Background
Lana joined DPG’s Actions Against Public Authorities team as a Senior Solicitor in October 2024.
She trained at Bhatt Murphy and qualified as a solicitor in 2011 specialising in actions against the police and other public authorities. Prior to joining DPG, Lana worked at the National Council for Civil Liberties (‘Liberty’), the UK’s largest civil liberties NGO, where she specialised in challenging discriminatory policing and the criminalisation of poverty. Before that, Lana worked at Bindmans, another leading firm specialising in civil liberties and human rights.
Expertise
Lana works on the full range of actions against the police, representing people in complaints, civil claims and judicial review challenges arising from discrimination, unlawful arrest/ false imprisonment, assault and battery, malicious prosecution, breaches of the Human Rights Act (including police failures to investigate sexual offences and serious violence) and breaches of data protection laws. Additionally, she has represented individuals in civil claims against the Home Office arising from unlawful immigration detention, and for bereaved families in inquest proceedings arising from deaths involving the police.
Lana has also acted for individuals, grassroots organisations and NGOs in judicial reviews against public authorities including the police, the Home Office and the Crown Prosecution Service (‘CPS’), aimed at challenging systemic discrimination in the criminal justice system, and the acts of the police and local authorities which have the effect of criminalising poverty and homelessness.
Sample cases
- Representing a 70-year-old homeless man in a successful challenge against the Metropolitan Police Service arising from their unlawful use of ‘anti-social behaviour’ dispersal powers against homeless people.
- Representing campaign group Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association (‘JENGbA’) in a successful challenge against the CPS regarding its failure to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty in the face of clear evidence that people of colour – in particular Black boys and men – are significantly more likely than others to be prosecuted under the highly controversial ‘joint enterprise’ doctrine.
- Representing Manchester-based youth work organisation Kids of Colour, who raised concerns with Greater Manchester Police that its practice of banning people from attending Manchester’s Caribbean Carnival amounted to race discrimination because it disproportionately impacted on Black people and other people of colour.
- Representing legal observers in a successful challenge against the Metropolitan Police Service arising from their unlawful arrests at ‘Kill the Bill’ protests.
Memberships
Lana was Co-Chair of the Police Actions Lawyers Group (‘PALG’) for almost 4 years. PALG is a national organisation which includes lawyers from over forty firms and chambers who act on behalf of victims of misconduct by police officers across England and Wales, and against other detaining and prosecuting authorities.
EXPERTISE
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