Biography
I specialise in several areas of public law, these include, Court of Protection cases relating to a person's health and welfare; Education Law, such as appeals to the SEND Tribunal and advice on EHCPs, and bringing challenges against public bodies if you are concerned about health or social care decisions they have made.
Key highlights
Some particular highlights for me (and to also show the importance of the work the team do):
- Supporting a young person get accommodation from their council when they could not return home due to a homophobic family, even when the council was refusing to provide them with any support.
- Preventing a vulnerable adult with a brain injury from being evicted from their accommodation and being made homeless.
- Challenging the Home Office for refusing to provide accommodation and support to someone who had been found a victim of modern slavery.
- Securing a safe discharged for an elderly man to his own home to be surrounded by his family instead of being sent to a care home. We were able to get the council to fund a care package at home, which they even admitted was more than they normally would fund.
- Successfully bringing an appeal on behalf of a family to secure an Education, Health Care and Needs assessment for their young child.
What do you like about working at Irwin Mitchell?
The flexibility is a real plus for me. Being able to work from the office, at home, or a different city means I am able to get the most out of my job whilst keeping a healthy work/life balance. It would also be wrong if I did not mention my team, and how important it is to be able to work in such a collaborative team.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your role?
Helping vulnerable people have meaningful access to justice, especially in circumstances when they have a limited support network around them. Any type of legal case can be daunting, and it is really rewarding to help clients understand the process and work as a team with them to get great results.
What inspired you to get into law?
I did Law at A-Level and found it interesting, I also thought my law teacher was really cool! Also, lots of people had said you could use a law degree to go into other areas, so I thought it seemed like a good degree to do. It was at university that I became certain I wanted to practice in law, I was taught by practicing lawyers who talked about their jobs - and it really inspired me to decide to become a solicitor. Having mentors and people you look up has always been an important source of support throughout my career, even in the early stages.
What do you do away from the office?
I am a big reader and recently discovered the wonder of audiobooks. I have run a couple of half-marathons, but usually in a repeating cycle of saying I need to get back into running.
