Joe Middleton KC > Doughty Street Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile
Doughty Street Chambers Offices
53-54 DOUGHTY STREET
LONDON
WC1N 2LS
England
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Joe Middleton KC
Work Department
Position
Joe Middleton is a versatile practitioner with crossover expertise in immigration, extradition, comparative and international law and human rights.
In 2015 Joe won the Bar Pro Bono Award for his human rights work around the world. He was particularly recognised for his contribution to the abolition of the mandatory death penalty in several African countries and his work on human rights in Belize Central Prison.
Joe’s main areas of work in Chambers are immigration and nationality law, extradition, Interpol red notices, death penalty litigation and other complex constitutional and human rights challenges. In civil work he is often instructed with a view to achieving his clients’ objectives by avoiding litigation rather than pursuing it.
Joe is a fluent Russian speaker. He studied in Russia and has acted for many Russian and Ukrainian clients in immigration, extradition and human rights challenges in different courts and tribunals. Former clients include a famous Russian singer (in a complex visit visa application), senior executives of the Yukos Oil Company and a leading Russian shipping company (in asylum and extradition proceedings), and the family of the former President of Chechnya (in an application to the European Court of Human Rights).
Joe has appeared in the UK’s domestic courts at all levels. He has also taken cases in the ECtHR, the Privy Council, the UN Human Rights Committee and, in collaboration with local counsel, in various jurisdictions in Africa and the Caribbean, including litigation in the Caribbean Court of Justice. He has acted as pro bono counsel for British citizens sentenced to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Kenya, and has appeared as an expert for the amicus curiae in constitutional litigation in the Supreme Court of Kenya.
In 2013 Joe was called to the Bar of Belize by the Hon. Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin. His work in Belize has been featured in a Channel 5 documentary, an episode of Assignment (BBC World Service: see the video trailer here) and in Intelligent Life (The Economist).
Career
Called 1997; Inner Temple. Current directorships: Death Penalty Project Ltd. Publications of note: Immigration Law & Practice (co-author); Butterworths Immigration Law Service (contributor).
Languages
French; Russian.
Memberships
Administrative Law Bar Association
Bar Association of Belize
British-Russian Law Association
Death Penalty Project (director)
Extradition Lawyers’ Association
Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association
Justice
Liberty
Education
UWC of the Atlantic; University of Surrey; (BSc Russian and Soviet Studies (1990); University College London (1991, LLM).
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Immigration (including business immigration)
(2023 Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Joe Middleton KC –Doughty Street Chambers ‘Joe is a consummate advocate who is excellent on his feet, focuses in on the winnable points, and provides excellent advice on the prospects of success of any claim that could be made. He is incredibly personable, very good with sophisticated clients and has a broader understanding of all aspects of immigration as well as the interaction between asylum and extradition.’
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.
London Bar > Administrative law and human rights
(2023 Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Joe Middleton KC – Doughty Street Chambers ‘A brilliant advocate who is also excellent with clients. He presents complex strategic and legal issues in understandable ways.’
Doughty Street Chambers is a ‘leading human rights set‘ which is also noted for its ‘strong reputation for public law‘. The team of ‘high calibre counsel‘ is well known for its strength in acting for claimants in a wide range of high-profile judicial reviews and complex human rights, administrative and constitutional cases. The ‘highly respected‘ Edward Fitzgerald KC recently appeared before the Privy Council in Attorney General v Rolle, a case concerning citizenship rights for children born in The Bahamas to unmarried parents. Joe Middleton KC, who took silk in 2023, is well versed in advising on cases concerning constitutional challenges to the death penalty in multiple African countries. In another matter, Jamie Burton KC is acting in a judicial review concerning the Secretary of State’s policy about the height of kerbs, contending the policy does not require high enough kerbs for guide dog and white cane users.