Imogen Proud

Call: 2015

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    Education

    BA (Cambridge) Double First Class
    GDL (City Law School) Distinction; BPTC (City Law School) Outstanding

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    Introduction

    Imogen is a public law specialist. She is regularly instructed in the most high profile judicial reviews and statutory appeals, and public law litigation of national significance.

    She is described in the legal directories as ‘a standout’ with a ‘first-class mind’ who is ‘exceptionally dedicated’.

    Imogen’s wide-ranging public law practice includes the following areas:

    • Commercial and regulatory
    • Human rights and civil liberties
    • Education law
    • Community care
    • Local government

    Imogen’s public law practice encompasses a number of Monckton’s specialist areas including procurement, telecommunications and utilities regulation.

    Imogen entered the legal directories early, in her fourth year of tenancy. When she was eligible after 7 years’ call to enter the main ranking tiers, she leapfrogged tier 4 and entered tier 3 for Administrative Law and Human Rights in the Legal 500. She is also ranked in tier 4 for Education by Legal 500, tier 5 for Community Care by Legal 500, and band 4 for Administrative and Public Law by Chambers and Partners.

    Now 9 years’ call, Imogen has 15 reported cases and 5 Westlaw UK ‘significant’ judgments. She has appeared in the Court of Appeal four times, and in 2022 Imogen appeared in the Supreme Court for the successful appellant Secretary of State in R (VIP) v SSHD.

    Imogen was shortlisted for an award in the Women in Law Awards 2020 in the category “Rising star – barrister/advocate of the year”.

    Imogen was awarded double first class honours in Philosophy at Cambridge, ranking third across the university in both part I and part II of Tripos. Imogen converted to law at City Law School, where she was awarded the top grades of Distinction in the GDL and Outstanding in the BPTC. Imogen is a Wadoryu karate black belt.

    • News
    • Administrative & public

      Imogen is ranked by Legal 500 in tier 4 for Administrative Law and Human Rights, and by Chambers and Partners in band 4 for Administrative and Public Law.

      Imogen’s administrative and public law practice involves a mixture of led work, including highly complex judicial reviews, and work as sole counsel. Her clients include children in care, asylum seekers, charities and NGOs, schools and universities, companies, public bodies, regulators and Secretaries of State.

      Imogen has acted for the claimant in judicial review challenges to:

      • London boroughs’ social housing allocation policies
      • Clinical Commissioning Groups’ funding decisions
      • DEFRA’s decision to permit the emergency use of a banned pesticide
      • DEFRA’s decision to ban electronic dog collars
      • Home Office failures to provide asylum support
      • Local authority decisions around ‘former relevant child’ status for children in care
      • Local authority decisions that an unaccompanied child asylum seeker is an adult
      • Decisions taken under the Care Act and the Children Act

      Imogen has acted for the defendant in judicial reviews concerning:

      • State surveillance powers
      • Covid-19 PPE procurement
      • Reforms to public service pensions (police, firefighters and NHS)
      • The means test for civil legal aid
      • Government policy on electricity and gas meters
      • Parole Board decisions
      • Ofsted reports
      • University admissions

      In 2022, Imogen was part of the team which succeeded in the Supreme Court for the Home Secretary, defending a national security-related decision in the telecommunications sphere in R(VIP) v SSHD.

      Imogen has sat on the committee of the Administrative Law Bar Association (ALBA), the Young Public Lawyers Group (YPLG), and the Human Rights Lawyers Association (HRLA).

      A number of Imogen’s public law clients choose to instruct her on a direct access basis. Many of her clients are in receipt of legal aid.

      Cases

    • Commercial & regulatory

      Imogen advises and represents both businesses and government departments, agencies and regulators.

      Imogen is regularly instructed in complex challenges in technically difficult areas, where there are often political sensitivities or commercial intricacies.

      Imogen has acted in JRs concerning:

      • the extent of a regulator’s statutory jurisdiction
      • a DEFRA proposal to ban a product considered to harm animal welfare
      • smart meter roll-out
      • wholesale fibre access in relation to broadband
      • telecommunications licensing
      • the electricity capacity market
      • the LINK payment scheme
    • Education

      Within her public law practice, Imogen is an Education Law specialist.

      Imogen is ranked by Legal 500 as a Rising Star in the field of Education law.

      This is an area of particular interest for Imogen due to her previous career as a teacher. Coming from a family of teachers, Imogen returned to Cambridge University after graduating for postgraduate teacher training (PGCE) and then taught for four years in state schools in North London. During that time, Imogen worked with many children who had what are now called Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). This previous career gives Imogen rare, first-hand experience of the issues at stake in judicial review challenges and statutory appeals in the education law field.

      Imogen advises and represents:

      • Pupils / students and their families
      • Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
      • Schools
      • Universities
      • Admissions panels
      • Local authorities
      • Ofsted and regulators
      • The Secretary of State for Education

      Imogen accepts instructions across the full range of education law issues, for example:

      • Judicial reviews of Ofsted decisions
      • Judicial reviews of admissions decisions
      • Fee-paying schools ceasing to educate students due to non-payment of fees
      • School policies
      • Special educational needs provision
      • Statutory appeals relating to EHCPs

      Imogen brings to her education practice her wider expertise across Monckton’s practice areas, including advising schools on procurement issues.

      Imogen was a founding member of Monckton’s Education Law practice group.

      Cases

    • Civil liberties & human rights

      Imogen acts in cases defending the human rights of individuals, as well as acting for corporations seeking to protect their commercial interests through human rights proceedings.

      Imogen’s recent cases include:

      • a JR challenging a social housing allocation policy on grounds of sex and race discrimination;
      • actions against the police, including a failure properly to investigate serious sexual abuse in breach of Article 3;
      • a landmark ruling which denied the National Crime Agency access to encrypted data on computers belonging to a “hacktivist”;
      • a company challenging a ban of sales of one of its products (electronic dog collars) on A1P1 grounds;

      Imogen has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Human Rights Lawyers Association (HRLA), the Administrative Law Bar Association (ALBA) and the Young Public Lawyers Group (YPLG).

      Imogen previously ran the year 12 programme of a project called ‘Your Law’, organising and delivering workshops on the Human Rights Act 1998 in state secondary schools in London.

      Cases

    • Community care

      Imogen is ranked as a Rising Star in Community Care by the Legal 500. Her referee commented: “Imogen is excellent, sensitive to vulnerable clients, amiable, helpful and has a quick grasp of the brief.’’

      She acts for both children and adults. Many of her community care clients are in receipt of legal aid.

      She has acted for:

      • adults denied or challenging Needs Assessments under the Care Act 2014
      • children in relation to the provision of services under the Children Act 1989
      • children in relation to ‘former relevant child’ status
      • unaccompanied asylum seekers disputing the age which local authorities have found them to be
      • asylum seekers in relation to the provision of asylum support

      Cases

    • Local government

      Imogen accepts instructions, both as sole counsel and as junior counsel in larger teams, in challenges to local government decision-making. This includes advice and representation in relation to social housing and community care issues. Imogen regularly acts for children, as well as in adult social care challenges.

      She has been involved in a number of judicial review challenges to the housing allocation policies of London borough councils.

      Imogen regularly acts for unaccompanied child asylum seekers in their judicial review challenges to local authorities’ “age assessments” which have found them to be over 18 years old.

      Through her work with Advocate (a charity which links barristers with those needing free legal help), Imogen has provided pro bono assistance to a charity which works with children in care.

    • Procurement

      Imogen acts on both claimant and defendant sides in major procurement litigation.

      She acted for the Department for Transport in Eurotunnel’s procurement challenge to the award of Brexit ferry contracts.

      During the pandemic, Imogen was instructed by the Department of Health and Social Care in its successful defence of a number of high-profile judicial review challenges brought by the Good Law Project concerning procurement of PPE.

      Imogen also provides non-contentious advice in this field. Her recent clients have included schools seeking advice in relation to redevelopment projects.

      Imogen is a member of the Procurement Lawyers’ Association.

      Cases

    • Imogen’s series of articles “Admin Court: Practical Pointers”
      September 14, 2023
      This article compares the Admin Court Guide 2023 with its predecessor, identifying the key changes for Admin Court users.
    • Further information

      Imogen has been awarded a range of scholarships including:

      • Phoenicia Scholarship (Bar European Group, 2016);
      • BPTC Advocacy Scholarship (City Law School, 2014);
      • Exhibition Award (Inner Temple, 2013 and 2014);
      • Boutwood Scholarship for gaining a First (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 2006 and 2007)
      • College Exhibition (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 2005); and
      • College Prize for examination results (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 2005, 2006 and 2007).

      Imogen has received a number of awards including:

      • City Law School Outstanding Achievement in Volunteering, for successful pro bono representation of Law Centre clients in the First Tier Tribunal (2014);
      • shortlisted for City Law School Public Law Essay Prize (2014); and
      • Winner of the City Law School Bar Society Mock Trial (2014).

      From 2016 to 2018 Imogen was a trustee of ‘Pro Bono Community’, a charity which seeks to improve access to justice by providing specialist training to volunteers in Law Centers and advice agencies.

      Imogen represented Inner Temple in debate.

      Imogen is also a member of the panel of counsel of Advocate, a charity which sources free legal help for those otherwise facing legal problems alone.

    • What the directories say

      Leading Junior in Administrative & Public Law: “Imogen is so clever. She is very nice to work with and very hardworking.” – Chambers UK, 2025

      Leading Junior in Administrative Law and Human Rights – Legal 500, 2025

      Leading Junior in Education – Legal 500, 2025

      Leading Junior in Court of Protection: health and welfare – Legal 500, 2025

      Leading Junior in Administrative & Public Law: She really gets to know the facts of the case; she makes sure everything is meticulously prepared and her advocacy is very clear.” “Imogen works brilliantly in the team and with clients. She is a standout to me.” – Chambers UK, 2024

      Leading Junior in Administrative Law and Human Rights: “Imogen’s attention to detail is a true credit to her. She impresses everyone in the courtroom, and is a fierce advocate, communicating her points clearly with ease.”  – Legal 500, 2024

      Leading Junior in Education: “Imogen knows education law in enormous detail. She is very diligent and hard-working, and her written output is always first-rate.” – Legal 500, 2024

      Leading Junior in Court of Protection and Community Care: “Imogen is a supremely capable advocate. She has a detail-orientated approach, analytically breaking down the legal points and facts of the case to advise on the strengths and weaknesses of the case. She is a fierce advocate, communicating her points clearly, and can identify weaknesses in oral arguments with pinpoint accuracy.” – Legal 500, 2024

      Up and Coming in Administrative & Public Law: “She is laser-focused in her attention to detail.” “She is brilliant – she provides excellent drafting on really complicated issues.” – Chambers UK, 2023

      Rising Star in Administrative Law and Human Rights: “Imogen is exceptionally dedicated and hardworking, always calm and pleasant to work with, and her written advocacy is first rate.”  – Legal 500, 2023

      Rising Star in Education: “Imogen is very clear, committed and focused on the task at hand.” – Legal 500, 2023

      Rising Star in Court of Protection and Community Care: Imogen is excellent, sensitive to vulnerable clients, amiable, helpful and has a quick grasp of the brief.” – Legal 500, 2023

      Up and Coming in Administrative & Public Law: “I’ve seen her led and unled and she is a fantastic junior barrister.” “Her advice is clear and practical. She’s also very good with lay clients.” – Chambers UK, 2022

      Rising Star in Administrative and Public: “Imogen is a brilliant barrister.” – Legal 500, 2022

      Rising Star in Administrative and Public: “She has a first-class mind, is very hard-working, is greatly responsive and is user friendly. She is also particularly good at dealing with clients.” – Legal 500, 2021

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