Chambers appreciates that increasingly parties wish to avoid litigation and prefer to opt for a more affordable solution, that is conciliatory in nature, to resolve their disputes.
Individual members of chambers are trained in mediation, a form of alternative dispute resolution.
Mediation is where a neutral third party (the mediator) attempts to facilitate a settlement between the parties to a dispute. This is a confidential process which is without prejudice and only becomes binding when the parties reach an agreement.
1MCB’s mediators are experienced in a wide range of disputes including but not limited to civil, commercial and family, both domestically and internationally.
1MCB Chambers has a longstanding commitment to the rights of individuals seeking asylum, entry and settlement in the United Kingdom. Our team of immigration barristers can assist from initial applications through to appellate litigation. Our team of dedicated immigration barristers has a proven track record in providing high quality advice, drafting and representation to all those affected by immigration and nationality law.
Barristers in our immigration team have expertise across the full breadth of immigration law, including:
- Asylum
- Human rights applications
- Family settlement
- Long residence
- EEA rights of residence
- Points Based System
- Domestic workers
- Entry clearance
- Visit visas
- Naturalisation and registrations as a British citizen
- UK ancestry
- Deportation
- Detention, bail and habeas corpus
- Business immigration
- Sponsor licences
All of the barristers in our immigration team regularly appear before both tiers of the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal, the Administrative Court and the Court of Appeal; individual barristers also have experience of litigation before the Supreme Court, the European Court of Human Rights, and the European Court of Justice.
A particular strength of barristers in our immigration team is the ability to tackle cases which straddle disciplines, allowing members to draw upon in-depth knowledge of areas of law that commonly impact on immigration cases. These include civil actions for damages, criminal law, family, housing, social security (including asylum support), mental health, employment, education, extradition and prison law.
Our barristers advise and act as experts for many local authorities involved in family and Court of Protection work where there is an immigration dimension because one or more of the parties involved are subject to UK immigration control and where advice is required as to the implications of this to care planning. This can include advice as to the recognition of foreign adoptions; options for status regularisation; limitations on the ability to access public funds and services, and the inter-relationship between UK and foreign orders and the duties of disclosure to foreign authorities.
As a culturally diverse set of chambers with barristers with international practices and multi-lingual speakers, there is a particular sensitivity to, and understanding of, the impact of culture, religion and ethnicity.
The barristers in our immigration team are always happy to be approached in order to provide in-house training to law centres, citizens’ advice bureaux, solicitors’ firms, local authorities and charities.
1MCB Chambers’ community care team provides dedicated and high-quality advice and representation in the key areas of local authorities’ duties under the Care Act 2014 and Children Act 1989, as well as welfare benefit provision, mental capacity, prisons, mental health, equality and education law.
Many of our community care barristers draw on their work in the immigration, housing and public law fields, and the team’s practice is rooted in 1MCB’s history and ethos of representing all sectors of the community. Chambers has significant expertise in the complex eligibility regulations, issues relating to asylum and ‘no recourse to public funds’, and provision of accommodation through homelessness and migration legislation.
That dedication and breadth of expertise means that the team is well-placed to ensure that vulnerable people are represented with skill and sensitivity, and with a tactical appreciation of the other legal and practical problems that community care clients often face.
Many of our members are available for urgent and out-of-hours judicial reviews.
1MCB Chambers’ strength is its multi-disciplinary approach. We offer a breadth of knowledge and expertise, and our members are skilled at familiarising themselves with new areas of law very quickly.
Many of our members are particularly experienced in landlord and tenant and property-related issues, including leasehold and valuation disputes, forfeiture and possession, easements, land registration, TOLATA matters and boundary disputes.
Members also have expertise in contractual and commercial matters, from pre-action advice through to settlement, contested trials and enforcement. We offer advice and representation at all levels of seniority and provide direct access work in appropriate cases.
Our members also offer niche or specialist expertise in the following practice areas:
- Civil harassment
- Inquests
- Defamation
- Welfare benefits
- Personal injury and clinical negligence
- Equine law
- Mediation
- Costs and enforcement
International criminal law is a relatively young but fast-developing area of law. It is a highly specialised division of public international law which saw its practical genesis in the work of the International Military Tribunals at Nuremberg and Tokyo after World War II.
The crimes that fall within the ambit of international criminal law are, classically, genocide (the intentional destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such), crimes against humanity (including murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, torture and rape when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population) and war crimes (including grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and violations of the laws or customs of war). The sources can be found in international treaties, customary international law, international jurisprudence and academic writings.
International criminal law developed enormously with the establishment of the ad hoc UN international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and hybrid tribunals trying mass crimes committed in Sierra Leone, Cambodia, East Timor and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In 2002, the permanent International Criminal Court was founded in The Hague, Netherlands. Also based in The Hague are the Special Tribunal for Lebanon – the first international tribunal of its kind to try terrorism as a distinct crime – and the new Kosovo Specialist Chambers.
International criminal law operates at the frontier of law and geopolitics, human rights and war. These cases are among the most complex and complicated a barrister can undertake. They require expertise, dedication, passion and patience, all of which can be provided by the highly experienced practitioners at 1MCB.
Members of the team regularly appear before healthcare regulators, including the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (GMC), Nursing and Midwifery Council, the General Pharmaceutical Council, the General Dental Council, and the Health and Care Professions Council. Members have a particular specialism in fitness to practice proceedings and are instructed for both prosecution and defence, as well as in appeals to the High Court. Many members of the team are available to provide representation directly to healthcare professionals in appropriate cases.
The team is also available to assist in local government matters and to represent both enforcement authorities and individuals and companies before the magistrates court. The areas covered include council tax, licensing, non-domestic raters, food hygiene and environmental offences.
Bringing public law challenges is a key area of chambers’ work. 1MCB Chambers’ multi-disciplinary public law team draws on its expertise in immigration, housing, community care, education, crime, and prison law in order to represent individuals where there has been an unlawful exercise of power.
The public law and judicial review team has barristers at all levels of call. Its work ranges from emergency and out-of-hours High Court applications to cutting-edge challenges to public authorities’ provision of care and support.
Some of 1MCB Chambers’ recent public law work includes:
- Advising on a claim against a local authority’s refusal to use its powers under section 17 of the Children Act to circumvent the ‘benefits cap’ and avoid making a family homeless;
- Parallel litigation against the Home Office, local authority, Department for Work and Pensions and social landlord when a lost passport caused a client to lose all benefits entitlement;
- Challenging the CPS’ decisions to prosecute young people;
- Claims against the police, for example decisions to caution where there was insufficient evidence, or for disclosure of information;
- Claims against the Independent Police Complaints Commission;
- Immigration judicial reviews: decisions of the Home Department, Entry Clearance Officers, the First Tier Tribunal, and the Upper Tribunal; decisions to remove, to reject applications as “fresh claims”, and to refuse permission to appeal; actions for unlawful detention.
“The degree of civilisation in a society is revealed by entering its prisons.”
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky
1MCB Chambers has always had at its heart a strong ethos of fearlessly protecting people’s rights. We firmly believe that it is particularly important to challenge the decisions of those in authority when those decisions unlawfully or unfairly infringe the rights of those who have been deprived of their liberty.
Recognised by Legal 500 (2014) for its “niche expertise”, the prison law team is a growing team in chambers. Its members provide first-class representation at all levels, from adjudication and Parole Board hearings, to judicial review challenges.
Our experience covers:
- prisoners’ human rights;
- prison conditions and the treatment of prisoners;
- discrimination;
- categorisation/recategorisation;
- adjudications;
- the IEP system;
- segregation;
- safeguarding, including the use of Rule 45;
- access to healthcare;
- sentence calculation;
- release and recall;
- licence conditions;
- statutory compensation for miscarriages of justice;
- unlawful detention.
Individual members of the team also have expertise in other related fields, including crime, actions against the police, immigration, community care, mental health, discrimination and public law, enabling them to provide clients with well-rounded advice and representation.
The protection and advancement of human rights and civil liberties lies at the heart of what we do at 1MCB Chambers. We take pride in both the depth and breadth of our barristers’ expertise in international human rights and provide specialist advice, advocacy and training to individuals, communities and NGOs.
A number of members of the team have taken cases to international courts including the European Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Justice, and the Inter American Commission on Human Rights. Others have developed substantial expertise in international criminal law at the International Criminal Court, the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
An increasing number of 1MCB Chambers’ barristers combine their domestic practices with work outside of the jurisdiction, as members of foreign Bars or holders of temporary rights of audience in overseas jurisdictions, including Rwanda, Uganda and Guyana.
Members are also actively involved in the work of NGOs working on issues including Kurdish human rights, protection of human rights defenders in Colombia, prison conditions in Malawi, the rights of indigenous peoples in Uganda, freedom of expression in Rwanda, development in Cameroon and Roma rights in Europe.
The team has significant experience of fact-finding missions throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and South America, representing international and non-governmental human rights organisations. Members have also participated in trial and election observation missions and in judicial training in many countries all over the world.
1MCB Chambers has a long-standing specialist social housing team. Our housing barristers have developed a strong reputation for their commitment to providing first-class advice and representation, particularly to legally aided clients.
The team has expertise across all areas of housing law, including:
- Possession claims
- Homelessness
- Disrepair
- Discrimination
- Antisocial behaviour injunctions
- Committal proceedings
- Unlawful eviction
- Community care and welfare benefits
- Allocation of social housing
- Housing standards
- Judicial review
- Migrant rights
- Closure orders
- Rent repayment orders
Our specialist housing barristers are recognised for their expertise across housing law, and they pride themselves in offering incisive strategic advice, with a clear focus on clients’ needs.
As many of our barristers work across complementary practice areas, 1MCB’s housing law team is well placed to tackle complex intersecting legal issues, including equality law, welfare benefits, immigration, family law and criminal law that often arise in housing cases. This multi-disciplinary approach means that our team can provide effective advice and representation across all areas of housing law.
Our housing barristers are particularly experienced in representing individuals confronting multiple disadvantages, including those with disabilities and vulnerabilities. Many members of the team have worked in law centres, solicitors’ firms and grassroots legal organisations, which they gives them an excellent ability to engage with clients.
When relationships break down, 1MCB Chambers’ family barristers are there to provide representation at court hearings, advice face-to-face in conference and in writing, and mediation.
Our family law barristers offer expertise in all aspects of family law including:
- care proceedings and adoption
- contact and residence disputes
- other private law disputes over children, such as where a child should be educated
- disputes over the movement of children, both within England and Wales and internationally
- international child abduction
- divorce, nullity and the validity of marriage;financial relief orders under the Matrimonial Causes Act, the Children Act and TOLATA
- forced marriage
- Inheritance Act claims where inadequate provision has been made for a dependant
- domestic violence applications
- Court of Protection matters
As part of a multi-disciplinary chambers, our family barristers can access expert advice on areas of law that commonly impact on family breakdown, including housing, immigration, welfare rights and criminal law.
The barristers in our family law team pride themselves on their friendly and personable approach and provides clients with a professional and sympathetic service, aiming to arrive at early settlement in order to minimise the stress of protracted disputes. We consider continuity of representation a priority and are often able to act at short notice in emergency situations.
1MCB Chambers has a team of dedicated employment and discrimination barristers with expertise across the full range of employment law issues.
Recently, our barristers are providing advice and representation particularly on dismissal, redundancy and settlement or compromise agreements. We are authorised to take direct access instructions from clients, where appropriate.
Members of chambers represent individuals at every level. At the junior end our members represent workers in disputes in the employment tribunal, whereas more senior members have recently been involved in groundbreaking Court of Appeal litigation on the ‘gig economy’.
Members of chambers have particular expertise at representing in employment cases with a strong cross-over aspect (for instance in public sector discrimination cases) cases with a European law dimension and commercial employment law (such as restraint of trade, fiduciary and breach of confidence issues and bonus/share option disputes). We advise across all industry sectors and act in insurance funded cases, for trade unions and for private clients. We are happy to act for clients across the range of cases, from straightforward unfair dismissal to complex equal pay matters.
The employment team is happy to provide direct access advice and representation in appropriate cases.
Members of 1MCB Chambers regularly act for clients in non-employment discrimination matters including discrimination in Part IV Equality Act 2010 housing cases, public sector discrimination and related judicial review, school SENDIST cases, and County Court matters including goods and services discrimination and higher and further education discrimination.
