Galina Ward

Galina acts for a wide range of individuals, corporate and public bodies, and charitable and professional organisations, from tribunals up to the highest courts. She has appeared in numerous high profile cases concerning issues as diverse as the availability of relief from forfeiture of a licence, the rateability of ATM sites and the alleged discriminatory impact of welfare reform measures.

Galina’s practice encompasses the full spectrum of public and property law. Prior to taking silk, she was a member of the Attorney General’s “A” Panel of junior counsel and was described in Legal 500 as “one of the very best juniors at the Administrative Bar” and in Chambers and Partners as “always a very impressive opponent”.

In silk, Galina continues to act regularly both for and against central and local government and other public bodies. Her recent public law work has focussed on healthcare and community care, including disputes between public bodies about which is responsible for funding care in various situations. She has also appeared in a number of the leading cases on the interpretation of the Withdrawal Agreement and citizens’ rights post-Brexit. Her property law work has a strong cross-over with her public law expertise, and includes a number of cases in which the use of land by public bodies is subject to human rights or other statutory restrictions.

Galina has been recognised for many years as a leading practitioner in education law, and has extensive experience of judicial review claims in education matters, ranging from exclusion and admissions to school organisation and university funding issues. Her work also includes acting on behalf of public bodies tasked with regulating those who work in education, as well as representing those subject to that regulation. She has represented the Department for Education in a number of strands of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and more recently in the Covid-19 Inquiry.

Law with German Law at Magdalen College, Oxford, and the University of Konstanz, Germany