Background
Emily Soothill is a partner in our Bristol office specialising in public law and human rights. She joined the firm as a solicitor in 2017 and is ranked for civil liberties and human rights in the Chambers and Partners legal directory. She has been recognised as being “really effective, strategic and very forensic” and “someone who is very emotionally intelligent, and clients love her.”
Prior to joining DPG, Emily worked in the International and Group Claims department of Leigh Day and trained at Herbert Smith Freehills, where she worked in the firm’s London, Tokyo, and Hong Kong offices. She has also volunteered with Reprieve, representing indigent clients facing the death penalty in America, the International Organisation of Migration, assisting internally displaced persons following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and the International Refugee Rights Initiative in Uganda. Emily has an LLM in Public International Law and was previously a member of the ILA Working Group on Business and Human Rights.
Expertise
Emily helps individuals use the law to challenge decisions that violate their rights, seek accountability for unlawful treatment and claim compensation for harm that they have suffered. She has a diverse caseload which includes public law challenges and complex group claims.
Emily is currently representing asylum seekers challenging the legality of their accommodation at Wethersfield Airfield and on the Bibby Stockholm barge, and also represents a group of individuals who were detained unlawfully in the controversial Manston short-term holding facility.
Emily has particular expertise in international human rights litigation against corporate actors. She has worked on a number of corporate accountability cases, including a claim against African Barrick Gold (Acacia Mining) relating to injuries and deaths at the North Mara Mine in Tanzania and a compensation claim against Anglo American South Africa and AngloGold Ashanti, brought by former gold miners with the debilitating lung disease silicosis, leading to a ground-breaking settlement for 4,365 former miners.
Emily also has experience of bringing civil claims on behalf of victims of human trafficking and has delivered training to NGOs in this area. In 2016, Emily helped secure the first High Court judgment ever handed down against a British company for claims arising from modern slavery.
Sample Cases
Significant cases on which Emily has worked include:
R (TG and Others) v SSHD, [2025] EWHC 596 (Admin): Judicial review successfully challenging the legality of accommodating three vulnerable asylum seekers at Wethersfield Airfield.
R (Gabriel Clarke-Holland) v SSHD, Claim No. CO/1539/2023: Judicial review challenging government plans to set up an asylum accommodation centre at Wethersfield Airfield using emergency planning powers.
R (Carralyn Parkes) v Dorset Council, [2024] EWHC 1253 (Admin): Judicial review challenging the use of the Bibby Stockholm barge to accommodate asylum-seekers at Portland Port in Dorset, without obtaining planning permission, and considering the geographical extent of planning control in England and Wales where the land meets the sea.
R (AKH and Others) v SSHD, Claim No. AC-LON-002911: Judicial review challenging the Home Secretary’s policy or practice of confiscating the mobile phones and other belongings of asylum-seekers on arrival in the UK.
R (NB and Others) v SSHD, [2021] EWHC 1489 (Admin): Judicial review successfully challenging the legality of conditions at Napier Barracks and the Defendant’s system for allocating asylum seekers to barracks accommodation.
R (EW) v SSHD, Claim No. CO/4866/2020: Systemic challenge to the refusal of asylum support and accommodation to destitute failed asylum seekers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
R (MK) v SSHD , [2019] EWHC 3573: Judicial review challenging systemic delays in the determination of asylum claims by unaccompanied children.
Cushnie v Ministry of Justice, Claim No. A02CL457: Disability discrimination claim alleging failure to provide adequate medical treatment and make reasonable adjustments for a disabled prisoner.
Galdikas and others v DJ Houghton Catching Services and others, Claim No. HQ14P05429: Landmark High Court case against British company on behalf of victims of modern slavery.
Kesabo and others v African Barrick Gold and North Mara Gold Mine, Claim No. HQ13X02118: Claim against African Barrick Gold (Acacia Mining) relating to injuries and deaths at the North Mara Mine in Tanzania which was identified by The Lawyer as one of the top 20 global disputes of 2015.
Qubeka and others v Anglo American South Africa Ltd and Anglo Gold Ashanti Ltd: South African arbitral proceedings in which thousands of South African gold miners successfully obtained compensation for silicosis against Anglo American and Anglo Gold.
OECD Complaint by the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy to the UK National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
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