Pardeep Somel

I am solicitor in the Immigration and Public Law departments at the Milton Keynes office. I also supervise a small team. I specialise in asylum work, representing victims of torture, human trafficking, and gender-based persecution. In recent years I have specialised in representing clients in detention.

I have additional experience of litigation in the Administrative court, Court of Appeal and County Court as well as the First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal. I regularly represent detainees held prison or immigration centres as well as those that have been released from immigration detention, by challenging the Secretary of State’s powers to detain them. I also represent individuals challenging removal to their countries of origin.

I have brought challenges against the Secretary of State for the Home Office on a wide range of challenges that include:

• The failure to provide a NASS address (release address) within a reasonable time resulting in prolonged immigration detention.
• The failure to apply the detention rules correctly and decision to detain those accepted as victims of torture or trafficking or unsuitable for detention (Detention Centre Rules 34 and 35)
• Third country removals under the Dublin III Regulations
• Fresh claim challenges and denial of a right of appeal following a refusal of a fresh claim
• County Court claims for false imprisonment
• Unlawful delay in processing an asylum application or failure to make a decision within a reasonable time
• Certification of an asylum claim as ‘clearly unfounded’ under Section 94 of the Nationality Immigration and Asylum Act 2002

I qualified as a solicitor in 2009. I am also accredited as a supervisor and Level 2 Senior Caseworker under the Law Society’s Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme which means that I have demonstrated the required level of competence and knowledge to represent publicly funded clients.

I am multilingual and fluent in Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu.

• Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice (LPC) - Inns School of Law
• LLB Honours – University of Hertfordshire

• Duncan Lewis Solicitors 2018-present
• Admitted as a solicitor in 2009

High Court

• R (Huang) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] EWHC 2069 (Admin)

• Level 2 Senior Caseworker under the Law Society’s Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme

• R (on the application of Habte) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWHC 967 (10 June 2020)