Duncan Lewis

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Over the past year Duncan Lewis, which is the biggest legal aid firm in the country and has a large immigration practice, has been involved in several prominent cases that have contributed to key changes in government policy.

In a judicial review challenge on behalf of a client who was detained in prison under immigration powers for more than nine months without access to legal advice, the High Court found that the legal aid arrangements breached human rights laws. In response to the case, the lord chancellor announced a wide-ranging review of the legal aid arrangements for immigration detainees.

The also firm represented the mother of a ten-year-old girl for whom a local authority successfully sought a female genital mutilation protection order, supported by its client, to protect her from being removed to Bahrain or Sudan and forced to undergo the procedure.