Background
Clare is a solicitor in our London office who joined the firm in 2017. She specialises in civil liberties, human rights and anti-discrimination.
Clare’s background is in the non-profit sector and she sees the law as one piece of the jigsaw for pursuing access to justice. She is keen to collaborate with others to support those subjected to abuses of power to make their voices heard and pursue practical change.
Clare trained at Bhatt Murphy Solicitors. Prior to her training, she worked in an advocacy role at Detention Action and she has a strong commitment to strategic litigation. She holds an LLM from the School of Oriental and African Studies in Human Rights, Conflict and Justice.
Expertise
Clare specialises in claims and challenges against public authorities, in particular the police, the CPS, the prison service and the Home Office, and inquests on behalf of families who have suffered bereavement as a result of failings by the state. She also acts for clients to challenge their immigration detention.
Clare has expertise in claims arising from failures to protect and investigate, for example in connection with modern slavery and violence against women and girls. Her work includes representing families who have been bereaved as a result of homicide and domestic abuse and she supports her clients with the full spectrum of investigations, including inquests and claims in the civil courts.
Alongside that practice, Clare has a particular interest in challenging discrimination in all its forms. A significant amount of her work has been on behalf of deaf and disabled people who have been subjected to discrimination. Clare is currently learning British Sign Language (“BSL”). She has a lot of experience working with people who have autism or experience other forms of neurodiversity and also people who do not have litigation capacity.
In addition, Clare’s work has a focus on mistreatment in places of detention and prisons.
In every case, Clare is led by the objectives and needs of her clients.
Clare is a member of Police Lawyers Action Group, Inquest Lawyers Group and Discrimination Law Association.
Sample cases
Acting for the Claimant in two sequential judicial review challenges to the roll out of pepper spray in prisons.
Supporting survivors to exercise their Victim’s Right of Review or challenge prosecution decisions including most recently in relation to hate crime, human trafficking and sexual violence.
Acting for the families across several inquests investigating state failures to prevent domestic homicide in cases concerning repeat perpetrators.
Claims for failure to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people against the police, other detaining authorities and in other contexts.
A series of claims and judicial reviews on behalf of people who have suffered serious and near miss incidents in prison.
Challenges to immigration detention and subsequent civil claims, including on behalf of disabled clients and people who have been subjected to mistreatment while detained.
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