Landmark Chambers

Isabella specialises in planning, environmental and public law. Before joining Landmark, she spent nearly two years as the Judicial Assistant to the President of the Supreme Court, Lord Reed of Allermuir.

She acts for a wide range of public and private sector clients, including housebuilders, land promoters, central government, local authorities and residents’ groups.

Isabella is ranked in Planning Resource Magazine’s annual survey of top-rated juniors under 35 and top-rated juniors overall. Her recent planning, environmental and compulsory purchase work includes:

• High Road West, Tottenham: Isabella acted (unled) for objectors to the High Road West CPO in Tottenham

• B&Q, Cricklewood: Isabella acted for the developer at the call-in inquiry for the B&Q site, Cricklewood (1,049 homes in buildings up to 18 storeys), led by Sasha White KC.

• R (Llandaff North Residents’ Association) v Cardiff Council and others [2023] EWHC 1731 (Admin): Isabella acted (unled) for a community group challenging the grant of planning permission for a new sewage pumping station on EIA grounds

• Mead and Redrow v Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities [2024] EWHC 279 (Admin): Isabella acted for Redrow Homes (led by Zack Simons) and Mead Realisations (led by Charles Banner KC) in two linked claims concerning the flood risk sequential test

• R (University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust) v Harborough District Council: Isabella acted for Leicestershire County Council in the leading case on section 106 contributions for NHS services, led by Zack Simons.

Isabella’s public law work includes:

• R (Law Society of England and Wales) v Lord Chancellor [2024] EWHC 155 (Admin): Isabella acted for the Lord Chancellor in the Law Society���s challenge to the Government’s response to the Independent Review of Criminal Legal Aid, led by Sir James Eadie KC, Catherine Dobson and Adam Boukraa

• An NHS Trust v ST: Isabella is acting for the respondent Trust (led by Vikram Sachdeva KC and Catherine Dobson) in an appeal concerning the statutory test for capacity, which is due to be heard by the Court of Appeal in May 2024.

Before joining Landmark, Isabella spent nearly two years as the Judicial Assistant to the President of the UK Supreme Court, Lord Reed of Allermuir. At the Supreme Court, Isabella gained experience of a wide range of issues across her main areas of practice, including in:

• Heathrow Airport Ltd v Friends of the Earth [2020] UKSC 52 (on the Government’s approach to international climate change commitments when designating the Airports National Policy Statement)

• R (Begum) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] UKSC 7 (on the rights of an individual deprived of British citizenship after traveling to Syria and aligning with ISIS)

• R (SC) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2021] UKSC 26 (on the compatibility of the two-child benefit cap with articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights).

Alongside her practice, Isabella teaches EU Law at St Edmund’s College, Cambridge. She has taught EU Law at Cambridge since 2017 and was elected as a Bye-Fellow of St Edmund’s in 2021.

Qualifications

• Magdalene College, University of Cambridge (BA Law) (double first class; starred first in Part 1B)

• St John’s College, University of Oxford (BCL)

• BPP, London (BPTC)

Awards

Academic scholarships and prizes

• Lord Denning Scholarship and Accommodation Award (Lincoln’s Inn, 2016)

• Daniel Slifkin Scholarship (St John’s College, Oxford, 2015)

• Bundy Scholarship (Magdalene College, Cambridge, 2015)

• Orlando Bridgman Prize for Law (Magdalene College, Cambridge, 2015)

• Norah Dias Memorial Prize for Law (Magdalene College, Cambridge, 2014)

• College Prize and Scholarship (Magdalene College, Cambridge, 2013, 2014 and 2015)

• Leslie Wilson Prize (Magdalene College, Cambridge, 2013 and 2014)

• Hogan Lovells Prize (Magdalene College, Cambridge, 2013)

Mooting

• Joint winner of the Herbert Smith Freehills Disability Mooting Championship (University of Oxford, 2015)

• Winner of the Quadrant Chambers Fledglings Mooting Competition (University of Cambridge, 2015)

• Joint winner of the XXIV Old Buildings Speed Mooting Competition (University of Cambridge, 2014)

Memberships

Appointed to the Attorney General's C Panel of Junior Counsel.

Publications

• ‘The Northern Ireland Protocol: Choppy Waters Lie Ahead’ (2022) 27(3) Judicial Review 271

• ‘Enforcing Tribunal Decisions: Where there’s bark there’s bite?’ (2021) 17(6) Freedom of Information 4

• ‘“All cards are on the table”: disclosure obligations and the Independent Review of Administrative Law’ (2021) 17(5) Freedom of Information 4

• From the stroke of midnight: EU judgments on access to environmental information – still relevant in a post-Brexit UK?’ (2021) 17(4) Freedom of Information 4

• ‘‘Fine words butter no parsnips�� – how is open justice delivered?’ (2021) 17(3) Freedom of Information 4

• ‘What remains of the public/private divide? Mixed messages on the meaning of ‘public authority’’ (2020) 17(2) Freedom of Information 4

• ‘FOIA: the terminus of information rights?’ (2020) 17(1) Freedom of Information 4

• Contributing author to P. Coppel, Information Rights: A Practitioner’s Guide to Data Protection, Freedom of Information and other Information Rights (5th ed, Hart, 2020) (five chapters dealing with exemptions to rights of access to information and data protection post-Brexit)

• Atkin’s Court Forms, Volume 40(1), Trespass to the Person (LexisNexis, 2019)

• ‘Costs in Judicial Review Proceedings: Determining Success’ (2018) 23(3) Judicial Review 145

• ‘Mass Surveillance in the CJEU: Forging a European Consensus’ (2017) 76(2) Cambridge Law Journal 250 (co-authored with A. Taylor)