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).
Michael also advises and represents employees, former employees and others in resisting applications for injunctive relief and damages in the High Court and County Court regarding alleged breach of confidence, restrictive covenants and/or inducement.
Michael has extensive experience of providing expert, practical advice to employees about settlement agreements on a public access basis, and has experience of conducting internal investigations, including in relation to complex issues of data protection within the legal sector.
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.
Ignatius’s practice is exclusively criminal defence. He specialises in all areas of criminal law and is increasingly being instructed as leading counsel in highly organised and complex frauds, money laundering and international drug trafficking.
Jacqueline provides advice in family, crime and immigration work.
She now specialises in family law but her background traverses many areas of law and she still sits as an immigration judge. For this reason she is often seen as the perfect advocate for cases that involve various disciplines.
Jacqueline has practised as a family barrister for more than 25 years. In that time she has regularly been instructed in both private and legal aid work and is pleased to do either.
She has a background in serious criminal offences, particularly those involving young offenders, offenders with mental health issues, sexual offences and cases where it was necessary to cross-examine very young children. Her patience, determination and legal aptitude in dealing with these cases meant that since she moved to an exclusively family law practice she has become renowned for working in particularly difficult cases where the participants are from challenging backgrounds. In particular she is sought after where the client has mental health issues, issues with violence or where the child may be particularly vulnerable. She is also regularly instructed in cases where sexual offences and violence are alleged, including child abuse and other related matters.
The fact that her work covers three complex legal disciplines is rare, but she is able to deal with each area of law with ease.
James has wide experience of practice at the Bar. For many years he combined a civil practice with crime and now concentrates on criminal cases. He conducts a wide variety of criminal cases in the Crown Court involving such matters as supplying drugs, serious violence, robbery, and multi handed cases generally for both defence and prosecution.
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.
Rajesh is formerly treasurer and joint deputy head of 1MCB 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.
Rajesh is also an accredited mediator and accepts instructions in civil and commercial mediation.
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.
Jackie specialises in all aspects of immigration and asylum law, including immigration and asylum related judicial review applications. She has been a specialised immigration practitioner since 1996 and she particular interests in representing people who are persecuted for their faith, and in humanitarian cases.
Barnabas is a barrister specialising in immigration and asylum law and related areas and has extensive experience in the First Tier and Upper Tribunals, with onward appeals to the Court of Appeal. He regularly undertakes judicial review applications in the High Court and Upper Tribunal. He has also advised local authorities and family law solicitors on immigration problems, particularly those relating to children.
Additionally he has experience in terrorism and national security cases.
Salma specialises mainly in defence work and has developed a highly successful practice encompassing all areas of serious and complex crime.
A well respected leading junior highly sought after by solicitors who are impressed by her sensible, thorough and well balanced approach to often difficult matters.
She began her practice in family law and is also regularly instructed in regulatory work. Her mixed practice background gives her an edge in her approach to case strategy and client relations.
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 international 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 seven 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 defence counsel before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. His client is alleged to be a notorious commander of the Arab militia in Darfur, Sudan commonly known as the Janjaweed. He is charged with 31 counts of murder, rape, forcible transfer, persecution and torture as crimes against humanity, and numerous war crimes, all arising out of the conflict in West Darfur between August 2003 and April 2004.
Iain also represents a client who was granted early release from his sentence by the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in Arusha, Tanzania, in his efforts to be permanently resettled in a safe country. Until recently, he was assigned for the defence of a client on appeal in a multi-hander contempt case before the Mechanism.
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.
