Leanne has worked in adult social care since 1989, starting as a social work assistant in a local authority learning disability team, and after qualifying in Social Work, as a mental health social worker, and approved social worker in a busy coastal Community Mental Health Team. She maintains her social work registration. She studied law to gain an LLB in 2010, and the LPC in 2011. She has since taken up a lectureship at the University of Kent where she lectures on undergraduate and post graduate social work qualifying programmes as well as coordinating an undergraduate mental health law module at Kent Law School. She was a project team member in the Transgender Awareness in Social Work research project, and has participated in teaching innovation projects on legal education in MA Social Work programs at the University of Kent. Leanne was appointed as a specialist member to the First-tier Tribunal (Mental Health) in 2012, and has delivered training for the HMCTS Judicial College since 2021.