An engaging, creative and tenacious advocate, Lucy combines meticulous case preparation and strategy with a down to earth manner and impeccable client care. Practising in criminal defence, family, housing, employment, discrimination, and dangerous dogs and animal welfare law, she is eager to develop her practice in actions against the police, community care, prison, public and regulatory law. Lucy’s unique background and multidisciplinary practice equip her to advise clients and approach cases in a holistic manner.
Lucy has a busy practice in the family and criminal courts, and also regularly appears in the county court. She has extensive experience dealing with vulnerable and socially excluded individuals and is committed to upholding the rights of others. Lucy received the Access to Justice Foundation award (Highly Commended) at the LawWorks/Attorney General’s National Student Pro Bono Awards 2019, which recognise individuals and organisations who have made a significant contribution to access to justice.
A former trade union advocate, Lucy benefits from six-years’ experience in her previous career for a local authority representing employees in workplace employment, discrimination and health and safety matters. She has an interest in housing and social welfare law, running her own award winning pro bono project for social housing tenants, CommUnify, having advocated for tenants’ rights as an executive committee member of the National Federation of Tenant Management Organisations (NFTMO) and through her tenant management organisation, and representing clients in disability benefits appeals in the social security tribunal for the Free Representation Unit. Lucy is therefore well placed to undertake employment, discrimination and regulatory matters, as well as advising on community care and public law matters which involve local authorities and public bodies.
An interest in international fundamental rights led Lucy to research and volunteer with NGOs in the UK and in Latin America. This included communications work for Justice for Colombia, casework for Bail for Immigration Detainees (BiD) in the Article 8 Deportation Advice Team, and a delegation to Cuba, where she explored human rights under the embargo. Lucy has written on her research for various publications, highlighting legal and social issues such as the marginalisation of social housing tenants and the injustice of the US Cuban blockade.
Lucy is direct access qualified and able to deal directly with members of the public for certain matters, whether that is legal advice, drafting, or representation at hearings in court.
David is an experienced advocate in a broad range of legal practice areas, including criminal defence, constitutional law, immigration, judicial review, inquests and general civil litigation.
He writes and lectures extensively in the UK, Ireland and internationally.
Ghazala is a strategic and tenacious barrister practising in the areas of family, immigration and criminal law. She is accessible and firmly dedicated to the needs of her clients.
Prior to joining chambers, Ghazala worked as an immigration tribunal representative and caseworker for several years, gaining extensive experience in a wide variety of immigration matters including deportation, human rights and asylum cases.
Ghazala has a growing practice in all areas of criminal defence, representing clients in both the Magistrates’ and Crown Courts. She is recognised for her methodical approach and skilled courtroom advocacy. She has worked on a number of serious and complex criminal matters whilst working as a paralegal, including the 21/7 London bombing case and R v Jalil and Others (2006) under the supervision of Edward Rees QC of Doughty Street Chambers and Jo Sidhu QC of 25 Bedford Row. Ghazala maintains an interest in the Terrorism Prevent Strategy and has worked with local councils, schools and the police force in relation to this.
As a criminal practitioner, her experience of cross-examination and witness handling techniques are particularly advantageous in her family law practice, particularly where there is a crossover in cases involving domestic abuse or sexual violence. With her empathetic manner, she approaches cases with the necessary tact and care to achieve the best outcome for her clients making her a repeat choice counsel.
She also has experience of education law and has represented parents before Independent Review Panel hearings seeking admission for their child into a particular school, as well as representing schools opposing admission for reasons such as infant size prejudice. With more than 15 years’ experience in educational governance she has a particular handle on educational appeal hearings.
Ghazala is committed to helping the vulnerable and disadvantaged and is routinely involved in pro bono work, often providing advocacy services to Bail Immigration Detainees. She has volunteered for the Citizens Advice Bureau and worked for the Free Representation Unit. She was part of the Mayor of London’s programme, Here to Stay, offering immigration advice to members of the public in light of Brexit. She is involved with various charitable organisations, regularly providing assistance, and has played an integral part in initiatives helping vulnerable members of the community.
Ghazala has a particular interest in human rights having had exposure to such issues in her various practice areas. She did a placement at the UN Mechanism for International Residual Mechanism Criminal Tribunal in the Hague assisting Iain Edwards in the case of Prosecutor v Stanišić & Simatović. Ghazala also supported Evolve with a study visit to London of the Sentencing Guidelines Committee of Uganda, and continues to maintain an active interest in the organisation’s work.
As a barrister of considerable experience in criminal and civil as well as commercial law, Shiraz has been speaking on behalf of the vulnerable and outcast for some 20 years. He has particular experience in criminal defence, housing and personal injury (having a medical sciences degree) and has a wealth of experience in cases concerning vulnerable people.
He is also founder and director of Be Coherent Ltd, a communications and legal training company which provides law and advocacy, persuasive communications, and media and defamation training for non-lawyers.
Mike prosecutes and defends in the Crown Court in a range of criminal matters, including POCA, and has appeared in the Court of Appeal and the High Court. He prepares thoroughly and has excellent client care. Mike is a CPS Grade 2 prosecutor and has been appointed to the specialist panels for serious crime, fraud and proceeds of crime. He also been appointed to the SFO’s panel C for prosecution, proceeds of crime and international assistance.
Having completed pupillage at 4 Breams Buildings, he joined 1MCB as a third six pupil in October 2016 and became a tenant in August 2017.
Mike worked previously in conservation and then the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), developing and implementing policy and programmes in Whitehall, Iraq and Afghanistan. His focus in DFID was conflict reduction and security and justice reform in developing countries. After leaving government, Mike managed a large aviation security and police training programme in Somaliland, on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).
Mike studied Philosophy at the University of Liverpool, before studying for an MA in International Relations and Development Studies at the University of East Anglia and later an MSc in Security Sector Management at the UK Defence Academy / Cranfield University.
He undertook the Graduate Diploma in Law and the Bar Professional Training Course at City University, London. He has travelled widely and speaks and reads Spanish and Indonesian moderately well.
In appropriate cases, Mike is able to accept instructions directly from members of the public, community organisations and NGOs, through the Bar Council’s Public Access Scheme.
Michael has a busy junior practice, combining housing, employment law and criminal defence. He joined 1MCB in February 2016, having completed pupillage at Garden Court Chambers.
Prior to joining the Bar, Michael worked at law centres in South London, Bristol and Surrey. He provided advice and representation in housing law, especially homelessness and possession, as well as employment law and general public law. He has extensive experience of assisting vulnerable clients under legal aid contracts, including county court duty advice.
Michael regularly accepts instructions in the County Court for tenants defending possession claims, as well as tenants alleging disrepair, unlawful eviction/harassment or discrimination. Michael has also represented vulnerable clients in urgently securing interim relief from the High Court, as well as in homelessness appeals, including final hearings.
Michael also has extensive experience over many years of providing advice and advocacy in relation to employment tribunal claims, having represented in claims for unfair dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing, wages and breach of contract. He has been thanked by the Employment Appeal Tribunal EAT for his “thoughtful analysis and clear presentation” (Stroud RFC v Monkman UKEAT/0143/13).
Pamela practises in all areas of criminal defence, including serious crime and offences alleging violence (attempted murder, section 18 and section 20 offences), drugs offences, firearms offences, and cases involving animal welfare. She has experience of abuse of process submissions and of confiscation proceedings. She has appeared before the Court of Appeal on numerous occasions. She has significant experience in public order law and offences arising out of protests, having represented miners during the 1980s, anti poll tax in the 1990s and anti war protestors more recently. She has been noted for dealing with difficult and sensitive cases over the years. She has been led in cases ranging from murder to confiscation and RIPA and been both led junior and junior alone in the High Court in dangerous dogs cases.
Rajesh is meticulous in his preparation, practical in the advice he gives and bold in his advocacy. He is a well-regarded and experienced barrister who has practised immigration, human rights and public law for over twenty years.
He has been a director of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and the Kurdish Human Rights Project, both of which are leading organisations in the field of immigration and international human rights law. He is now on the panel of the council of experts of the democratic progress institute.
Having held the post of treasurer at 1MCB Chambers for years 2015-2019, Raj is now joint Deputy Head of Chambers. He has also been a director of an AIM-listed investment company where he took charge of the renewable energy portfolio. This has given him insight into business and organisational structures, which he uses when advising on business applications.
He has lectured extensively in the UK and internationally on a wide variety of legal issues, including immigration and asylum law and freedom of expression (Bar of Armenia), enforcement of European court judgments (human rights organisation in Turkey), minority linguistic rights (European Parliament), women’s and children’s rights in areas of conflict (cross-border conference to NGOs working in Kurdish regions). He has chaired these cross-border conferences on an annual basis from 2009 to 2012 in regions in south-east Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan. He has had several reports published as a trial and human rights observer.
Neelim is an established practitioner in criminal and public law children cases. She has also acted for families in inquests and deaths in custody.
She is a long-standing campaigner for community based legal services and was a founder member of the first neighbourhood barristers’ chambers in the UK.
Neelim is actively involved in the work of the International Bar Association and is currently a vice-chair of its Human Rights Law Committee, and an officer of the IBA’s LGBT Committee and the IBA’s Poverty and Social Development Committee. She has previously been a member of the IBA’s Presidential Task Force on Trafficking.
Neelim is head of the family law team at 1MCB.
A highly regarded practitioner specialising in the fields of immigration, crime and public law, and ultimately in cases that engage human rights issues and/or have an international or foreign dimension.
A Social and Economic History graduate of the LSE, Shuyeb worked at the Department of Trade and Industry before undertaking (on completion of his CPE at the University of Birmingham and his BVC at BPP London) a specialist immigration/public law pupillage at Enfield Chambers, under the guidance of James Gillespie, the co-author of the seminal Immigration Law Handbook, during which he was seconded as a trainer of caseworkers at the IAS.
Adept, in particular, in handling cases where there is a crossover/interaction between immigration, criminal and family law, Shuyeb has navigated innumerable successes before the First Tier and Upper Tribunal (AIC), the Administrative Court and both divisions of the Court of Appeal, reflecting his depth of knowledge, phenomenal work rate and ability to take matters in these areas from the bottom to the top with skilful and imaginative written and oral advocacy.
Shuyeb was junior counsel, led by the late Ian Macdonald QC, in both the Cambridge College test case, which concerned allegations that foreign students were coming to the UK to attend bogus colleges, leading to a parliamentary inquiry and the introduction of sponsor licence requirements and the ‘points-based system’; and in Jeffers v Labour Party [2011] EWHC 529 (QB), a case challenging the control exercised by the Labour Party over the internal administration of its affiliate BAME – Black and Minority Ethnic – group. Most recently, Shuyeb was Counsel for the appellant in Zulfiqar (‘Foreign criminal’; British citizen) [2020] UKUT 312 (IAC), where the Upper Tribunal gave guidance on the reach of statutory provisions governing the assessment of Article 8 rights raised in response to the proposed deportation of “foreign criminals”.
Shuyeb is qualified to accept instructions from members of the public directly under the Direct Access Scheme.
Ranjeet is a highly regarded barrister who specialises in crime, immigration, asylum and human rights work. She is well respected by her professional and lay clients for consistently delivering positive results through her comprehensive and methodical approach to her cases. She has a professional and approachable manner and is often instructed on cases involving young offenders, vulnerable clients and those with mental health problems.
Iain is a seasoned and compassionate barrister specialising in serious crime. He is a fighter who always goes the extra mile for his clients, whether before domestic or overseas jurisdictions. Iain represents defendants charged with the gravest of offences and has a particular expertise in international crimes, firearms, and immigration related cases. He is developing a strong practice in extradition. Iain prides himself on his meticulous preparation and intelligent trial strategy. Clients regularly comment favourably on his down-to-earth, unpretentious approach.
Since 2009, Iain has divided his busy defence practice between domestic and international criminal work. For the last six years, he has been one of a small handful of barristers ranked by Chambers and Partners as a leading junior in international criminal law, and by The Legal 500 as a Tier 1 leading junior in international crime and extradition.
Iain is currently assigned as counsel before the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague for the defence of the former head of the Serbian state security service, on trial for crimes against humanity and war crimes. He is also assigned for the defence of an accused in a six-hander contempt case before the Mechanism in Arusha, Tanzania.
Iain has a developing interest in all areas of national and international sanctions work, including before the UN’s Ombudsperson to the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee, and under the UK’s new Magnitsky regime introduced through the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020.
Iain is accredited by the Bar Standards Board to undertake public access work.
