A first-choice barrister. She is extremely conscientious and thorough. Excellent on trafficking cases, she is very approachable and responsive.
Lucy is a human rights barrister who specialises in representing particularly vulnerable victims of human trafficking, domestic violence, torture, and sexual or other forms of exploitation at all levels in their immigration and asylum appeals (First-tier, Upper Tribunal, Court of Appeal and CART judicial reviews) and in judicial reviews before the Upper Tribunal and Administrative Court. She also provides a Public Access service.
Lucy was called to the bar in 2011 and was shortlisted for a Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year award in 2014. Before coming to the bar, Lucy worked in the fields of human rights and refugees for over a decade. Most recently she worked at Human Rights Watch, during which time she opened and managed the first Jerusalem field office and researched and authored full length human rights reports. She has also worked as a freelance consultant for international aid agencies and holds a masters degree in Human Rights from Columbia University in New York. Lucy regularly undertakes pro bono work with Bail for Immigration Detainees and in other circumstances where clients are not able to afford representation. Lucy has spent considerable time in the past year volunteering as a legal advisor in refugee camps in Greece during the Mediterranean refugee crisis.
Lucy is an experienced public law practitioner with particular familiarity of immigration, asylum, trafficking and unlawful detention judicial reviews. She is available for drafting advices and grounds of judicial review and appearing at oral permission and full substantive hearings. Lucy has experience of applying for interim relief including urgent injunctions.
Lucy regularly represents clients in all types of immigration and asylum appeals.
Lucy is particularly noted for representing vulnerable clients who are victims of human trafficking, torture, domestic violence and sexual or other forms of exploitation. Lucy appears regularly in the First Tier and Upper Tribunals and has had success appealing to the Court of Appeal. She also has experience bringing CART judicial reviews against the Upper Tribunal.
Lucy’s approach to immigration and asylum cases is substantially informed by her detailed knowledge of domestic, regional and international human rights law due to her previous career with Human Rights Watch.
Lucy has developed a particular specialism in trafficking cases, including representing victims of human trafficking/modern slavery in their asylum appeals, in judicial reviews challenging negative Reasonable Grounds and Conclusive Grounds trafficking decisions, and in refusals to grant discretionary leave to victims of trafficking. She works closely with a number of organisations that specialise in providing assistance and representation to victims of trafficking and has been involved in numerous cases where the Competent Authority has agreed to reconsider a negative decision following a targeted request for reconsideration or following issue of a claim for judicial review.
She succeeded in challenging a failure by the National Referral Mechanism to have regard to evidence from a specialist trafficking organization and medical evidence before making a Conclusive Grounds decision (see R (on the application of AB) v Secretary of State for the Home Department and the Free Movement commentary).
Lucy was instructed in the first reported successful substantive CART-type judicial review case in the High Court, in which she represented a Nigerian trafficking victim against the Upper Tribunal.
Lucy is available to advise and represent victims of trafficking in compensation claims, public law challenges against the police where they have failed to investigate a credible allegation of trafficking and in unlawful detention claims.
Lucy is a member of Young Legal Aid Lawyers, where she acts as a mentor to aspiring human rights lawyers. Lucy serves on the Executive Committee of the Bar Human Rights Committee, where she engages in pro bono international human rights work, including contributing to a report on sexual violence and torture perpetrated by the Sri Lankan authorities against Tamils.
Lucy regularly volunteers to speak to students and community groups including speaking recently on a panel at the 2017 Social Justice Lecture at University of Huddersfield on human trafficking and modern day slavery.
Lucy also regularly appears as a trainer for Garden Court North Chambers, as well as for ILPA, the Public Law Project (PLP) and Highgate Solutions.
Lucy’s Privacy Notice may be viewed by clicking here.
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