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Immigration Solicitors

Public Law Director Toufique Hossain has been ranked in The Legal 500 2019 (31 October 2018)

Date: 31/10/2018
Duncan Lewis, Immigration Solicitors, Public Law Director Toufique Hossain has been ranked in The Legal 500 2019

We are pleased to announce that director of public law and immigration, Toufique Hossain, has received outstanding recognition in The Legal 500 2018-2019 edition, receiving recommendations in four practice areas, including being ranked as a ‘Next Generation Lawyer’ for Administrative and Public Law in London.

As a key presence in London and the South East, based at our head office in Harrow, Toufique heads a team of more than 40 legal practitioners with a passion for assisting the most marginalised communities we serve. He is part of the driving force behind the firm’s efforts to protect the human rights of asylum-seekers by holding the executive to account, with The Legal 500 praising the 'important challenges' he conducts, especially in relation to immigration detentions and mental health issues.

Toufique joined Duncan Lewis in 2011, before he was promoted to a partner-level director specialising in immigration public law matters. With almost 15 years post qualification experience, Toufique has had a significant presence representing clients in cases which have reached the High Court, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. Early in his career Toufique ran the seminal Supreme Court case of Kambadzi, which established the principle that a failure to follow policy can render detention unlawful.

Building on this, in recent cases such as JM & Ors, US (Pakistan) and TN (Vietnam), Toufique has successfully challenged unjust policies which were found to have resulted in the unlawful detention of thousands of people. The Legal 500 have made a particular note of his work with public law solicitor, Lewis Kett, which resulted in the ‘successful challenge involving discriminatory practices in immigration detention centres’ in Hussein & Ors where the High Court found that the Home Office had been discriminating against Muslim detainees.

It was his work with the MJ & Ors case, concerning the Home Office’s unlawful interpretation of the definition of torture when assessing whether a detainee is considered an adult at risk, that gained him recognition as The Times Lawyer of the Week in October 2017. The result of this judgment has led the definition of torture to be broadened to include those that have received non-state torture overseas, meaning that thousands are no longer considered suitable for detention, and are liberated from the trauma of being held in immigration removal centres across England and Wales.

In 2017-2018 Toufique has been highly commended for Human Rights Lawyer of the Year at the Law Society Excellence Awards, shortlisted for Lawyer Monthly’s ‘Public Law Solicitor of the Year’, The Legal Aid Practitioners Group’s (LALY) ‘Immigration and Asylum Lawyer of the Year’, and the Law Society’s ‘Human Rights Lawyer of the Year’.

He has this to say in response to his ‘Next Generation Lawyer’ ranking:

“I am pleased to have been ranked as a Next Generation Lawyer – it’s a huge honour to be named alongside such notable practitioners in this field. It’s a welcome reminder that the work myself and my team are so dedicated to conducting on behalf of the marginalised individuals we serve is being recognised, especially at a time when legal aid cuts continue to threaten our practice. It is this sort of recognition that highlights just how essential our work is for so many who would otherwise be out of reach of quality legal representation.”

In addition to Toufique’s ranking, The Legal 500 also maintained the ‘Leading Individual’ status for both directors Vinita Templeton and Heather Iqbal Rayner, who head our immigration and housing teams at Duncan Lewis’ Cardiff office.

Duncan Lewis Solicitors enjoyed considerable success overall, being a recommended law firm in 10 practice areas ranked in 15 directories across London, South-East, West Midlands and Wales. We are delighted to have maintained our ‘Top Tier’ status for our London Immigration: Human Rights, Appeals and Overstay, and Wales Immigration practice. Overall 39 of our current staff are recommended, across 49 individual recommendations, with some receiving recommendations in more than one practice area or location. For a complete summary on our Legal 500 rankings and recommendations in the 2018-2019 edition, follow this link.


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