Imogen is ranked by Legal 500 for Administrative and Public Law as a ‘rising star’ and by Chambers and Partners as ‘Up and Coming’ in Administrative and Public Law.

She has been on the Attorney General’s C Panel of Counsel since 2019.

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.

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.

Imogen is on the committee of the Administrative Law Bar Association (ALBA) and the Young Public Lawyers Group (YPLG).

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
• Home Office failures to provide asylum support
• Local authority decisions around ‘former relevant child’ status for children in care
• Decisions taken under the Care Act and the Children Act

Imogen is regularly instructed by claimants in JRs of local authority decisions that an unaccompanied child asylum seeker is an adult.

Imogen has acted for the defendant in judicial reviews concerning:

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

Public law cases of Imogen’s to reach the Court of Appeal include:

• a rationalitiy and proportionality challenge to Defra’s banning of electronic dog collars
• a JR of the Home Secretary’s decision to require a licence for certain telecommunications equipment which poses a threat to national security
• Evangelou v McNicol, acting for Labour Party members excluded from voting in a Labour leadership election; and
• the National Crime Agency’s successful appeal against the granting of interim relief in circumstances where it would in effect disapply the anti-money laundering regime under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Imogen is one of LexisNexis’ contributing authors for its LexisPSL service. She has co-authored practice notes on the ‘Prevent Duty’ on public bodies in relation to terrorism (see article here); the status of Strasbourg case law; human rights and statutory construction; judicial deference and the margin of appreciation; civil contingencies and emergency powers; dealing with human rights challenges; and terrorism law.

Cases

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

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 and established the Monckton Education Law Blog.

Cases

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” (further details here)
• a company challenging a ban of sales of one of its products (electronic dog collars) on A1P1 grounds;

In her first four years of practice, Imogen was a member of the Executive Committee of the Human Rights Lawyers Association (HRLA). She now sits on the committee of 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

Within her public law practice, Imogen is regularly instructed in JRs relating to community care. 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

Imogen acts on both claimant and defendant sides in major procurement litigation. Recent cases included acting for the Department for Transport in Eurotunnel’s procurement challenge to the award of Brexit ferry contracts.

Imogen is instructed by the Department for Health and Social Care in a number of high-profile judicial review challenges brought by the Good Law Project concerning procurement of PPE during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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

Cases

Within her public law practice, Imogen is regularly instructed to advise and represent in cases concerning commercial and utilities regulation. She acts in the most high-profile and complex judicial reviews of the day.

Imogen has acted in JRs concerning:

• smart meter roll-out
• wholesale fibre access in relation to broadband
• telecommunications licensing
• the electricity capacity market
• the LINK payment scheme