice education, access to legal service providers and pro bono initiatives.

She is collaborative and innovative in raising awareness of the legal needs of others and the positive role of lawyers and legal service providers have in the global community. Notably as one of the founders of the Asia Justice Marathon and the virtual Global Pro Bono Move both mass participation events with an objective to positively connect and bring awareness of the work of legal service providers and the broader community.

Since 2016, Wendy has been an active member of the Steering Committee/Board of Directors for the Global Alliance of Justice Educators (GAJE) and currently is the Chair of the GAJE Communications Committee. She has also served on International Organizing Committee of the regionally led Asia Pro Bono Conference and Access to Justice Exchange held in Laos (2012), Vietnam (2013), Singapore (2014), Thailand (2015), Myanmar (2015), Bali, Indonesia (2016) and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2017), Hong Kong (2018), Nepal (2019), the virtual conference & exchange (2020 & 2021), Laos (2022), Philippines (2023), Thailand (2024), and soon to be held in Mongolia (2025).

Professor Chris Walsh

Co-Director

Professor Chris Walsh is the Dean and Chief Academic Officer of VU Online. In this role, he provides academic, administrative, research and marketing leadership to achieve VU’s Strategic Plan. Chris heads a portfolio of quality and assurance and has accountability for the superintendence of VU Online units, courses and programs. He is also responsible for the University’s academic governance, quality assurance and compliance standards, polices and processes are met throughout VU Online’s operations.

Previously, Chris fostered a teaching and research environment where innovation and creativity thrived at the Cairns Institute (2017-18), James Cook University (2016-18), Torrens University (2014-16) and The Open University UK (2009-14).

Dr Nicholas Thomson

Co-Director

Dr Nick Thomson is a public health and human rights trained epidemiologist who spent 12 years working with Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in northern Thailand on a HIV and Drug Use research program based within the Research Institute for Health Sciences, Chiang Mai University.

During that time Nick began specializing in understanding the intersection between security sectors, public health and civil society and the role of partnership towards enabling public health across the Mekong Sub Region in the context of infectious disease.

This work led to a long term consulting role with the UN working with police, health and civil society groups across South, South East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe to better understand how to support environments for infectious disease prevention and response in complex settings.

He is currently a research fellow with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he works with a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional program to better understand how to move from “War time to peace time in the context of illicit drug economies in Myanmar, Afghanistan and Colombia.”

Nick recently lead a Special Issue of the Lancet on Security and Health and joined the University’s Australia Pacific Security College where is a Senior Health Advisor working with the team to facilitate multi-agency discussions with security sector agencies in the Pacific and their counterparts in the health sector.

Leslie Kramer

Co-Director

Leslie Kramer received her BA in English Literature from Washington University in St. Louis and her MFA in playwriting from the Yale School of Drama.

She worked for many years as a financial journalist at publications including CNBC.com, Institutional Investor and Investopedia. Currently, she is working as a Writer at Capital Group, a mutual fund company, in the marketing department. She has also worked creating marketing content for financial technology company, SS&C Technologies, and for a boutique PR agency, Montieth & Co., doing media relations. Her skill set combines a strong command of content creation, writing in a variety of styles and voices, video production and digital publishing.

Leslie has volunteered with Sustainable Cambodia, nonprofit organization that empowers rural Cambodian families by helping them create a sustainable quality of life and with Zara Aina, a New York-based nonprofit organization focused on helping at-risk children in Madagascar.

Yuet Min Foo

Co-Director

Yuet Min graduated with First Class Honours from the National University of Singapore in 2006. Prior to joining Drew & Napier in 2008, Yuet Min was a Justices’ Law Clerk at the Supreme Court of Singapore. She was also appointed to the Supreme Court’s Young Amicus Curiae Scheme in 2010 and 2011.

Yuet Min advises clients mainly on civil disputes relating to a wide range of commercial contracts, with the aim of achieving commercially-viable solutions for clients. She has been described by a client as “very skilled” and “extremely dedicated to the needs of the client”.

Yuet Min regularly appears before the Singapore Courts as lead counsel. Besides maintaining an active litigation practice, many of Yuet Min’s matters involve SIAC and ICC arbitrations as well as arbitration-related Court proceedings. She has particular experience and interest in dealing with multi-lingual proceedings and has conducted a bilingual international arbitration under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules.

She has been appointed arbitrator in a number of SIAC, ICC, and ad hoc international arbitrations, and is an arbitrator on the SIAC Reserve Panel. She has also conducted SIAC arbitrations under the expedited procedure.

Yuet Min is a co-author of the Chambers and Partners Global Practice Guides – Litigation 2024 (Singapore chapter).

Yuet Min speaks English, Mandarin, Malay, and the Hokkien dialect.

Naruedol Wannarat

Co-Director

Naruedol Wannarat (Don) graduated with a law degree from Chiang Mai University. During his studies there, he met Professor Bruce Lasky, BABSEACLE co-founder and co-director, and collaborated with him on the university’s legal clinic project. Bruce had a significant influence on Naruedol’s understanding of human rights law.

After graduation, he continued working with Bruce at BABSEACLE Foundation, a registered non-profit in Thailand, helping to expand and drive legal clinic programs for universities and communities across Thailand and Southeast Asia.

He now serves as President of the BABSEACLE Foundation, supporting its mission throughout Thailand and the broader Asia region.

Currently, Don is advancing his career in the financial sector while remaining dedicated to promoting and advocating for human rights law and working towards a more balanced and just society.

Prof. Adv. Yuval Elbashan

Co-Director

Yuval Elbashan is a community lawyer who since 1997. has continuously addressed those in need of assistance in the field of social rights.
In 1997, he founded and directed the legal department of YEDID for the Advancement of Social Rights and Poverty Reduction Law.
In 2000, he founded and directed the Human Rights Division at the Academic College of Law to promote law, and address poverty and the plight of the individual.
In 2003 he founded and directed the Clinical Center for Social Responsibility and Human Rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
From 2008 to 2013, he again managed the YEDID network of rights centers in the poor periphery of Israel, the organization of which he was one of the founders in 1997.
At the same time, from 2009, managing the Tevel B’Tzedek educational programs that promote social justice in the Third World and is active through this organization in Nepal and Burundi, in the establishment of legal and cultural aid systems for human rights.
In 2013, he was appointed Dean of Social Development at Ono Academic College, responsible for multiculturalism in the institution and accessibility of higher education to excluded populations.
In 2015 he was appointed Chairman of the Pro-Bono National Program of the Israel Bar Association – the “Shachar Mitzvah Program.”
In 2016, after receiving the rank of Professor, he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Laaw, Ono Academic College.
In 2021 he was elected to the board of the National Museum of Israel in Jerusalem
In 2021 he was appointed chairman of the public committee that oversees the Knesset – the Israeli parliament.
Elbashan has published 11 books – including a book of poems “Yesterday They Finished Trimming the Bushes” (Aked 1994); “Strangers in Law” – on accessibility to justice in Israel (Hakibbutz Hameuchad 2005); the novel “Always Flora” (Yedioth Books 2009), which won critical acclaim and sold close to 40,000 copies so far; a children’s book “Peanut the Mouse and the Cruel Glue” (Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2010), which also won critical acclaim; a thriller novel “The Masada Case” (Yedioth Books 2012), which sold close to 60,000 copies; “Attorneys of the Exploited-the Law as a Tool for Social Change” – about jurists who fixed the world (Yedioth Books, 2014); a novel for young people of all ages “Sipu – Unfinished Story” (Yedioth Books 2011) and the novel “Five” for teenagers (Yedioth Books 2016). The last two were chosen to be included in the Ministry of Education’s book charts and following critical praise.
In addition, since 2016, he has been a broadcaster for programs in the Israel Broadcasting Corporation – Reshet Bet, including a weekly program

Officers

Professor Manuel Martinez

Officer

Prof. Manuel Martinez taught at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida for fifteen years before relocating to New York to join the faculty at Queensborough Community College. He earned his MFA in fiction writing at the University of Florida, where he studied under Padgett Powell and Harry Crews.

His notable achievements include receiving the Hurston/Wright Award in 1994 and being a fellow at the Center for Fiction in 2012. Prof. Martinez’s fiction has been published in various prestigious outlets, including The Sun, The Los Angeles Review, Bridge, and The Carolina Quarterly. In 2018, he was honored with a Pushcart special mention for a story published in African American Review.