The Legal 500

Position

Work includes criminal justice related human rights, prisoners rights, actions against the police, public and administrative law, criminal law, international criminal and human rights law. Notable cases: R (MP & P) V Secretary of State for Justice [2012] EWHC 214 (Admin) - successful judicial review challenging Secretary of State's interpretation of his policy on prisoners eligibility for childcare resettlement leave. Current interpretation restricting CRL to prisoners in the last two years of their sentence held to be unlawful as it misinterpreted the purpose of CRL and was in breach of the claimant and her children's Article 8 ECHJR rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Instructed by Prisoners' Advice Service; R (Longmire) v Secretary of State for Justice [2011] EWHC 1488 (admin) - successful judicial review of the Director of High Security's decision to refuse to grant the claimant an oral hearing to determine his category A status, which he had had for 20 years. Instructed by Scott-Moncrieff & Harbour; R (Dodsworth) v Secretary of State for DEFRA & CPS - December 2011: successful challenge by way of judicial review to the legality of the 2004 amendment to the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981. Regulations conceded to be unlawful and both the 2004 amendment and the claimant's conviction were quashed by consent order. Instructed by Ben Hoare Bell & Partners; R v Hall & others - six Greenpeace defendants acquitted by jury of criminal damage to chimney of Kingsnorth power station on basis they were protecting property from effects of climate change - first successful use of 'climate change' defence, Maidstone Crown Court 2008. Instructed by Bindman & Partners; R v Olditch & Pritchard - anti-Iraq war protesters acquitted of criminal damage to B52 bombers at RAF Fairford on basis of protecting property from attach in Iraq, Bristol Crown Court, 2007. Instructed by Bindman & Partners; R v Ayliffe & others - 13 Greenpeace defendants acquitted of public nuisance to tanker containing GM animal feed, Cardiff Crown Court, 2005. Instructed by Bindman & Partners; R v Pitchfork [2009] EWCA Crim 1231 - CA - tariff reduction for exceptional progress. Instructed by Atter Mackenzie; R (Conrad) v SSJ [2007] EWHC 1796 (Admin) - delay in parole hearing violation of article 5. Instructed by Atter Mackenzie; R (Hawkes) v DPP [2005] EWCA 3046 (admin) - must be apprehension of violence for arrest for breach of the peace to be lawful: officer not acting in execution of duty when assaulted during course of unlawful arrest. Instructed by Ben Hoare Bell & Partners; Neville Lewis v AG Jamaica [2001] 2 A.C. 50 Privy Council - prerogative of mercy subject to natural justice - allegations of unconstitutional mistreatment must be determined with oral evidence, all proceedings to be concluded within five years or else execution violates constitutional prohibition on inhuman and degrading treatment. Instructed by Simons, Muirhead & Burton; Thomas & Hilaire v AG Trinidad & Tobago [2000] 2 A.C. 1 Privy Council - unconstitutional to execute prisoner while he has an outstanding application to an International Human Rights body. Instructed by Simons, Muirhead & Burton.

Career

Called 1991; Middle Temple; Quincy Whitaker has practised throughout her 20 years as a tenant at Doughty Street in all aspects of criminal justice related human rights law and has appeared at all levels of tribunal, including the Crown Court, High Court, Court of Appeal, House of Lords, Privy Council and the international courts of Sierra Leone and the Former Yugoslavia. Her domestic practice primarily concerns issues of compatibility between human rights law and criminal law and procedure, challenges directed at ensuring that prisoners, defendants and other users of the criminal justice system are treated lawfully and obtaining redress for wrong doing by state actors within the justice system. She has lectured on and taught human rights law to judges, legal professionals and students (Masters level) both in the UK and abroad (Sierra Leone, Uganda, Botswana, Cameroon, Turkey, Kosovo). She was a member of the steering committee of the Death Penalty in Africa project (BIICL, DfID & BHRC) and has extensive experience of Caribbean death row litigation. Current directorships: member of board of trustees of Action on Armed Violence (AoAV) (treasurer). Publications of note: 'Criminal Justice, Police Powers and Human Rights', co-authored with Keir Starmer QC and Michelle Strange, Blackstone Press, 2001.

Member

CBA, Association of Prison Lawyers, Liberty.

Education

Oxford University, Hertford College (Undergraduate) BA Hons Jurisprudence 1990; London School of Economics (Masters) LLM International Human Rights Law (Distinction) 2000; Inns of Court School of Law 1991.

Leisure

Walking & enjoying nature, outdoor swimming, growing vegetables, reading, published travel photographer, occasional TV legal consultant.