Emily Soothill
Emily Soothill
Partner
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.
"Emily has something very special, she gives care and attention to each case, whatever its size. She is a whip-smart, insightful and empathetic lawyer."
Chambers & Partners
Background
Emily Soothill is a partner specialising in public law and human rights. She has been recognised as being “extremely intelligent, superlatively hard-working, committed and easy to work with” and “a team player with an eye for bringing people together”.
Prior to joining DPG, Emily worked as a solicitor 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.
Emily has an LLM in Public International Law and she has previously 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.
Expertise
Emily has a diverse caseload which includes public law challenges and complex group claims. She has successfully represented a large number of asylum seekers challenging the legality of their accommodation at Napier Barracks, Wethersfield Airfield and on the Bibby Stockholm barge, and has recently successfully acted for a number of vulnerable victims of trafficking and age-disputed minors challenging their removal to France under the UK/France Agreement known as the ‘one in, one out’ scheme. Emily is also part of the DPG team representing Amnesty International UK who, alongside Liberty, have been granted permission to intervene in the landmark proceedings now before the UK Supreme Court considering whether the decision to proscribe Palestine Action under section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2000 was lawful.
Emily has particular expertise in international human rights litigation and group claims. She is currently bringing a group claim for damages on behalf of individuals detained unlawfully in the controversial Manston short-term holding facility, and is also representing 20 of those clients in a public inquiry examining the overcrowding, neglect, and mistreatment at Manston in Autumn 2022. Emily has previously acted in 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 significant experience of bringing 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 (AYA, EXR, HRE, GIP and KAG) v SSHD, [2026] EWHC 1742 (Admin): Judicial review successfully challenging the removal of the right of potential victims of human trafficking to request reconsideration of negative trafficking decisions before removal to France and other signatories to the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.
R (Ammori) v SSHD, UKSC/2026/0099: Representing Amnesty International UK in their intervention in the Supreme Court proceedings considering whether the decision to proscribe Palestine Action under section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2000 was lawful.
R (Hickman-Gray and Others) v the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, Claim No. AC-2025-LON-003830: Judicial review conceded by the JCIO regarding its refusal to investigate complaints against an employment judge accused of bullying and other misconduct over a seven-year period.
R (KD) v SSHD, Claim No. AC-2025-LON-001362: Judicial review conceded by the Home Office challenging serious failures to identify and protect a survivor of trafficking and to instead prosecute him after he was forced at gunpoint to pilot a dinghy across the English Channel.
R (TG and Others) v SSHD, Claim No. AC-2023-LON-003447: Judicial review successfully challenging the legality of our clients’ accommodation at Wethersfield Airfield and the failure of the Government to assess the equalities impact when amending its asylum accommodation policy.
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 SSHD, Claim No. AC-2023-LON-002660: Judicial review claim challenging the Home Secretary’s use of the Bibby Stockholm barge to accommodate asylum seekers at Portland Port in Dorset, without obtaining planning permission.
R (NB and Others) v SSHD, Claim No. CO/312/2021: 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 Secretary of State for Home Department (High Court): Challenge to systemic delays in the determination of asylum claims by unaccompanied children.
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.