Laura Dubinsky KC > Doughty Street Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile
Doughty Street Chambers Offices
53-54 DOUGHTY STREET
LONDON
WC1N 2LS
England
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Laura Dubinsky KC
Work Department
Position
Laura works extensively in public law at all levels, with a particular focus on cases with a refugee, immigration, ECHR or EU law dimension. Her practice includes civil liberties litigation, such as challenges to administrative detention through habeas corpus, judicial review and civil actions for damages. She is also instructed in ECHR and EU law cases in the supranational courts.
Laura frequently acts for NGOs and both legally aided and high net worth individuals.
Recent examples of significant cases in which Laura has acted:
- R (Humnyntskyi) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWHC 1912 (Admin): leading counsel for three successful claimants in challenge to the Home Office’s policy and practice concerning accommodation for destitute immigrants under paragraph 9, Schedule 10, Immigration Act 2016.
- CI (Nigeria) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 2027, [2020] Imm. A.R. 503 , [2020] I.N.L.R. 191: leading counsel for the successful appellant in significant case concerning Article 8 ECHR and the circumstances in which a long-resident immigrant may be subject to deportation.
- R (SM) v Lord Chancellor [2021] EWHC 418 (Admin), [2021] 1 WLR 3815: leading counsel for the Intervener, Bail for Immigration Detainees, in important challenge to lack of legal aid provision for immigration detainees held in prisons. The lack of a duty advice scheme or equivalent was accepted to breach Article 14 read with Articles 2,3,5 and 8 ECHR.
- Secretary of State for the Home Department v Viscu [2019] EWCA Civ 1052, [2019] 1 WLR 5376, [2020] 1 All E.R. 988: leading counsel for the Intervener, the AIRE Centre, in appeal concerning EU law protections from expulsion for long resident immigrants and the approach to be taken to a period of custody in a young offenders’ institution.
- R (Majera) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] UKSC 46 , [2021] 3 WLR 1075: junior counsel for the Intervener, Bail for Immigration Detainees in leading case concerning the duty of the executive to comply with a court order unless and until set aside.
- R (DN (Rwanda) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] UKSC 9, [2020] AC 698: junior counsel for Intervener Bail for Immigration Detainees in leading case concerning false imprisonment and sequential decision-making.
- R (JL) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] 1 WLR 4623: leading counsel for the successful appellant in challenge to employment prohibition (EU law grounds).
- R (Help Refugees) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 2098 leading counsel in the Divisional Court and junior counsel in the Court of Appeal for the partially successful claimant NGO. Challenge to the fairness of procedures applied to transfer decisions for unaccompanied minors under the ‘Dubs Amendment’ and to the local authority consultation.
- R (Lauzikas) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] 1 WLR 6625 leading counsel for the partially successful /appellant in important case concerning EU law protections applicable to administrative detention and the approach to causation and damages.
- B (Algeria) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] AC 418 junior counsel for the Intervener Bail for Immigration Detainees in landmark appeal before Supreme Court concerning power to impose bail conditions.
Career
Year of silk: 2022
Year of Call: 2002
Before coming to the Bar, Laura Dubinsky worked as a senior trade union campaigner in the United States and Canada with UNITE, the North American textile and garment workers’ union. She directed large-scale campaigns for trade union recognition and collective agreements.
Languages
French, Spanish, Portuguese.
Education
Oxford University (BA 1993); Columbia University (MA 1995).
Leisure
Hiking.
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Administrative law and human rights
(2022 Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Laura Dubinsky KC –Doughty Street Chambers ‘She is tenacious, determined and brings passion to her work. Her demeanor in front of the court is calm, and her arguments analytical and cogent.’
London Bar > Immigration (including business immigration)
(2022 Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Laura Dubinsky KC – Doughty Street Chambers ‘ Laura has an unparalleled work ethic and is forensic when it comes to detail. She puts the needs of her clients at the forefront of her litigation and is an extremely compelling advocate. Put simply, Laura is a legal powerhouse. ’
Doughty Street Chambers is a ‘real human rights driving force in the market‘, with casework that covers the spectrum of immigration, nationality, and asylum law. Litigation surrounding immigration enforcement is a particular strength of the set with its own immigration detention group, but the chambers has experience handling trafficking and business immigration work also. Laura Dubinsky KC has led a team representing the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the intervention into the Rwanda litigation in R (AAA and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, with Alasdair Mackenzie and Shu Shin Luh have represented refugee claimants in related cases. Joe Middleton KC has represented a high-profile HNW individual in a judicial review of the Home Secretary’s exclusion decision before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission in E6 v SSHD.