1. Practice Areas

2. Diversity

3. Notable Cases

4. References

5. External links

Duncan Lewis Solicitors is a law firm assisting corporate entities and private individuals in over 25 practice areas from offices across England and Wales. Established in 1998, the firm has over 700 personnel, with approximately 415 lawyers acting on an average of 25,000 client matters per year.^[2] In 2017/18 it had a turnover of £26.9 million.

Duncan Lewis is a private limited company^[3] headquartered in Harrow-on-the-Hill, Middlesex. It is the largest provider of publicly funded (legal aid) legal services in the country.^[4]

It is ranked in the top band for Immigration Human Rights and Criminal Defence by The Legal 500^[5][6] and Chambers and Partners^[7] respectively, and has a number of ranked individual lawyers.

Practice Areas

Duncan Lewis^[8] provides both publicly and privately funded services across 25 areas of law including; Family & Childcare, Immigration, Crime, Civil Liberties & Human Rights, Clinical (Medical) Negligence, Personal Injury, Housing and many more. It holds Legal Aid franchises in Actions against Public Authorities, Child Care, Clinical Negligence, Community Care, Crime, Family, Housing, Immigration, Mental Capacity / Court of Protection, Mental Health, Public Law and Welfare Benefits.

Diversity

Duncan Lewis' 2017 Equality & Diversity report documents that 56% of the company's Board of Directors, 74% of its lawyers and 60% of the entire workforce is female. Further, 49% of its personnel are aged between 25 to 34 years, with 15% over the age of 45 years. 55% of Duncan Lewis' staff come from either an Asian/Asian British background or other ethnic minority groups.^[9]

Notable Cases

Members of Duncan Lewis Solicitors have appeared in many landmark and high-profile cases including;

• Representing a number of unaccompanied minors formerly from the Calais Jungle Camp in their judicial review challenge against the Government's decision to prevent their relocation to the UK despite its commitment to the Dubs amendment, under which it had agreed to allow unaccompanied refugee children to come to the country.^{[10][11][12][13][14][15]}

• Representing a number of core participants in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry in relation to matters of housing, public law, personal injury and criminal defence.^[16][17][18]

• Acting for an immigration detainee in his human rights claim and request for a public inquiry after he was filmed by an undercover BBC Panorama reporter allegedly being choked and verbally abused by a guard.^[19] The abuse of the client was caught in the September 2017 BBC Panorama Documentary 'Undercover: Britain's Immigration Secrets.

• Acting for 10 immigration detainees in their challenge against the Home Office low paid scheme that sees detainees paid “slave labour” wages of £1 per hour, instead of the minimum wage, for in-house services undertaken as part of the running of the detention centre.^{[20][21][22][23]}
• Represented the respondent in the 2015 Supreme Court case of Gohil v Gohil,^[24] a divorce financial settlement case which established the principles in relation to material non-disclosure and the basis upon which an agreed financial consent order can be set aside and the case re-opened if a party has not provided full disclosure at the time of the original trial.^[25]

• Acted for the tenant in the 2016 landmark Court of Appeal social housing case of Cardiff County Council v Lee (Flowers).^[26] The case changed the law, confirming that all landlords, whether social or private, are required to seek the permission of the County Court in order to obtain a warrant of possession for breach of a suspended possession order with costs sanctions if not followed; providing an additional level of protection for tenants.^[27][28]

• Acted for AH in the 2011 landmark mental health case of AH v West London Mental Health Trust^[29] where a patient of Broadmoor Hospital, detained for 23 years under the Mental Health Act, won the right to have his application for discharge from detention heard in a public hearing, a decision which was the first of its kind and led to a significant change in the manner in which Mental Health Tribunals now function.^[30][31]

• Supreme Court success in the immigration nationality case of Hysaj & Ors, R^[32] which significantly changed the case law on deprivation and nullity of British Citizenship under the British Nationality Act 1981.^[33]

• Acted in a lead immigration judicial review challenge that led to the High Court ruling that the 'Fast Track Procedure Rules' used by the Home Office to consider asylum cases until 2014 were unlawful.^[34] The case has enabled more than 10,000 asylum seekers to potentially request to have their cases reconsidered.^[35]

References

External links

• Official website
• [https://www.legal500.com/firms/1169-duncan-lewis-solicitors/1725-harrow-england Legal 500 profile and rankings]

• Bhau Daji Lad Museum
• Bhauli
• Bhaunagar district
• Bhaunri - The Sinking Reality
• Bhaupura
• Bhaura
• Bhaurao Dagadurao Deshmukh
• Bhaurao Payagounda Patil
• Bhaur (caste)
• Bhauri
• Bhausabari
• Bhausaheb
• Bhausaheb Bandodkar Ground
• Bhausaheb Maharaj
• Bhausaheb Patankar
• Bhausaheb Phundkar
• Bhauwapar
• Bhavacakka
• Bhavadevarapalli
• Bhavadhaarini
• Bhavam
• Bhava (mood)
• Bhavana (actor)
• Bhavana balsavar
• Bhavana Balsavar