Duncan Lewis Solicitors achieves excellent nationwide Legal 500 recognition with 2 Top Tier and 11 legal practice areas across the UK ranked (11 October 2017)

Duncan Lewis Solicitors are proud to announce outstanding recognition in the Legal 500 2017 Edition which sees 11 legal departments nationwide and an exceptional 34 lawyers receiving recommendations.

The Legal 500 2017 Edition has ranked Duncan Lewis Solicitors as a recommended law firm across 11 legal departments across London, in the Midlands, South East and Wales; these include Immigration, Business Immigration, Administrative and Public Law, Civil Liberties and Human Rights, Crime, Fraud and Licensing, Court of Protection, Family and Social Housing. See the full profile here: http://www.legal500.com/firms/1169-duncan-lewis-solicitors/1725-harrow-england

The firm maintained its ‘top tier’ status for its London Immigration Human Rights, Appeals and Overstay and Wales Immigration practice, with Director Vinita Templeton receiving elite ‘leading lawyer’ status.

Further, Heather Iqbal Rayner, Housing Director based in Cardiff, has also again been recommended as an ‘elite leading lawyer’ in her field of social housing law across Wales.

For nearly 30 years the annual Legal 500 directories has been a worldwide client’s guide to the best law firms and lawyers, which analyses the capabilities of law firms worldwide with a comprehensive research programme heavily focused on peer and client feedback.

Practice Director Jason Bruce has commented on the recent Legal 500 results saying: ‘We are very happy with these rankings. The continued recognition of excellence from Legal 500 across many of the key areas of law that we specialise in simply exemplifies our team’s expertise, dedication and commitment towards our clients and the legal services that we provide nationwide’.

Immigration, Human Rights, Appeals & Overstay and Business

For Duncan Lewis’ Immigration Human Rights Appeals & Overstay work in London, Legal 500 states: ‘Duncan Lewis Solicitors’ ‘diligent’ and ‘professional’ team ‘is prepared to go the extra mile’ for its clients. It is experienced across personal immigration, asylum, human rights and nationality matters, with particular expertise in judicial review cases. It acts for vulnerable clients such as victims of trafficking or torture, and handles unlawful detention cases’.

For its Wales practice, Legal 500 notes: it ‘is ‘in a class of its own’. The Cardiff office has become an integral part of the firm’s UK-wide capability, which includes a large legal aid immigration practice and a market-leading reputation for immigration judicial review matters’.

The legal directory has also ranked Duncan Lewis’ excellence in Leicester, Luton and Milton Keynes, commenting on the departments’ specialism representing unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, trafficking or torture victims in detention-related matters, and handling judicial review applications and proceedings. Luton’s Public Law Director Bahar Ata has also been noted as a recommended lawyer for her ‘substantial experience representing clients at the High Court in judicial review cases’.

Further to Vinita Templeton’s leading lawyer status, London based lawyers who have been recommended in Immigration Human Rights practices are the ‘brilliant’ James Packer and ‘exceptional’ Toufique Hossain. Toufique Hossain has also been ranked for Administrative and Public Law and Civil Liberties and Human Rights, being recognised for utilising ‘a combination of creative thinking with a huge amount of experience’. In Leicester, Sangita Shah, has been ranked for the second time as well as Sian Pearce in Cardiff. Vanessa Delgado also retains her Legal 500 recognition has a specialist in advocacy at First and Upper Tribunal levels.

Legal 500 has also ranked and recommended Duncan Lewis’ Business Immigration team in London. Legal 500 states: ‘On the business side, it advises SME clients on sponsorship licence applications under the PBS, as well as on immigration strategy and compliance. It also advises high-net-worth individuals from Asia, the Middle East and Russia on Tier 1 and investor visas’. Lawyers who have been recommended for their expertise in Business Immigration practices in London are Directors Ayan Yalchin and Vicash Ramikissoon.

Criminal Defence

Duncan Lewis’ crime team in London has been recommended for the third consecutive year. It operates a significant practice defending clients in serious and complex criminal cases, particularly gang related serious crime, including murder and drugs importations and a niche practices in representing clients that have significant mental health problems with insanity defence cases and complex immigration.

The legal directory states: the '‘capable, conscientious and professional’ team at Duncan Lewis Solicitors provides ‘a harmonious and effective service’, and is particularly known for its legal aid expertise. Key figures include the ‘bright and tactically astute’ Rubin Italia, who ‘has a wonderfully calm and kind manner’, and Hardeep Dhaliwal, who is recommended for fraud defence work’.

Administrative and Public Law

Legal 500 comments that Public Law director Toufique Hossain ‘is a leading solicitor’ for immigration judicial reviews and he utilises ‘a combination of creative thinking with a huge amount of experience’. They also comment that Consultant Naim Hasani is highly experienced with ‘notable individuals’ James Packer, Trevor Hatton and Seher Toguz as other key figures.

Civil liberties and Human Rights

‘Exceptional lawyer’ Toufique Hossain, is again noted by the Legal 500, within Civil liberties and human rights as having ‘an excellent eye for the crux of the matter’, James Packer and Seher Toguz are key names for immigration and public law matters also. Recent highlights include Director Abigail Fogg handling a judicial review challenge for an individual who was subjected to segregation in prison, and Director Jenna McKinney representing an individual, who was a victim of torture and suffered from mental health issues, in pursuing an unlawful detention claim and injunctive relief against deportation.

Housing

For Duncan Lewis’ Housing practice in London, Legal 500 states: '‘Duncan Lewis Solicitors is ‘clearly a major player’ in the space and ‘each practitioner excels in their area’’.

Noted Cardiff office provides ‘thorough and accurate advice’ to vulnerable tenants and handles an array of contentious work including reviews, appeals and judicial review proceedings relating to homelessness, disrepair, succession for tenants and neighbourhood disputes. ‘Conscientious, hardworking and highly knowledgeable’ team head Heather Iqbal Rayner ‘takes great pride in her work’ and handles work for clients based in south Wales and Bristol, with a particular specialism in Equality Act claims for vulnerable tenants. Lynda Reid, a member of Rayner’s team has also been accredited by Legal 500.

Further to Heather Iqbal Rayner’s leading lawyer status, London based lawyers who have also been recommended for their expertise in Housing practices are the ‘go-to’ Director Dianne Cowie, the ‘talented’ Subbiah Sivapunniyam, James De Vere Moss, Bernadette Chikwe and Manjinder Kaur Atwal.

Court of Protection

For Duncan Lewis’ Mental Capacity practice in London, Legal 500 states: ‘Duncan Lewis Solicitors ‘constantly strives to achieve the best possible results for its clients, and puts a tremendous amount of work into its cases’. London based solicitors who have been recommended for their expertise in mental capacity practices are 'effective' Jemma Garside, Angela Smith, Rachel Caswell and Peter Wusu.

Family and Childcare

For Duncan Lewis’ Family and Childcare work in London, Legal 500 states: the team ‘covers a broad range of family cases and excels in children’s cases’. Commenting on Director Emine Mehmet’s ‘dedication, commitment and skill’ and Director Laila Bhunnoo exceptional ability to 'stay on top'. The firm’s Birmingham office has also been acknowledged for their niche expertise in forced marriage protection orders, domestic violence and child abduction cases, with the following solicitors recommended; Adam Bloodworth, Krina Parmar, Richard Gray, Rupinder Jagdev and Shazia Saliheen.