Duncan Lewis Solicitors fields a ‘uniformly proactive, highly committed’ immigration team, operating from offices across Harrow, Luton, London and Milton Keynes. The team has expertise across claimant-side judicial review, with a particular focus on challenging human rights breaches in deportation cases, as well as operating a significant practice in asylum, protection cases, modern slavery matters, and unlawful detention claims. The practice has a robust leadership team encompassing Toufique Hossain, a prominent immigration litigator, along with Vilash Gami, Rohena Wallace, and Gemma Lynch, who has extensive experience in representing unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, Bahar Ata, who has a niche practice in immigration and human rights related judicial review claimant matters, and Pardeep Somel, who boasts nearly two decades of experience advising asylum seekers, torture victims, trafficking and detention challenges.
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- ‘I worked with the public law team on the Rwanda litigation, undoubtedly the most pressurised case I have been involved in. The Duncan Lewis team, like the counsel team, had to work at absurd speed under the most intense pressure, often requiring work through the night. It was an extraordinary privilege to work with a team that showed such ceaseless commitment and adherence to the highest standards despite the almost impossible conditions under which we all had to work.’
- ‘The immigration practice at Duncan Lewis is huge and covers the full range of immigration work. Particularly notable are its strategic challenges and its work for those in immigration detention. In relation to its strategic litigation, there are a number of solicitors who are really engaged in finding ways to stop the Home Office from implementing policies which are potentially harmful to a large number of people.’
‘The team is uniformly proactive, highly committed, and works under a very strong leadership.’
‘The team has vast experience borne of a very high caseload The team works very efficiently and uses its resources well.’
‘Bahar Ata is a top-quality lawyer, excellent manager, eyes on everything.'
‘The team stands head and shoulders above the competition on any matters relating to human trafficking. They have deep procedural knowledge, and great contacts with NGOs and support workers, that allows them to take on complex pieces of strategic litigation and achieve great results for clients.’
‘Toufique Hossain is a dynamic leader within DL who, together with his team, has been involved in a wide range of important test cases.'
Key clients
- The Rwanda Supreme Court Litigation
- Landmark Public Inquiry into abuse at Brook House Immigration removal centre
- Harmondsworth Evacuation
- CT and VT – Supreme Court of the British Indian Ocean Territory
- AS & RD
- Bam Bahadur Gurung and Others
- Beety Habte
- COH
- JSI
- IPC
- FN
Work highlights
- Representing six of the lead Claimants in the Rwanda Supreme Court litigation where the Home Secretary’s appeal was dismissed, and the Court of Appeal’s conclusion that the Rwanda policy is unlawful upheld.
- Representing six people who were formerly detained at Brook House and Reverend Nathan Ward, a whistle-blower who worked at Brook House and helped bring the mistreatment to light. The Chair of the Brook House Inquiry published her report, which uncovers instances of racism, abuse and inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees.
Lawyers
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Bahar Ata, Gemma Lynch, Rohena Wallace, Vilash Gami, Toufique Hossain, Pardeep Somel