Esme Madill began her career as a social worker working with those affected by HIV and AIDS. Since 1998 she has offered consultancy services to the not-for-profit sector. Her clients have included Comic Relief, The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust and Adfam, as well as grassroots refugee community groups. She is the co-founder of Refugee Action York, which is now the lead local support organisation for refugees and asylum seekers in North Yorkshire, and was co-founder and co-ordinator of the award winning campaign group End Child Detention Now. Since 2004, Esme has worked with Shpresa Programme, a registered charity supporting the Albanian speaking community in London, developing services for trafficked women and unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

In recent years an increasing amount of her time has been spent trying to find good quality legal representation for clients. As a consequence she decided to retrain as an immigration practitioner. She completed the LPC in 2015.