Ella practices in public law and human rights, with a particular focus on asylum and immigration, detention, community care, education, and climate change.
She is experienced in acting both as sole counsel and being led, and has recently been instructed as junior counsel in several urgent and high-profile cases.
Ella’s call to the Bar in England and Wales followed her experience working as a commercial solicitor in Australia and obtaining an MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies at the University of Oxford, where she was awarded a Distinction for her thesis.
Ella is a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission's preferred panel of counsel and is authorised to accept instructions on a public access basis. Please contact our Public Access team if you would like to instruct Ella directly.
Immigration: Asylum and Human Rights
Ella is regularly instructed to appear in the First-tier and Upper Tribunals in relation to a range of immigration matters including asylum, deportation, entry clearance, family reunion, deprivation of citizenship, and status under the European Union Settlement Scheme. Some of her most recent and notable cases are listed below:
Fresh Claims
- R (AM) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024]: judicial review lodged on behalf of an Albanian confirmed victim of trafficking challenging a decision of the SSHD which refused to accept that further submissions amounted to a fresh claim. The SSHD settled the claim shortly after it was issued.
Certification
- R (UM) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023]: after the Upper Tribunal granted permission on the papers, the SSHD settled the case, agreeing to withdraw its decision to certify an Albanian national’s asylum claim.
Asylum processing on the British Indian Ocean Territory (‘BIOT’)
- The King (on the application of AAA and others) v The Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory and The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, Case No: BIOT SC No 2 of 2023: Ella was instructed by Leigh Day as junior counsel to assist a wider counsel team in the drafting of grounds for judicial review in relation to a group of Sri Lankan and Indian Tamil asylum seekers held on BIOT who sought to challenge their refused asylum claims and proposed removal. The case was settled, each of the removal decisions and asylum decisions were withdrawn and the asylum decision-making process is to be revised.
Rwanda scheme
- R (NA) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022]: Ella was led by Adrian Berry and Sonali Naik KC for the claimant ‘NA', an Iranian asylum seeker. An emergency injunction was secured before the Court of Appeal, late in the evening on 14 June 2022 - the date the UK Government had set for a flight to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Delays in asylum decision making
- R (AM) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022]: following the issuing of a JR, the SSHD agreed to make a decision on an asylum claim which had remained outstanding for over three years and eight months.
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Immigration: Personal and Business
Ella accepts instructions related to British citizenship and naturalisation applications, settlement and other visas including visit visas, family-based applications, and those relating to the Points Based System. She also has experience in sponsor licence cases, including assisting with representations against the proposed revocation of such licences.
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Administrative and Public Law
Unlawful Detention
- R (Rai and Tamang) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023]: led by Ali Bandegani, a claim was brought in relation to two individuals who had been granted Indefinite Leave to Remain (‘ILR’) following their evacuation from Kabul, where they had been working as security guards for the British Embassy. Both were detained and issued with removal directions. A claim was issued, challenging: any decision to revoke their ILR, any decision to treat their applications for ILR as void, and their ongoing detention under immigration powers. The SSHD conceded these claims, agreeing that both Claimants would be released from detention and receive confirmation of their ILR.
- R (FN) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023]: acted for a confirmed victim of modern slavery and victim of torture who had remained in immigration detention for over ten months. An urgent application for interim relief was conceded by the SSHD shortly before the hearing.
- R (CN) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] 10 WLUK 85: acted in an urgent interim relief application resulting in an order that CN be released from immigration detention within seven days. Interim relief was required as multiple grants of conditional bail by the First-tier Tribunal had not led to release.
Certification
- R (UM) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023]: after the Upper Tribunal granted permission on the papers, the SSHD settled the case, agreeing to withdraw its decision to certify an Albanian national’s asylum claim.
Asylum processing on the British Indian Ocean Territory (‘BIOT’)
- The King (on the application of AAA and others) v The Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory and The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, Case No: BIOT SC No 2 of 2023: Ella was instructed by Leigh Day as junior counsel to assist a wider counsel team in the drafting of grounds for judicial review in relation to a group of Sri Lankan and Indian Tamil asylum seekers held on BIOT who challenged their refused asylum claims and proposed removal. The case was settled, each of the removal decisions and asylum decisions were withdrawn and the asylum decision-making process is to be revised.
Age Assessments
- R (FD – a minor) v Lincolnshire County Council [2023]: following the issue of a judicial review claim, the local authority conceded the case, accepting the Claimant’s asserted age.
Rwanda scheme
- R (NA) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022]: led by Adrian Berry and Sonali Naik KC for the claimant ‘NA’, an Iranian asylum seeker. An emergency injunction was secured before the Court of Appeal, late in the evening on 14 June 2022 - the date the UK Government had set for a flight to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Delays in asylum decision making
- R (AM) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022]: following the issuing of a JR claim, the SSHD agreed to make a decision on an asylum claim which had remained outstanding for over three years and eight months.
Trafficking
- R (MN and IXU) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWCA Civ 1746: Court of Appeal provided guidance as to the approach that should be taken by the Competent Authority when determining whether an individual is a victim of trafficking. Ella was instructed by Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, led by Gemma Loughran and Stephanie Harrison KC, to represent the AIRE Centre who intervened alongside Anti-Slavery International in these appeals.
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Community Care Law
Ella is instructed in challenges to age assessments on behalf of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and in matters involving the entitlement of children and adults to support under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. Most recently, she was instructed in a challenge to an age assessment conducted by Lincolnshire County Council – the Council ultimately conceded the case and accepted the Claimant’s asserted age.
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Environmental Law and Climate Justice
Ella was instructed in Agostinho and others v Portugal and 32 other Contracting States, a case before the European Court of Human Rights brought by six Portuguese youths, alleging breaches of human rights arising from climate change.
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Planning Law
Ella is developing a practice in planning law. For further information on how to instruct Ella in this area please contact her clerks.
