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) and this year’s event in the Philippines (2023).
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
Nick is public health and infectious disease epidemiologist with a special interest in the intersection of infectious diseases and security. He has spent twenty years working across SE Asia with Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, the University of Melbourne and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is currently based at the ANU’s Department of Pacific Affairs and is a senior health advisor to the ANU’s Australian Pacific Security College. His current projects include; 1) examining cross sector communication between military, police, health and civil society sectors in the context of biological threat preparation and response and 2) exploring the health and security interface in relation to environmental crimes and biological threats in the Mekong Region. He also currently convenes the Pandemics and Security masters subject for the ANU’s National Security College.
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
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.