Duncan Lewis Solicitors

Abbid is a director in the family and child care department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. He specialises in representing both Applicants and Respondents in a wide range of complex care that involve serious non-accidental injury, severe sexual abuse, fabricated or induced illness, neglect, and failure to protect from harm. He attends Child Protection Conferences (CPC) and Public Law Outline Meetings (PLO) in order to assist in preventing Care Proceedings being issued. HIs further areas of expertise include; emergency protection orders, discharging care orders and opposing adoption orders, special guardianship orders, parental responsibility agreements, grandparent’s rights, and enforcement proceedings. He has a vast knowledge and experience in dealing with divorce proceedings (including defended divorces), consent orders and wardship proceedings. Abbid deals with s8 applications and has experience in dealing with international child abduction matters in both Hague and non-Hague states. Furthermore, he is well versed in matters involving risk of removal from the jurisdiction, internal relocation, temporary removal disputes, non-molestation orders, occupation orders, and forced marriage orders. Abbid represents parents in high profile wardship proceedings; including a complex case relating to concerns that the parents were going to enter ISIS controlled Syria with their children in order to take part in armed conflict. This is a new and developing area and Abbid has successfully prevented children from being separated from their parents. He also has experience dealing with cases involving issues of serious domestic violence, implacable hostility, sexual abuse and parental alienation. Many of his cases have appeared before the High Court.

Adam Bloodworth

Adam Bloodworth is a solicitor in the child care department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. He specialises in all aspects of family and children law. He has considerable experience resolving issues that stem from the breakdown of a relationship, including; divorce matters, financial matters, protection from harm and matters pertaining to the arrangements for children. In addition to his excellent legal knowledge, Adam brings awareness and understanding to the emotional pressures generated in such a sensitive area of law.

Adeeba Naseem

Adeeba Naseem is a director of family and child care at Duncan Lewis Solicitors.Adeeba’s area of expertise is in handling international and domestic family law proceedings at the high court, in particular child abduction, surrogacy, adoption, and international adoption cases. She regularly deals with separation, divorce, and both domestic and international financial proceedings, including pre and post-nuptial agreements and rare cases involving the Queen’s Proctor. Recent cases include B (A Child : Abduction: Article 13(B)) [2020] EWCA Civ 1057 an international child abduction case, and LC (A Child - Placement Order) [2020] EWCA Civ 787 a child placement order.In child abduction matters, Adeeba regularly issues family proceedings both domestically and in different jurisdictions outside the UK; she liaises with organisations and authorities in other jurisdictions to ensure vulnerable children are successfully returned to their home country. She has handled a significant number of cases worldwide including the return of children abducted to Pakistan and Jamaica, two highly complex cases as neither country’s accession to the Hague Convention is ratified.Adeeba aslo has expertise in surrogacy cases when couples have a surrogate mother in England or another country to carry their child and looks to secure parental orders to ensure the couple are legally recognised as the child’s parents.Adeeba handles both privately and publicly funded matters and has undertaken advocacy at the high courts and lower courts UK-wide. Her broad client base includes vulnerable victims of abuse, international high-profile clients, and cases with a public interest due to concerns of extremist links or children’s medical conditions. She works closely with a number of non-profit organisations that support and advise vulnerable members of their communities. These include children centres, food banks and charities and she often give talks and pro bono advice at domestic violence organisations focussing on securing protection through emergency injunctions for victims of abuse.Adeeba has previous experience practicing both immigration and criminal law and has undertaken her own advocacy at the Magistrates’ Court and at the Crown Court.

Ahmed Aydeed

Public law director, Ahmed Aydeed has extensive specialist experience in advising individuals on all types of public law issues. He has a broad practice in public law and human rights matters, including; asylum, international protection, EU law, nationality law, administrative detention, discrimination and equality, family and child care proceedings. He has represented individuals in judicial review proceedings against the Lord Chancellor, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, the Crown Court and local authorities. His recent work includes a challenge to the Home Office’s policy on the detention of trafficking survivors in immigration detention, as well as the challenge against the Home Office policy terminating all statutory support to slavery victims in the UK after just 45 days. Thanks to his vast experience acting for victims of slavery and human trafficking, Ahmed understood that relief should not be limited to a 45 day period and therefore issued proceedings against the policy on behalf of two clients both victims of trafficking who were due to lose their specialist support as a consequence of this rule. Following complex and lengthy proceedings, the Home Office conceded that the 45-day policy was unlawful and incompatible with the Trafficking Convention and that support should be provided in reference to the individual’s needs rather than by any reference to how long the individual has been supported. As a result of Ahmed’s work in this case, currently over 600 individuals have benefitted. Ahmed has been at the forefront in the battle against unlawful detention of migrants in the UK, focussing in particular on the criminalisation and detention of victims of trafficking, torture, and modern slavery, as well as unaccompanied minor refugees. The litigation Ahmed has brought against the Secretary of State for the Home Department has had a significant impact on thousands of asylum-seekers, by ensuring that the Secretary of State implements effective safe-guards to prevent the unlawful procession of asylum claims and the unlawful detention of the most vulnerable individuals in our society. He has brought successful class action challenges against the SSHD for the procession of asylum claims and the administrative detention of highly vulnerable asylum seekers under the fast track process (DFT) and the Detained Asylum Casework process (DAC); the criminalisation and administrative detention of victims of trafficking; and the policy and application of Detention Centre Rules 34 and 35.

Alexis Masolo

Alexis Masolo is a director in the immigration department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors, based in the firm’s Leicester office. She leads a team that represents both privately funded and publicly funded (legal aid) clients – including detained foreign nationals – in all courts across the full spectrum of immigration, human rights, nationality law and judicial review. Her areas of expertise include; applications under the European Economic Area (EEA) regulations, removal cases, complex asylum based matters, and representing detained foreign nationals who are seeking to remain in the UK. She regularly conducts appeals before the Immigration Asylum Chamber and handles immigration related judicial review claimant cases. She also assists clients with entry clearance matters including those for spouses, visitors and children.

Alia Lewis

Alia Lewis is a director within the family and child care department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. Alia’s expertise extends to all aspects of family law and she has a particular specialism in public law care cases and secure accommodation. Alia has extensive experience representing children through their guardian and through separate representation. She also represents parents, extended family members and interveners, and has conducted cases on behalf of the official solicitor. Her cases involve a range of issues including; physical, sexual and emotional abuse; neglect; factitious illness; non-accidental injury; drug and alcohol addiction; domestic abuse; learning difficulties; mental illness; psychological disorders, and physical disability. She conducts numerous cases that have an international element and undertakes the majority of her own advocacy in order to provide a continuity of representation to her clients. She is also experienced in chairing experts meetings.

Alison Winfield

Housing director Alison Winfield has extensive expertise in housing law and litigates across a range of housing matters including homelessness, possession proceedings, rent arrears and anti-social behaviour, injunctions under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, breach/committal proceedings, unlawful eviction, and disrepair. Alison’s experience handling cases in the county courts spans over twelve years. She acts for both landlords and tenants allowing her to represent both sets of clients effectively thanks to the insight, understanding and knowledge she has developed through tackling issues from both sides. She has a particular interest in handling cases of anti-social behaviour that involve mental health aspects.She has broadened her expertise by branching out into other areas of general civil litigation including breach of contract cases and property disputes.

Amy Bennett

Amy Bennett is a Clinical (Medical) Negligence Solicitor at Duncan Lewis Solicitors, based at the firms' City of London office. Amy has worked exclusively in the field of medical negligence since qualifying as a solicitor over ten years ago. She has special expertise in stillbirth and neonatal death claims and has a genuine and passionate desire to assist parents through the litigation process after the loss of their child. In addition to her in-depth knowledge and expertise in stillbirth and neonatal death claims, Amy handles a number of additional medical negligence matters including childbirth injury claims; gynaecological related claims; and misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis claims. She assists clients who have suffered negligence as a result of surgical errors and errors involving prescriptions, and also assists those who have suffered from pressure sores. Amy's work extends to representing families in negligence claims involving children, and in claims where a wrongful death has occurred.

Angela Sandhal

Angela is a Director at Duncan Lewis Soliciotors in the Court of Protection and Public Law departments. Angela act for clients in all aspects of litigation in both the welfare and property/affairs jurisdiction of the Court of Protection. She has a particular interest in acting for family members in both section 16 and section 21A applications where there has been the removal of a family member to a specialist facility or care home at the objection of P’s family. Angela has successfully challenged capacity assessments and deprivation of liberty orders. She also acts for the Official Solicitor on behalf of P in a range of applications. Angela's property and affairs work involves acting for individuals and family members in disputes about capacity, validity of Lasting Power of Attorneys and related revocation applications arising from suitability disputes and financial abuse. She have been involved in a number of high value cases where funds have been managed by deputies including family members, solicitors and local authority officers.

Anthony Okumah

Anthony is a director in the civil litigation department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. He has extensive experience in civil and commercial litigation and specialises in acting for claimants in negligence actions against solicitors, barristers and accountants. He has a strong practice in multi-jurisdiction matters. Anthony also specialises in dispute resolution and uses a wide range of tools such as arbitration, mediation and litigation. He frequently handles insolvency matters that include bankruptcy, winding up proceedings, and applications to set aside transactions at undervalue. He has a particular interest in property litigation; and trust claims involving determination of beneficial ownership, contested probate claims and boundary disputes.

Bahar Ata

Bahar Ata is a director in the public law and immigration departments at Duncan Lewis Solicitors who supervises a team of dedicated lawyers representing the most vulnerable in society. Since taking on the position of director she has grown her small team of three to a fully-fledged department of twenty dedicated lawyers, making it one of the fastest growing teams in the firm. Since 2016 she has been involved in setting up the firm’s dedicated bail team which represents those detained under immigration powers as well as to bring challenges against the Secretary of State for the Home Department for unlawful detention, false imprisonment claims and failure to provide accommodation. Bahar has been practicing immigration and human rights law for more than 14 years and has expertise in representing clients in unlawful detention claims, challenges against the Competent Authority decisions in respect of trafficking claims, age assessments challenges and challenging removals to third countries under Dublin Regulations. She has extensive experience representing clients at the High Court, the Court of Appeal, and at the Supreme Court. She was the lead lawyer in representing clients in group litigation in challenging detention under Article 28 of Dublin III Regulations, where the Supreme Court handed down a landmark judgment in R (on the application of Hemmati and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] UKSC 56. The court unanimously found that Secretary of State for the Home Department had acted unlawfully by detaining the appellants whilst their claims were being considered under the Dublin III regulations. She was also the lead lawyer representing claimants in challenging removals to Hungary and Bulgaria under Dublin III Regulations. The High Court decision in the case of Ibrahimi & Anor v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWHC 2049 (Admin), is the only one of its kind where the Secretary of State accepted the decision of the High Court that returning asylum seekers to Hungary would breach their Article 4 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. This has seen proven success; since 2016 there have been no removals to Hungary from the UK under the Dublin III Regulations. In 2019 Bahar was awarded the Cilex Legal Expert award in 2019, having been shortlisted as a finalist for the same award in 2018. She was also a finalist for Lawyer of the Year award at the 2019 Modern Law Awards.

Bernadette Chikwe

Housing director Bernadette Chikwe specialises in all aspects of housing litigation and tenant/landlord social housing matters. She has copious experience in both dealing with privately rented, local authority and social landlords rent and other grounds possession proceedings. She also has experience in dealing with mortgage possession proceedings, charging order proceedings and assisting clients make their applications to suspend warrants of eviction. Bernadette has worked in a number of reported cases including the recent Abdi v the London Borough of Waltham Forest an s.204 appeal, on the issue of suitability of temporary accommodation of time and distance in the context of borough placements and the post Localism Act. She has been a duty solicitor since 2002 at both Bow County Court and the Central London County Court. As a duty solicitor, she gives clients face to face advice before and after their hearings. She liaises with third parties, represents them in relation to their hearings and when appropriate, makes referrals to other organisations following the hearing. Bernadette also supervises a remote advice service through the Legal Aid Agency Civil Legal Advice. This entails representing clients UK-wide, handling their instructions and processing their cases remotely through non face to face communications such as video calls, telephone and/or email.

Bernadette Chikwe

Caroline Roche

Director Caroline deals with all aspects of wills and probate including; drafting wills to include a wide range of complicated situations; advising in relation to any inheritance tax which may be due from the estate; dealing with the tax situation in both taxable and non-taxable estates; and handling the affairs of a loved one who has died without making a will. She also specialises in handling Powers of Attorney matters relating to both health and welfare and finance and property. She has a proven track record in successfully dealing with a variety of contentious probate claims; this includes claims made under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, claims for equitable relief under proprietary estoppel, constructive trusts, and resulting trusts, and TOLATA claims. In addition, Caroline also has extensive experience in dealing with both non-litigated and litigated Clinical Negligence claims as well as considerable experience in representing clients who have been accused of committing motoring offences. Caroline carries out work for the employment department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors with a particular focus on settlement (compromise) agreements.

Daljit Singh

Daljit is a Solicitor in the Housing department based in Duncan Lewis Solicitors' City of London office. He works as a part of the Housing team and takes instructions on a variety of publicly and privately funded housing matters including claims for possession, landlord and tenant disputes, applications for eviction, suspension of warrants for possession, housing disrepair, unlawful evictions, harassment, homelessness reviews, homelessness appeals in the County Court, and applications for judicial review. Daljit has considerable experience dealing with cases ranging from small claims matters to complex multi-track cases, and matters which haven been determined by the Court of Appeal. He regularly assists as a Court Duty Adviser and advocate on behalf of clients at the County Court. Daljit volunteers and supports Help for Southall Street Homeless (HSSH) which is a homeless charity set up to assist rough sleepers who suffer with various medical needs and/or substance abuse issues in Southall (West London) and the neighbouring arears.He also volunteers with CRISIS at Christmas and assist homeless people in London over the Christmas period. Daljit's volunteering work has allowed him to develop his ability to work with and assist some of the most vulnerable people in society. Daljit is committed to promoting access to justice, in particular to those who are the most vulnerable within society. He wholeheartedly believes that everyone should be is entitled to receive clear legal advice and assistance regardless of their social or economic circumstances.

Darren Middleton

Darren Middleton is a Director of Immigration at Duncan Lewis Solicitors based at the firms' Birmingham office. He is an accredited Supervising Senior Caseworker under the Immigration and Asylum Law Accreditation Scheme. Darren specialises in working with vulnerable individuals and complex cases, including further submissions, and deportation. Darren is experienced in preparing asylum and immigration appeals for the Tribunal. He has provided representation for nationals of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Mongolia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe, who have had their appeals successfully allowed by Tribunal. He has successfully provided representation at the appeal stage where the SSHD has sought to deprive an individual of British citizenship on the basis of deception. Darren is a participant in the Immigration and Asylum Chamber Committee Working Group at the Tribunal in Birmingham, which meets on a periodic basis.

David Head

David Head is a civil litigation director and is a member of Duncan Lewis Solicitors’ senior management team. He is a housing and litigation solicitor with over 20 years’ experience working throughout London, with significant experience in homelessness, disrepair and possession cases. As a Solicitor Advocate, David has experience in representing clients in the higher courts. He advises on numerous matters which have a cross-over with employment for companies, including TUPE; mergers and acquisitions and employment contractual drafting.

Dianne Cowie

Director of Housing, Dianne Cowie specialises in landlord and tenant matters, helping tenants and leaseholders ensure repairs are carried out to their properties and when possible, obtaining compensation for clients affected by disrepair. She has expertise in disrepair, injunction and committal proceedings, homelessness appeals, and judicial reviews. She also advises on rent arrears, and breaches of tenancy.Dianne has particular expertise in possession matters notably those involving allegations of anti-social behaviour, often in respect of vulnerable clients. She has extensive experience handling cases that have been decided in the Administrative Court, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.She is recognised as an “excellent litigator” and her expertise have resulted in her involvement in reported cases. Notable cases include representing a vulnerable tenant in both a possession matter as well as a subsequent homelessness matter. Successfully settling the complex possession matter clearing arrears of £10,000 and thereafter ensuring that a duty to house was accepted by the local authority by appealing their decision not to accept this on the basis of not eligible due to status. Her team runs weekly pro bono clinics for Citizens Advice Merton and Lambeth, and she has also provided training in relation to homelessness and possession matters to the Citizens Advice volunteers/advisors.

Emine Mehmet

Child care director Emine Mehmet has extensive experience in all aspects of child care and family law. She specialises in representing parents, children’s guardians and children in all Children Act matters, particularly in cases involving abuse, drug/alcohol misuse, neglect, rare illness and non-accidental injuries. Her caseload also comprises of a broad range of privately and publicly funded family and childcare matters, including; care proceedings; private law children disputes; domestic abuse matters; divorce and ancillary relief and cohabitation disputes. Emine Mehmet is committed to assisting the most vulnerable and ensuring access to justice. She is head of the Duncan Lewis Pro bono Committee which has received a number of national industry awards in recognition for its excellent work. She won the Jordan’s Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year at the 2016 Family Law Awards and was commended in the category; Best Contribution by an Individual at the 2017 LawWorks Pro Bono Awards.

Forida Hakim

Forida is a director in the family and child care department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. She represents parents, guardians and children within public law proceedings and is well equipped to represent vulnerable parents and children who are subject to removal. She regularly represents clients in domestic abuse, defended and undefended divorces, and financial matrimonial matters as well as assisting clients in private children matters. Forida has extensive experience in representing vulnerable clients in matters that include; non-accidental injuries, sexual abuse, mental health difficulties, and drug and alcohol abuse. She assists parents and Local Authorities in relation to discharging care orders and adoption orders. Recently, she represented a child in a radicalisation case and is well-equipped to advise parents in similar cases in the High Court. Forida undertakes many private law proceedings relating to arrangements for contact and deciding which parent a child should live with. These include complex alienation, implacable hostility, sexual abuse based, protracted contact dispute and domestic abuse cases. She also represents parties in relation to removal from the jurisdiction and child abduction matters.Utilising her expert knowledge and cultural background Forida understands and appreciates the cultural difficulties faced by vulnerable people within the community and assists them accordingly. She provides advice and assistance at the pro bono clinic in the East London Mosque and at Newham Asian Women’s Project, and regularly represents parties as Applicant and Respondent in relation to injunction and forced marriage act orders.

Gabor Nagy

Director Gabor Nagy has a broad practice across all areas of private and publically funded immigration, asylum, and public law matters. He has extensive experience in representing clients in detained and port removal cases, EEA applications, citizenship and naturalisation, and immigration or civil liberties related judicial review claimant cases. He regularly challenges decisions by judicial review to the High Court. Gabor undertakes his own advocacy at the First-tier and Upper Tribunal of the Immigration Asylum Chamber. Gabor is committed to protecting the human rights of the most vulnerable. In 2015 he successfully led Duncan Lewis’ Hungarian fact finding mission where he closely worked with a number of Hungarian based NGOs, social workers, lawyers and detainees. They obtained a thorough and comprehensive insight into the detention regime of the Hungarian government and the information and documents that they gathered became an invaluable asset in Duncan Lewis Solicitors’ subsequent Hungarian human rights based judicial review cases.

Graeme Rothwell

Graeme is the director of the Action Against Public Authorities department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. His driving force is in holding public authorities to account when they abuse their powers, fail to observe their professional obligations, or otherwise act unlawfully. He assists a wide variety of clients, many of whom are vulnerable individuals. His work includes making complaints and bringing civil claims against police, the prison service, various government departments, and their agencies. He also advises in relation to the mishandling of personal information, discrimination, and breaches of legislation designed to protect basic human rights. Graeme also has experience in representing the bereaved during inquests. In addition to his work challenging the actions of public authorities, Graeme is also a solicitor within Duncan Lewis’ criminal defence department and has conducted numerous successful trials throughout his career. In order to maintain a balance between his civil and criminal litigation caseloads, Graeme takes care to preserve his duty solicitor status, and regularly attends both court and police stations to ensure that those who request his assistance are properly represented, advised and defended.

Hardeep Dhaliwal

Director Hardeep is a specialist in criminal fraud defence work and has a significant practice in high-value DWP benefit fraud, MTIC VAT fraud, and complex boiler room and money laundering cases. He defends cases investigated and prosecuted by the National Crime Agency, HMRC, the Serious Fraud Office, UK Borders Agency, Economic Crime Units, the DWP, local authorities and Trading Standards. Hardeep also handles defence work in high-profile (often gang-related) serious crimes such as murders, drug importation, fraud and rape. He has a niche specialism in defending bank employee fraud cases (with holistic assistance from the firm’s welfare benefits legal team). Hardeep has further expanded his role by ensuring the firm is recognised as leaders in representing clients charged with very serious high profile offences which are only triable at the Crown Court. This includes high value complex fraud cases and large scale drug importation cases.Hardeep’s notable cases include R v W, a money laundering case involving money in excess of £100,000, and the case of R v O which involved the alleged large-scale importation of cannabis into the UK from the Netherlands and was investigated by the National Crime Agency.

Harriet Phillips

Harriet is a family and child care solicitor at Duncan Lewis Solicitors, based in the Birmingham office. She has experience handling a wide range of family and child care legal matters.Primarily, she represents parents whose children are the subject of care order, supervision order, and placement order applications. She manages care cases on a day-to-day basis and represents clients who have difficulties with mental health, substance misuse, and anger management. She also represents parents who have learning difficulties and tailors her representation to ensure that they clearly understand the proceedings that they are involved in. She has experience of representing parents in cases that concern allegations of non-accidental injuries towards their children, as well as assisting parents when social services initially become involved in respect of their children to work to prevent care proceedings being issued.Harriet's expertise extends to Section 8 Child Arrangement Order proceedings where she represents clients in applications to vary and enforce existing Child Arrangements Orders. She also handles applications for prohibited steps orders and specific issue orders, for instance in applications to take the children on holiday to Non-Hague Convention countries which are dealt with in the High Court. She has had conduct of two complex Child Arrangements matters in the High Court where allegations of radicalisation were made. Additionally, she represents clients in applications for non-molestation orders and in applications to extend existing non-molestation orders. This often involves dealing with vulnerable clients who have experienced significant trauma and whose cultural background can impact on their need for protection.

Helen Newman

Specialising in international family law solicitor Helen Newman is based in the Duncan Lewis Solicitors’ Tonbridge office. With over 40 years work in the legal sector, she is a prominent solicitor practicing in international child abduction, having had a case heard in the Court of Justice of the European Union which is now firmly embedded into English national law. Alongside her work concerning international child abduction, she undertakes other aspects of cross border and children law including relocation, wardship, care proceedings, and children cases with an international element. She has been a guest speaker at The Conference on the Child Removal Proceedings in the Council of Europe Member States and related Human Rights Issues in 2014 and at the International Family Law Conference, Barreau de Paris in October 2014. Helen was also a guest speaker at a conference held at the Institute of Education of the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic in Omšenie on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The conference organised was by the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic, the Association of Friends of Children from Children´s Homes (Spoločnosť priateľov detí z detských domovov Úsmev ako dar) and the Judicial Academy of the Slovak Republic.

Henna Sajid

Henna is a family and child care solicitor in the Birmingham office at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. She undertakes her own advocacy representing clients at the family court before district judges, circuit judges and the magistrates. She has considerable experience assisting sensitive and vulnerable clients whilst maintaining a high level of professionalism. She specialises in care proceedings particularly those with local authority involvement; private law proceedings, notably applications for contact and residence; emergency injunctions; divorce; and financial proceedings. She regularly attends local refugees and other organisations in order to provide training, legal advice and my assistance on a monthly basis.

Ifrah Ahmed

Ifrah is a solicitor within the personal injury and clinical negligence department and has several years of experience in personal injury law having worked in the industry since 2012. She has provided legal representation in relation to claims for personal injuries on behalf of individuals who have sustained serious injuries arising from road traffic collisions, accidents at work and accidents in public places. Her expertise includes, but is not limited to; cases involving traumatic brain injury and serious orthopaedic injuries. She has also provide legal representation in relation to clinical negligence cases including, claims involving delay in diagnosing, surgical injuries and orthopaedic injuries resulting from delay, misdiagnosis and negligence.

James Packer

Public law director, James Packer, litigates across a broad range of areas and regularly conducts test cases concerning issues that involve; access to the courts, unlawful detention, enforced removals from the UK, challenges to decisions to refuse legal aid and associated litigation. He also has a specialist practice in complex immigration cases, especially for high net worth and high profile individuals and is frequently involved in appealing costs decisions, often to the Court of Appeal. James has extensive experience in cases which have been decided in the Administrative Court, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. He has also brought successful challenges to the European Court of Human Rights. He also handles tribunal advocacy work and has a significant practice in Upper Tribunal and Court of Appeal cases.In a judicial review against the Lord Chancellor, James was part of the team at Duncan Lewis that successfully challenged the blanket refusal to provide legal aid funding for judicial reviews where permission was refused on the papers. The result will assist legal aid providers representing some of the most vulnerable in society and should in turn enhance access to justice. James has experience in a wide variety of judicial review litigation including; a challenge to a decision to impose a planning levy on a development; challenges to decisions by the Secretary of State for Justice to recall prisoners released on licence; challenges to the continuation of police bail, and a successful challenge to a decision by the SRA to simply send a ‘letter of advice’ to his client’s former solicitor. James also handled a challenge to the removal of a parking place for a disabled self-employed person, a challenge to a refusal to amend a Statement of Special Educational Needs, and challenges to local authority assessments such as housing and social security entitlements of various types. James provides accredited training for ILPA, HJT and AMT.

Jamie Bell

Jamie Bell is a solicitor in the public law and immigration department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. He has significant experience in a wide variety of complex and high profile matters. He has a particular specialism in preventing the unlawful removal of asylum seekers and undertakes a substantial number of judicial review cases. Jamie has demonstrated particular commitment to representing Afghan claimants, beginning when he played an integral part of the legal team that embarked upon a series of judicial review claims challenging returns to Afghanistan because of the deterioration in the country’s situation. As part of the challenge, Jamie assisted with the preparation of over forty judicial review applications prior to charter flights on 10 March 2015 and 21 April 2015. Jamie and the team obtained unprecedented orders granted ‘generic relief’, preventing the mass removals of Afghan nationals. These orders have prevented the detention and removal of hundreds of Afghans. He has significant experience dealing with vulnerable clients, including those in detention, those suffering from complex psychological issues and victims of torture and trafficking. Jamie also has a specialism in challenging the detention of vulnerable clients and has achieved success securing their release and awards of damages for the client. In October 2016, Jamie visited the Calais refugee camp on two occasions, to give advice and support to unaccompanied refugee children in their applications to come to the UK under the ‘Dubs Amendment’, playing a leading role in the second visit in organising the taking of instructions and liaising with social workers.

Jenna McKinney

Immigration director, Jenna McKinney, has extensive experience specialising in all aspects of immigration, European Economic Area (EEA) law, asylum, and human rights. She leads a team that specialises in representing detainees with their immigration and public law matters; specifically, appeals, asylum, general immigration, challenges against removal or deportation and unlawful detention judicial review claimant work in the High Court. She also represents in civil claims in the county courts and the Queen’s Bench Division.Jenna attends attend prisons and immigration detention/removal centres throughout England and Wales and regularly assists clients with applying for bail, release and those facing deportation.She has considerable expertise in unlawful detention judicial review claimant matters and has a significant practice in unlawful immigration detention cases with high net claims for damages and challenging immigration removal cases; in particular, Dublin II third country removal cases. Jenna conducts her own advocacy, representing clients at hearings before the First-tier and Upper Tribunal of the Immigration Asylum Chamber. She is a legal aid specialist, representing vulnerable clients, including: minors; vulnerable women who have been raped; those with mental health issues, and those with medical issues including people living with HIV.She has also been involved in numerous complex cases that settled out of court including MO v SSHD in which MO was one of the claimants in the test litigation of Medical Justice V SSHD, Equality and Human Rights Commission intervening [2017] EWHC 2461 (Admin) which held that the Home Office had applied an incorrect definition of torture to immigration detainees and challenged the Adults at Risk Home Office statutory guidance for immigration detainees.Jenna regularly provides training on challenging immigration detention. She has previously assisted the charity Detention Action in their litigation challenging the Detained Fast Track by providing expert witness evidence and case studies on behalf of Duncan Lewis Solicitors. This evidence was extensively referred to by the Court in the judgement declaring the Detained Fast Track Process unlawful in 2014.

Julie Leslie

Personal injury director, Julie Leslie, has over 14 years' post-qualification experience across all types of claimant personal injury work. This includes accidents at work, trips and slips, occupier's liability, children's injuries and road traffic accidents. Julie has experience in running cases from initiation through to trial. Her caseload varies from representing claimants with straightforward injuries, to those where claimants have suffered life changing accidents.

Karolina Natkaniec

Karolina is a solicitor in the commercial and civil litigation department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. She has significant experience in a wide variety of commercial and civil litigation claims, particularly those involving commercial disputes, disputes arising under a contract, misrepresentation cases, insolvency, and professional negligence matters. She is also experienced in dealing with property related disputes especially those involving disputes over the ownership of a property (under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996). She has represented parties in disputes arising from repairing obligations, service charges, deposits, and other contractual terms in tenancy agreement and leases. Karolina has acted for both claimants and defendants under various funding arrangements. She is commercially aware of the need to resolve disputes for clients swiftly and efficiently.

Kathy Walker

Family and child care director, Kathy Walker, has extensive knowledge of all family and child care matters. Kathy has been involved in many complex care proceedings, which have included non-accidental injury, high profile ‘honour killing’, somatic symptom disorder, fictitious illness, rare genetic conditions, death of a child mid-proceedings, parents with a mental health condition lacking litigation capacity who have then had to be appointed an official solicitor to represent them within care proceedings, along with all the other factors that normally cause the local authority to issue proceedings such as sexual abuse, neglect, drug and alcohol misuse, emotional and physical harm. Kathy represents children of all ages, she believes it is important that the court knows what the child has to say and often arranges for the child or children to see the judge themselves so that they can tell them exactly how they feel. Kathy has significant experience and knowledge of domestic violence cases and is passionate about helping the most vulnerable to escape their perpetrators. She has represented victims of domestic violence throughout her career and now ensures that all her team members are trained to be able to recognise the signs of domestic abuse. Kathy undertakes the majority of her own advocacy and often appears before District, Circuit, High Court judges and magistrates.

Krina Parmar

Family and child care director, Krina Parmar, specialises in public and private law children matters with significant expertise in; forced marriage applications; female genital mutilation (FGM) applications; emergency matters such as removal of children and domestic abuse and forced marriage applications. Many of her cases are culturally complex cases with international aspects. Krina represents parents, family members and children as parties to applications for child arrangement orders, special guardianship orders, child abduction matters, adoption proceedings and care proceedings to include serious non-accidental injuries where a baby has died. She represents and is regularly instructed on high profile non-accidental injury cases and has been led by both Junior Counsel and Queens Counsel in these cases. Krina undertakes all her own advocacy, where possible, to ensure clients are given a continuous and consistent service. Krina also frequently trains professionals in the areas of domestic abuse, forced marriages and FGM. Krina has considerable experience representing victims of domestic abuse, and in dealing with vulnerable clients and those with learning disabilities. Additionally, Krina attends pro bono surgeries for Women’s Aid; local contact centres and has a strong relationship with victim support and the police. She is also a police station accredited representative. In 2020 Krina was shortlisted for the Family Law Lawyer of the Year at the LALY Awards and Family Law Partner of the Year at the Family Law Awards.

Krisha Prathepan

Krisha Prathepan is a solicitor in the Public Law and Immigration departments at Duncan Lewis’s Harrow office. She has a wealth of experience in carrying out appeals before the First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal of the Immigration Asylum Chamber, as well as various other challenges against the Secretary of State for the Home Department such as: unlawful detention, removals to European countries under the Dublin Convention, removals on asylum and human rights grounds and challenges to policy and law relating to vulnerable people. Passionate and committed to representing the most vulnerable in society, Krisha works with victims of torture, trafficking, disputed minors, pregnant women in detention and those with other physical/mental difficulties. Additionally, she has extensive experience in cases which have been decided in the Administrative Court and Supreme Court. Notably, she has had conduct of the following lead cases: Challenges under article 28 involving unlawful detention under the Dublin Regulations; Challenges to returns to Hungary under the Dublin Regulations; Challenges to returns to Malta under the Dublin Regulations; Challenges on returns to Austria under the Dublin Regulations; Challenges involving section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016, also known as the 'Dubs Amendment.'

Krutika Patel

Krutika Patel is a solicitor in the immigration department based at Duncan Lewis Solicitor’s Harrow office. Krutika has experience in advising on points based system applications, citizenship, bail applications, removal cases, nationality matters, long residence and leave to enter and remain applications under immigration rules. She has handled various matters involving different types of applications such as spousal and visa applications, unmarried partner and fiancé visa applications as well as EEA national and asylum applications. Additionally, Krutika also works on compliance matters and regularly submits in-time appeals against refusals and undue delay caused by the Home Office. In her career, she has represented clients in an array of judicial review matters, including challenging the decision of the Secretary of State for the Home Department to deport, remove or unlawfully detain a client.

Laila Bhunnoo

Family and child care director, Laila Bhunnoo, is a solicitor-advocate and specialises in representing parents, children’s guardians, and children in all Children Act matters. She has a wide practice assisting publically funded clients across London. Her practice covers special guardianship orders, care orders, supervision orders, emergency protection orders, UK and international adoption, child abduction, forced marriage protection orders, and FGM orders. Laila’s work also covers matters that involve same sex relationships, and she has significant experience representing vulnerable teenagers, often separately from their Guardian when conflict has arisen.Laila is a member of the Law Society’s Children Panel as a Children Representative and is an experienced advocate with Higher Rights of Audience, which entitles her to represent clients at all levels of court. She is repeatedly the ‘solicitor of choice’ for Children Guardians in connection with Rule 16.4 appointments. Being one of the few Asian specialists in this area, Laila is also often appointed in culturally complex cases. Laila was awarded Employer of the Year 2011 and 2016 by the National Mentoring Consortium for her work with the University of Westminster law students; mentoring BME university students to help them achieve a better understanding of the work place and developing their skills through increasing confidence in their own abilities.

Laurence Grant

Laurence Grant is a consultant solicitor and specialises in a range of criminal defence matters including murder and attempted murder; GBH and other assault matters; serious fraud; conspiracy to smuggle drugs; people trafficking; armed robbery and blackmail. He also has extensive experience in handling more niche areas such as confiscation and motoring. During his career he has investigated cases investigated and prosecuted by the NCA, HMRC, Serious Fraud Office, UK Borders Agency, Economic Crime Units, DWP, Local Authorities, Trading Standards and the SOCA. Since 1995, Laurence has represented clients at the police station, recognising that informed and intelligent advice at the station can make or break a case. Having represented clients in some of the most serious MTIC prosecutions of the last decade, Laurence is recognised as a Grade A Fee Earner by the Complex Crimes Unit. In 2012 along with his colleague, Laurence was responsible for establishing a dedicated Proceeds of Crime and Fraud Unit. This resulted in Duncan Lewis Solicitors being recognised as one of the leading providers of advice and representation in this highly specialised area. The unit represents clients nationwide and particularly focuses on proceedings where the Crown seeks multi-million pound benefit figures.

Lewis Kett

Lewis Kett is a solicitor in the public law and immigration departments at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. He has extensive experience in a wide range of judicial review challenges, with particular expertise in refugee law and immigration detention. He has a keen interest in developing strategic litigation with his recent work focussing particularly on mistreatment of immigration detainees and the conditions in which they are held. His recent work is heavily based around challenges to both the lawfulness and conditions of immigration detention and includes the lead challenge to the SSHD’s Adults at Risk in Immigration Detention policy, which was found to be unlawful in irrationally restricting the definition of torture so that only those who were tortured by state actors could be recognised as vulnerable and be considered for release. He was also heavily involved in the first successful challenge to the use of segregation in immigration detention. Other notable cases: MA & BB v SSHD [2019] EWHC 1523 – Successful challenge of SSHD failure to institute a Public Inquiry into abuse of detainees at Brook House. Hussein v SSHD [2018] EWHC 213 – Lock-in regime at Brook House constituted indirect discrimination to Muslim detainees forced to pray in conditions contrary to Art 9/14 ECHR. Lewis has successfully represented clients in a variety of asylum applications and appeals. Many of his clients are extremely vulnerable individuals and include those who have been persecuted in their home countries, as well as former military interpreters, political protesters, victims of trafficking, and those fearing persecution due to their sexuality. In 2018, Lewis won the Legal Aid Newcomer Award at the 2018 LALY Awards and in 2017 he was a finalist for the Junior Lawyer of the Year at the Law Society Excellence Awards where he was ‘Highly Commended’. In April 2016, he became the first trainee solicitor to be awarded The Times 'Lawyer of the Week' for his work in obtaining refugee status for a former Afghan military interpreter. He has recently been shortlisted for Human Rights Solicitor of the Year at the 2019 Law Society Excellence Awards and Rising Star at the 2019 British Legal Awards.

Linda Barker

Linda is a consultant solicitor in the crime department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. Handling a broad range of criminal matters from shoplifting and fraud, to murder and assault, she was previously involved in a multi-handed drug importation matter involving substantial amounts of monies, as well as a high-profile murder and a case involving a football coach charged with sexually assaulting a boy. Linda manages her own criminal defence team, they have dealt with an advance fee scam fraud, valued at half a million pounds, involving property developments in the Cayman Islands and Ireland. She was also involved in challenging the law on “Joint Enterprise" and Article 7 in the Supreme Court, by taking a case in which the defendant had been convicted of murder on the basis of Joint Enterprise to the Court of Appeal. Linda is both a court and police station duty solicitor, enabling her to attend police stations to advise and assist people who would otherwise have no legal representation.

Lorick Winarskie

Lorick Winarskie is a director within Duncan Lewis Solicitors’ housing department. Based in the firm’s Birmingham office, he supervises a team of solicitors, trainees, and caseworkers. With over 30 years of experience in housing law, Lorick’s expertise in this area is second to none. He has extensive knowledge in a broad range of housing law related issues, this includes; homeless appeals; defending possession proceedings; anti-social behaviour injunctions and judicial review claimant matters. He represents both publicly and privately funded clients at all levels of proceedings, up to, and including the Supreme Court.

Manjinder Kaur Atwal

Housing director Manjinder Kaur Atwal has over 13 years’ experience in housing and property litigation law. She handles a wide variety of housing and property law dispute cases including possession claims and eviction matters, landlord and tenant disputes, homelessness, housing disrepair, bringing judicial review matters, reviews and appeals relating to local authority housing decisions, bringing and defending injunctions, boundary disputes, property nuisance/negligence claims, consumer and contractual matters, debt recovery, and enforcement. She also has considerable experience dealing with small claims cases and multi-track cases, and undertakes her own advocacy at court and tribunals on behalf of her clients. Manjinder is dedicated to achieving the best possible outcome for her clients and has earned a reputation for taking on difficult cases deemed without merit, going on to obtain excellent results for clients. Her most notable recent undertaking is her work assisting victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. As well as assisting victims with their immediate housing needs, she is heavily involved in negotiations and raising awareness for those who have been impacted. Manjinder and her team were amongst the first lawyers to assist the victims and was part of a team that set up two drop-in pro bono clinics at Al Manaar Mosque and Westway Sports Centre. She has appeared in the media on multiple occasions, discussing the needs of Grenfell victims and how the cuts to legal aid for housing disrepair have impacted vulnerable tenants. Manjinder regularly features in the media, speaking to TalkRadio Live and RT UK News discussing her work. She recently discussed the government's low levels of spending on social housing and the impact on landlords and tenants during the Covid-19 outbreak. She has also written numerous articles for media platforms on the current social housing issues.

Meena Kumari

Meena Kumari is a director in the family and child care departments at Duncan Lewis Solicitors and has a wealth of experience involving complex children cases with an international element, as well as cases where the children have special needs. Meena has particular expertise in negotiating medium to high-net financial settlements for clients in the course of separation, divorce and dissolution of civil partnership. This is an area of family law requiring a tenacious and proactive approach as well as meticulous attention, qualities Meena possesses in abundance. Meena believes in adopting a proactive rather than a reactive approach to family law in each of its different facets and strives to ensure that what is often a very difficult situation for clients is not made more difficult due to inaction or lack of foresight. She has a passion for advocacy and represents the majority of her clients at every court hearing.

Nazia Khan

Nazia is a solicitor in the immigration department, also specialising in civil litigation. She frequently represents clients at the High Court in their judicial review matters and takes on a wide range of immigration related cases, including the following; Unlawful detention False imprisonment Unlawful delay in processing immigration and asylum applications Fresh claim challenges/unlawful denial of appeal rights Challenges to refusals of Article 8 ECHR family and private life applications Third Country removals Challenges to decisions to deny access to public funds Challenging removals by way of urgent interim relief applications Nazia has represented clients in all aspects of human rights claims from initial applications through to appeals in the First-tier and Upper Tribunal of the Immigration Asylum Chamber and the Higher Courts. She has also assisted clients with entry clearance applications, settlement applications and nationality matters. She has significant experience in dealing with vulnerable clients including minors, those in detention and those suffering from complex psychological issues, as well as victims of torture, trafficking and victims of domestic violence.

Nicholas De Freitas

Nicholas De Freitas is a director in the criminal defence department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. He is a Higher Courts Advocate and has experience in handling wide range of areas from motoring law offences to murder cases. He has particular expertise in dealing with violent offences and has also handled cases involving sexual offences including rape and sexual assault. He has been Junior Counsel in multiple murder cases and in complex fraud trials. Nicholas is both police station accredited meaning he can assist and advice clients at the police station, and he is also a Duty Qualified Solicitor, evidence of his high level of knowledge, skill, experience and practice in the area of criminal litigation. His work primarily consists of Crown Court matters and he also has experience representing in the Court of Appeal. Nicholas assists a variety of clients in a wide range of matters, providing clear advice and ensuring they are supported throughout their case. He assists clients on both a private fee basis and on legal aid.

Olamide Olayemi

Olamide is a director in this family and child care department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors, based in Leicester. She represents both publically funded and private clients across all areas of family law including divorce, financial disputes, cohabitation matters, and private children’s matters. She also advises and assists clients who are victims of domestic abuse and who request protective orders. She has experience of handling these instructions on an emergency basis.During her time at Duncan Lewis Solicitors, Olamide has garnered experience representing parties in care proceedings where concerns relate to domestic violence, neglect, non-accidental injury drug and alcohol misuse and mental illness. She has also acquired expertise in conducting her own advocacy in family proceedings.

Olivia Amy Rose

Olivia Amy Rose is a Consultant Solicitor within the Crime department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. Amy joined Duncan Lewis in 2020 after qualifying as a Solicitor in 2019. She is Police Station Accredited and has Higher Rights meaning that she can represent clients at all stages of their criminal proceedings. Amy has a broad range of experience with all criminal matters dealing with everything from minor driving offences to allegations of murder.

Priyal Patel

Priyal is a solicitor in the family department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. She has extensive experience in all areas of family law, including straight forward and defended applications for the dissolution of a marriage and a civil partnership. She regularly assists clients with proceedings in relation to financial relief from the commencement of their matter through to contested final hearings, as well as applications for the enforcement and variations of a final order. Priyal advises and assists clients in respect of prenuptial agreements and negotiations in relation to child arrangements orders and financial relief settlements to avoid hostile and protracted proceedings where possible. She also frequently attends court to represent clients in applications under the Children Act for orders consisting of child arrangements, prohibited steps, specific issues and in enforcement proceedings relating to them.

Ravi Kaur Mahey

Ravi Kaur Mahey is a solicitor-advocate and director within the family and child care departments at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. She is recognised as a leading lawyer in her field, having specialised in children law for over 17 years. Ravi specialises and litigates in all areas of children law, particularly public law cases where she acts for children themselves through their guardians. She also represents parents in adoption and child abduction matters. She has developed a specialism in acting for the victims of forced marriages, abandoned spouses, honour based violence, and female genital mutilation (FGM).Ravi has extensive experience in handling care proceedings. She has been involved in a number of complex medical cases involving allegations of 'baby shaking', non-accidental injuries, attempted murder and factitious illness syndrome. She represents adults seeking to adopt, regularly receiving referrals from local authorities to act for adopters. She is a keen advocate having represented adults and children in the county and High Court.Her most notable cases include a case concerning four children, and their mother. The family entered the UK with diplomatic rights and privileges arising from the mother's employment. There were two key issues in the case; the first concerned the court’s jurisdiction to make final care orders in respect of the children if those children continued to have diplomatic immunity. The second consisted of classic welfare issues in children public law proceedings which require threshold criteria to be satisfied. Following intensive legal work, the court further concluded it is in the best interests of the children to return to the care of their mother following a period of rehabilitation managed by the local authority. She was also the lead solicitor in the case of X (A Child) (Female Genital Mutilation Protection Order : Restrictions on Travel) [2017] EWHC 2898 (Fam). The case concerned a young girl who was deemed to be at risk of FGM if she were to go to Egypt where he father was then residing. A full travel ban was placed on the child until she turned 16 however Ravi worked so that the child would be permitted to travel to Egypt for one week in order to facilitate contact with her father and build their relationship.Throughout her practice, Ravi is committed to legal aid and to carrying out pro bono work. She has been instrumental in the running of a variety of pro bono clinics, collaborating with Women's Aid, Fathers Groups, MENCAP, and Chrysalis.. She is involved in setting up a national FGM clinic, working alongside FORWARD and Infringement, and frequently delivers training and workshops to various organisations. She was previously invited to advise the judiciary by sitting on the steering group committee to pilot the new Quad Borough system for South London Boroughs. Ravi’s hard work and commitment to her clients has been recognised by the Family Law Awards, and she was shortlisted for ‘Partner of the Year’ 2018. In 2019 she was Highly Commended by the LawWorks Pro Bono Awards for Best Contribution by and Individual.

Rebecca Thomas

Rebecca is a director of clinical negligence and personal injury at Duncan Lewis Solicitors, she has over 20 years’ experience acting in this area of law. She is responsible for risk assessing all of the clinical negligence and personal injury claims handled by the firm. Rebecca specialises in dealing with severe and complex clinical negligence and personal injury cases including, but not limited to; claims involving birth injuries, brain injuries, surgical injuries and orthopaedic injuries resulting from delay, misdiagnosis or negligent spinal or gastrointestinal surgery. She also has extensive experience in representing clients in ophthalmic cases including retinal detachment and laser surgery claims. Rebecca also has extensive experience as a licensing specialist. She has represented a variety of clients including restaurateurs, club owners, publicans and festival organisers. Rebecca applied for and obtained one of the first 24 hour licences for premises inside the O2 Arena as well as a new Premises Licence for a festival on the Isle of Wight.

Richard Gray

Richard is a director of child care and family law at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. He has over fifteen years of experience dealing with all aspects of family and child care law and has dealt with a large number of complex matters involving local authority care proceedings, including serious non accidental injury, representing both parents and children's Guardians. He represents parents in private law Children Act applications including Child Arrangement Orders, specific issue and prohibited steps order applications. Richard undertakes his own advocacy at court and has gained a high degree of proficiency, providing his clients with a very high level of service and care. He has represented clients at court at all levels including County Court, High Court and Court of Appeal.

Rohena Wallace

Rohena is a director of public law and immigration, specialising in immigration, asylum, human rights and public law. She successfully deals with matters including; the 1951 Refugee Convention, European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), detention, bail, nationality law, European Economic Area (EEA) law as well as prison law and terrorism challenges involving the unlawful deprivation of citizenship. She is particularly proficient at representing vulnerable clients with mental health problems, unaccompanied asylum seeking children, victims of torture and those being held under immigration powers. Rohena has extensive experience of challenging decisions by judicial review; removals from the UK; pursuing unlawful detention claims; fresh claim refusals and other related public law challenges. She has undertaken fact-finding visits to France and Cyprus in order to obtain evidence for use in claims for judicial review before the High Court.

Rupinder Jagdev

Rupinder Jagdev is a solicitor in the family, child care and housing departments at Duncan Lewis Solicitors’ Birmingham office. Rupinder undertakes the majority of her own advocacy and has a varied caseload which includes; injunctions, care proceedings and divorces. She also has extensive experience in public law proceedings and private children law matters which include complex cases concerning non-accidental injuries and interlinked immigration issues. Additionally, Rupinder provides advice and assistance to local refugees on a regular basis.

Sadaf Mir

Sadaf has extensive experience in possession, homelessness, disrepair, and judicial review matters. Many of the housing cases she deals with concern overlapping duties owed under other legislation including the Children Act, Care Act and Equality Act. She frequently assists those with no recourse to public funds, asylum seekers and victims of trafficking with accessing suitable accommodation. Sadaf has a particular interest in the area of homelessness and obtains successful outcomes in many such cases at the review or appeal stage. A case where she successfully challenged a negative review decision which found her client, a domestic abuse survivor to be intentionally homeless concerned the local authority’s failure to follow its own policies and the national strategy on domestic violence. The local authority overturned its decision in September 2018, and on 12 September 2019 the local authority apologised to her client on a BBC show for the delay in accepting the full homelessness duty towards her client.

Shabana Masood

Shabana Masood is a solicitor in the personal injury and litigation department at Duncan Lewis’ Dalston and Harrow office. Shabana regularly handles different types of serious injury claims, including brain injuries, orthopaedic, amputations and others involving catastrophic and life-changing injuries caused by accidents at work and road traffic accidents. Having acted in a wide range of litigation matters such as landlord and tenant disputes, debt recovery, professional negligence and enforcement to bankruptcy, she is passionate about achieving the best possible outcome for her clients.

Simon Connolly

Simon Connolly is a consultant solicitor at Duncan Lewis and specialises in criminal defence and white collar fraud matters. He has forged a particular niche in the area of confiscation proceedings and his particular specialism is acting for clients where the prosecution seek high value orders in excess of £1 million pounds. Simon has had conduct of matters dealing with a range of offences including theft, fraudulent trading, money laundering and various conspiracies - the most notable being conspiracy to defraud the public revenue. Simon had day to day conduct of a matter before Birmingham Crown Court in which the Prosecution sought a confiscation order in the sum of £197 million. However, upon the case being determined at a final hearing with various legal arguments being heard an order was eventually made in the sum of just over £106,000. In 2012, along with his colleague, Simon was responsible for establishing a dedicated Proceeds of Crime and Fraud Unit. The unit represents clients nationwide and particularly focuses on proceedings where the Crown seeks multi-million pound benefit figures.

Sophia Hussain

Sophia deals with all aspects of Family and Child Care work, and specialises in domestic violence matters.She previously undertook work in the Personal Injury Department, specialising in technical road traffic accident claims. She also has experience in Commercial Property matters, namely all aspects of residential and commercial property work.Sophia also regularly advises clients pro bono at legal advice clinics.

Sophie Fretten

Sophie Fretten is a director in the family and child care departments at Duncan Lewis Solicitors and has extensive experience in both public and private law children matters. She supervises a team of solicitors, trainees and paralegals who share her commitment and dedication to this very sensitive and important area of law. In relation to public law matters, Sophie handles cases that involve care proceedings, adoption, applications to discharge care orders, special guardianship orders and revocation of placement orders. She frequently acts for vulnerable parents including those with mental health issues, learning difficulties, young parents as well as interveners and parents in non-accidental injury matters. Additionally, she represents grandparents and other relatives that may require representation in such cases. Sophie undertakes private law children matters including contact and residence disputes along with domestic violence matters. She also undertakes her own advocacy at Court.

Stavri Petrou

Solicitor Stavri has extensive experience in a wide range of family and children matters. She represents parents and adults in care proceedings, including applications for care, supervision, emergency protection and special guardianship orders. She also handles cases relating to neglect, physical and emotional abuse, domestic violence, substance misuse, mental health issues and non-accidental injuries. She has particular expertise in dealing with vulnerable clients, including victims of abuse, and clients with learning difficulties or mental health issues. She also assists on a number of high profile matters including a leading Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Protection Order case. In addition to public law children matters, Stavri has experience in representing parents in private children matters such as disputes in relation to contact and residence, as well as complex child abduction matters in the High Court. Where possible, she undertakes her own advocacy.

Sulaiha Ali

Sulaiha Ali is a solicitor and supervisor within the public law department at Duncan Lewis. She specialises in a wide range of immigration related judicial review matters, with a particular interest in refugee law and immigration detention. Her extensive experience in the First-tier and Upper Tribunal of the Immigration Asylum Chamber as well as the County Court, Administrative Court and Court of Appeal, means Sulaiha regularly litigates across a broad range of areas and conducts high profile challenges to unlawful policies and practices affecting vulnerable people. She is dedicated to providing representation to those who are most in need and the majority of her work is carried out under legal aid. Whilst she is committed to challenging the Secretary of State's unlawful actions by way of judicial review, Sulaiha remains heavily involved with her clients' underlying asylum and protection based claims and is driven to achieve successful outcomes. She has been involved in cases that have generated significant media exposure including her challenge to the SSHD’s refusal to return a deported individual to the UK in the wake of their ‘deport now, appeal later’ policy. The case R (on the application of Watson) v SSHD was the first successful one of its kind. Sulaiha’s work on this matter resulted in her being named The Times’ ‘Lawyer of the Week’.

Tamana Aziz

Tamana is a director in the private/business immigration department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. She deals with a variety of immigration cases, including business immigration under the Points Based System, advising high-net-worth and skilled individuals on extending Tier 2 (General) visas, spousal applications and applications for British citizenship. Having practiced in this area of law since 2001, she has developed an expertise in dealing with complex appeals in the Immigration Tribunals, High Court, Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court. She assists both individuals and businesses, with a particular expertise in assisting clients with immigration applications under EU law. Tamana advises employers and provides bespoke training on various subjects including compliance with the Home Office’s Prevention of Illegal Working regime and how to use the online sponsorship management system. Many of Tamana’s cases involve complex legal proceeding and have gone to the Supreme Court and have received significant press and media attention. She was quoted as “an admirable solicitor and advocate” by the Court of Appeal in the case of HS Afghanistan where she represented her client before the Immigration Tribunal.

Toufique Hossain

Toufique Hossain is a director of public law and immigration at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. He works predominantly under legal aid in order to represent those most in need. His practise is dominated by judicial review, leading strategic litigation where he represents individual claimants and NGOs who seek to challenge Executive decisions, policies and practices. He has extensive experience in the Administrative Court, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, litigating across a range of areas and regularly conducting high-profile challenges to unlawful policies and practices, including unlawful detention and unlawful removals from the UK.Some of his most notabe cases include: SM v Lord Chancellor [2021] EWHC 418 (CRA, CJO, CAS) v Lord Chancellor (challenge to LAA Regulations) Detention Action v SSHD (access to justice – phone access) FB & Anor v SSHD (Removal Window Policy) Hussein v SSHD & G4S Morita & Ors v SSHD Rehman & Ors v SSHD & SSJ TH and others [2016] EWCA Civ 815 Wasif v SSHD [2016] EWCA Civ 82 JS (Sudan) [2013] EWCA Civ 1378 Toufique continues to have conduct of several lead complex cases. He has had conduct in unlawful detention cases involving mental health issues; Rule 35 and evidence in relation torture; lead cases challenging removals to France, Cyprus and Malta; removals to DRC; challenges to detention involving long-term detention of Chinese nationals and Afghan charter flight cases. In addition to challenging injustice through litigation, Toufique aims to advocate human rights by speaking out in the media. His appearances in The Guardian, Sky News, Russia Today, BBC and Channel 4 brings attention to the crucial role of legal aid, in holding the executive to account and in providing justice for those most in need.

Vicash Ramkissoon

Vicash Ramkissoon is a director in the business and private immigration department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. His practice encompasses a wide area including advising high net worth individuals under the Tier 1 category to conducting complex appeals in the Administrative Court on British Nationality matters. Vicash has a strong practice advising international businesses and high net worth individuals in complex Tier 1, 2 and 4 applications under the Points Based System (PBS). He regularly advises high net worth individuals from Asia, the Middle East and Russia in relation to obtaining visas under the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) & Tier 1 (Investor) categories. He also specialises in Tier 2 sponsorship licence matters and advising businesses on their immigration strategy and compliance issues. He conducts immigration business claimant judicial review matters; in particular, challenges on behalf of Points Based System applicants.He also has extensive experience in advising businesses on Tier 2 and 5 sponsorship, immigration strategy and conducting compliance audits. He is often requested to assist companies facing criminal or civil penalties in relation to working illegally.

Vilash Gami

Vilash Gami is solicitor in the immigration department based at Duncan Lewis Solicitors’ Harrow office and specialises in immigration and asylum. Representing clients in all types of matters from initial applications through to appeals in the Tribunal and the Higher Courts, her cases include asylum applications, including those on DAC, deportation, family reunions, marriage applications as well as EEA and nationality matters. Additionally, she also undertakes general immigration matters such as entry clearance. Vilash has represented vulnerable clients such as minors, victims of torture, victims of domestic violence and those with mental health issues. During her career, Vilash has built up extensive experience in the Court of Appeal procedures and representing clients at the High Court in judicial review matters. She has completed judicial reviews relating to unlawful detentions, false imprisonment, challenges to refusals of Article 8 ECHR family and private life applications and to decisions to deny access to public funds. She also regularly challenges unlawful delays in processing applications, third country removals and urgent interim relief applications.

Vincent Davis

Vincent Davis is a Solicitor in the Housing department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. With a background in the not for profit advice sector and a training contract covering seats in social welfare law, including housing and debt, welfare benefits and employment, Vincent qualified as a solicitor in 2008 and thereafter specialised in housing and debt. Vincent has represented some of the most vulnerable clients in society, including those with mental illnesses or learning disabilities and clients who are street homeless. Vincent carries out a varied caseload of housing matters, often with a community care element, including homelessness reviews and appeals, defending possession proceedings, applications to suspend warrants of possession, disrepair claims, public law matters and anti-social behaviour injunctions. Vincent has a passion for defending tenants and homeowners on the county court housing possession duty scheme where he has a proven track record of assisting tenants and homeowners in defending possession claims in court on the day of their hearing.

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