Paragon Law

Asylum and Human Rights

Deirdre Sheahan is a Director at Paragon Law where she is head of the Asylum and Human Rights team. Deirdre specialises in asylum and human rights claims, in particular those relating to very vulnerable migrant groups.

These include the asylum claims of unaccompanied children, LGBTI claimants and women who have suffered gender based violence as a form of persecution. Deirdre's legal work has led to changes in law at both national and European law level. LQ (Age: immutable characteristics) Afghanistan [2008] changed the UK approach to orphaned children under the Refugee Convention. HJ (Iran) UKSC 2009/0054 at the UK Supreme Court changed the test applied to LGBTI claims. R (MA, BT, DA) v SSHD [2011] EWCA Civ 1446 was referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union and led to changes at EU level regarding responsibility for deciding the asylum claims of children in the EU. Deirdre also provides training and workshops on her areas of speciality for a wide range of organisations.

Deirdre holds a Masters in Public International Law from the University of Nottingham and completed her LPC at Nottingham Law School where she was also awarded inaugural alumni of the year. She trained at Paragon Law where she qualified as a solicitor in 2010 and became a Director in 2017.

Notable cases

Deirdre Sheahan’s legal work has led to changes in law at both national and European law level:

LQ (Age: immutable characteristics) Afghanistan [2008] changed the UK approach to orphaned children under the Refugee Convention. HJ (Iran) UKSC 2009/0054 at the UK Supreme Court changed the test applied to LGBTI claims. R (MA, BT, DA) v SSHD [2011] EWCA Civ 1446 was referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union and led to changes at EU level regarding responsibility for deciding the asylum claims of children in the EU.

English

The Law Society - Accredited Exam Assessor (Immigration & Asylum)

Ministry of Justice - Independent Costs Assessor & Independent Funding Adjudicator

University of Nottingham - Masters in Public International Law [2005]

Nottingham Law School Trent University - Legal Practice Course [2005]

National University of Ireland Galway - Bachelor of Laws (BA Hons & LLB Hons) [2000 - 2003]