The Legal 500

London: Human resources

Immigration

Within: Leading individuals

Liz Barratt - Bindmans LLP

Within: Immigration

Bindmans LLP’s ‘impressive’ immigration, asylum and nationality practice has vast expertise across a range of asylum and human rights cases such as extradition law, representing victims of trafficking and other vulnerable clients, detention, bail and deportation. It is the ‘go-to firm for complex family immigration work, in particular for children in care, adopted and surrogate born children and children subject to guardianship orders; its asylum and human rights work is first-rate’. On the business immigration side, the team acts for individuals, SMEs, trade unions and not-for-profit organisations. Associate Emma Cohen handles cases involving family issues and is ‘one of the ‘go- to’ people for advice on inter-country adoptions and foreign-born surrogacy children’ cases, as well as advising entrepreneurs. Associate Ashley Fleming ‘demonstrates a wealth of knowledge and experience, pays attention to detail and is very efficient’, and Roberta Haslam, who is also an associate, has extensive experience of working with victims of trafficking and vulnerable individuals, and also acted for an international not-for-profit organisation on issues relating to its senior employees outside the EEA. Solicitors Abigail Evans, who ‘brings endless energy to every case’, and Alice Davis are also recommended. Alison Stanley has a ‘wealth of experience and is extremely thorough’. Stanley heads the team with Liz Barratt, who has ‘excellent client skills; she is extremely experienced in representing a range of clients, and is particularly skilled with vulnerable clients’.

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London: Public sector

Civil liberties and human rights

Within: Civil liberties and human rights

Bindmans LLP  is well-known for its involvement in human rights cases both in the UK and internationally. The practice's diverse caseload covers immigration, actions against the police, and housing among other matters. ‘Adept negotiator’ Jules Carey is acting for over 180 participants in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. John Halford  and Liz Barratt  are advising NGO Here For Good on EU and discrimination law issues as they affect European nationals planning to live in the UK post-Brexit. The ‘highly intelligent and extremely efficient’ Charlotte Haworth Hird focuses on death in custody cases and has acted in a number of high-profile inquests including the deaths of Jereon Ensink, Janet Muller and Melissa Mathieson. Salima Budhani  is ‘an incisive claimant lawyer who is utterly committed to her clients’ and is ‘skilled at highlighting illegality in public body decision-making’.

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London: Risk advisory

Brexit

Within: Brexit

Bindmans LLP's multifaceted offering sees it cover the interface between Brexit and areas such as employment law, family law, human rights law and immigration law. Clients in this space include individuals, businesses, education bodies and unions. Another pillar of the firm's Brexit work is its involvement with grassroots, rights-focussed organisations; John Halford and Liz Barratt recently advised NGO Here For Good on EU and discrimination law issues, as they relate to EU nationals planning to reside in the UK post-Brexit; they have also co-authored a detailed legal guide for EU nationals on the topic of planning and securing their rights in the UK. The firm also has a strong reputation in litigation and related policy work, having previously acted for the crowd-funded People's Challenge Group in R (Miller and Dos Santos) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. Tamsin Allen, who acts for the Cambridge Analytica whistleblowers Christopher Wiley and Shahmir Sanni, recently instructed counsel to prepare an opinion on whether or not there were grounds to suspect that criminal offences had been committed by individuals associated with the Leave campaign. Halford represented MPs Tom Brake and Chris Leslie in Scottish judicial review proceedings seeking a reference to the CJEU for a ruling on whether or not the Article 50 notice can be unilaterally withdrawn by the UK. Elsewhere, the team is currently analysing the UK and EU position papers on the citizens' rights elements of the proposed withdrawal agreement to assess where rights have been overlooked or will be left unprotected, and possible legal remedies. Associate Olivia Piercy is a member of Resolution's Working Party on Brexit, which is analysing and itemising key family law legislation which will be impacted by Brexit; the objective of this work is to provide the UK government with a detailed assessment of EU amendments to domestic family law, which will need to be preserved post-Brexit. Amy Rowe (the head of the family and matrimonial team) and Ashley Fleming (an associate in the immigration team) are other recommended individuals at the firm.

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