The Legal 500

Work Department

Human rights and civil liberties cases in a wide range of areas, including inquests, inquiries, healthcare, mental health and prison law.

Position

Partner and head of the civil liberties and social welfare team. Saimo has had numerous successes in high profile cases at the cutting edge of the law. She had three successes before the House of Lords in 2008/9. Two cases concerned Art 2 ECHR (the right to life): Savage v South Essex Partnership NHS Trust 2008 UKHL 74 and R (JL) v The Secretary of State [2008] UKHL 68. Saimo also acted for Debbie Purdy in the House of Lords on the scope of Art 8 ECHR, R (Debbie Purdy) v The Director of Public Prosecutions [2009] UKHL. Saimo is awaiting leave in another case to have a point of law certified by the Supreme Court in relation to the burden of proof in criminal cases on the setting of tariff, R v Coonan [2011] EWCA Crim 5. She is also acting pro bono for Mind, Inquest, Liberty and Justice in an Intervention in the Supreme Court in the case of Rabone v Pennine Care NHS Trust, UKSC2010/140, seeking to argue that the protection of Art 2 should extend to non detained patients. Saimo acts for Tony Nicklinson, who has ‘Locked-in Syndrome’ and whose case has been widely reported in the media. He seeks declarations that it would be lawful on the grounds of necessity for a doctor to terminate his life and or that the current law of murder is incompatible with his right to respect for private and family life (Art 8) in so far as it criminalises voluntary active euthanasia. Saimo also acts in R( Marie O’Connell ) v the Secretary Of State for Justice [2011] EWHC (Admin) in a challenge to the barring regime under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Act 2006. Saimo acted for 12 law firms in the successful challenge to the Legal Services Commission’s procurement processes for mental health and public law in Public Interest Lawyers and the LSC [2010] EWHC 3277 (Admin) resulting in the LSC undertaking a proper verification exercise as well as consultation and impact assessments under s.49A Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Saimo has acted in numerous inquest cases and Inquiries. She has represented mental patients in complex tribunal cases, in the Court of Protection and in inherent jurisdiction cases.

Career

Qualified 1990; joined Bindman & Partners (now Bindmans LLP) 1993; partner 1995. Saimo was awarded Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year 2006 – Mental Health, for constantly pushing the boundaries of the law on behalf of people with mental illness, disabilities and the vulnerable. Saimo was profiled as a ‘trail-blazer’ in the newsletter of the ‘British Institute of Human Rights’, Autumn 2006 for her cutting-edge work and use of the Human Rights Act. Saimo was ‘Lawyer of the Month’ in the ‘Black Lawyer’s Directory’ in January 2008. Saimo was ‘Lawyer of the Week’ in the Times in June 2008. Saimo was ‘Lawyer in the News’ in the ‘Gazette’ in June 2008. Saimo won the prestigious Law Society Excellence Award as the ‘Solicitor of the Year’ in October 2008. She was featured in ‘The Guardian’ on 12 December 2008 where Afua Hirsch wrote: ‘She has built a career on helping people turn disadvantage into pioneering litigation, a record that won her the legal profession’s highest accolade… Law Society Solicitor of the Year.’ Saimo writes and lectures regularly. Articles and lectures include the following: ‘Mental Health and Community Care Law; Seclusion before and after Munjaz’; ‘Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights: The Investigative Obligation (joint) 2 articles; ‘Mental Health Law and the Human Rights Act’; ‘False Imprisonment in Mental Health Cases’; ‘Adults who lack Mental Capacity- the use of Declaratory Relief proceedings’; ‘The Draft Mental Health Bill’; ‘Mental Health and Judicial Review’; ‘Solicitors in a Fix’ (about legal aid -fixed fees); The Investigative Obligation under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights – Recent Developments and others; The Human Rights Act –10 years on; the law of Assisted Suicide and others.

Member

Advisory committee of Peace Brigades International; tribunal judge – health, education and social care chamber – mental health; assessor – Law Society’s MHRT panel; appraiser for the tribunal; chair of LSC’s public funding review committee.

Education

Sussex University (BA Hons).

Practice Areas

Administrative and public law; Healthcare; Mental health