Mark Symes

Practice

Mark Symes joined Garden Court Chambers in December 2004, having formerly worked at the Refugee Legal Centre where he held numerous posts including Head of Tribunal Team in which capacity he had responsibility at national level for legal strategy. Formerly a Solicitor, he was also Head of Advocacy at O'Keeffe Solicitors.

Mark provides advice and representation in all areas of immigration, asylum, and human rights law, including European Community free movement law. He undertakes advocacy from the AIT to the Court of Appeal, and deals with work ranging from business immigration and entry clearance representations and appeals, to refugee and criminal deportation cases. He has a flourishing judicial review practice, specialising in refugee and subsidiary protection. He is particularly interested in the European dimension of international protection, and arguments based on the Qualification, Procedures and Reception Directives, and on the Charter of Fundamental Rights; and in exclusion from refugee status and subsidiary protection.

Notable Cases

Instructed by the Immigration Advisory Service, Mark appeared for the Appellant in HH (Criminal record; deportation: "war zone") Iraq [2008] UKAIT 00051 before the Tribunal to determine the unlawfulness of the Home Office approach to asylum seekers from active war zones. The ruling affected a substantial number of other cases, requiring deportation decisions against Iraqi nationals to be withdrawn. It was upheld by the Court of Appeal in Secretary of State for the Home Department v HH (Iraq) [2009] EWCA Civ 727 (14 July 2009) http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2009/727.html. HH in the Tribunal also involved the interpretation of Article 15(c) of the Qualification Directive on the extent of international protection to be given to those fleeing armed conflicts, upon which Mark is speaking at the Refugee Studies Centre conference in Autumn 2009. Mark is instructed in several ongoing Country Guidance cases by Refugee Migrant Justice (formerly the Refugee Legal Centre) and the Immigration Advisory Service, including AX China (refugee status and the "one child" policy); in GS Afghanistan (determination awaited) he was sole advocate in the Tribunal's new lead case on the protection consequences of Article 15(c). He also appears for the Claimants in a test case on the safety of Italy, Weldemhiret (CO/4374/09) for returning asylum seekers, behind which all Italy contested returns are presently stayed, and in a number of post-Nasseri Greek challenges.

He represented LA in LA (para 289A: causes of breakdown) Pakistan [2009] UKAIT 00019, a positive decision on causation and domestic violence. http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIAT/2009/00019.html

In his Refugee Legal Centre days, Mark led their intervention in the House of Lords in Horvath (summer 2000). In the Immigration Appeal Tribunal, he represented the appellant in the reported case of Acero Garces, and in other important cases: Allie (on past persecution), Foum (on internal relocation), and Ertan (on the recognition of states). Foum was cited in Hilal v United Kingdom in the European Court of Human Rights.

Publications

• Co-author (with Peter Jorro, also of Garden Court) of 'Asylum Law and Practice' (Butterworths LexisNexis, October 2003; 2nd edition in progress with a view to publication 2009/2010). Described as 'pre-eminent' in the field by Lord Justice Simon Brown and as "indispensable in advocacy work for refugees and human rights", by Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill.
• Principal legal consultant to the Electronic Immigration Network.
• Sole editor of 'Statements of Principle of the Immigration Appeal Tribunal,' a 2,500 page guide to the jurisprudence of that tribunal published in September 1999 by the Refugee Legal Centre, with a Foreword by former President of the Tribunal His Honour Judge Pearl.
• Author of 'Caselaw on the Refugee Convention', a guide to the international judicial approach to the 1951 Convention, with a Foreword by Professor Goodwin-Gill, published in April 2001 by the Refugee Legal Centre, and recommended by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Immigration Lawyers' Practitioners Association (ILPA).
• Consultant Editor of the Immigration and Nationality Law Reports.
• Editor of Atkins Court Forms and Encyclopedia of Forms and Precedents (Butterworths, set for updated publication late 2006
• Author of 'The Law Relating To Without Foundation Asylum Appeals', (published by the Refugee Legal Centre, May 1996).

Training

Mark is heavily involved with training in immigration law. He was appointed to write the new academic standards across for the Law Society's Immigration Accreditation Exams. He is a founder of HJT Training (with David Jones, also of Garden Court), which is the leading private company specializing in training in immigration law, providing training to UNHCR, Liberty, the Legal Services Commission, Office for the Immigration Services Commissioner, the staff of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and judges of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal of Ireland, as well as most of the UK's leading immigration solicitors' firms.

Mark ran the immigration and asylum course at the Inns of Court School of Law. He was a lead trainer for the College of Law in their winter 2002 project for the Legal Services Commission to provide training on immigration appeals to new barrister practitioners in the field. He delivers professional training for the Joint Council for Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), and occasionally runs advanced courses in refugee, human rights and appeals law for the Immigration Lawyers Practitioners Association (ILPA).

He is regularly invited to speak domestically and abroad on refugee and human rights law issues.

Mark has in the past been part of the Consultation Group responsible for briefing the Lord Chancellors Department on the content of the Immigration and Asylum Appeals (Procedure) Rules. He was at one time co-convenor of the Refugee Sub Committee at of the Immigration Lawyers Practitioners Association (ILPA) and has assisted ILPA with numerous projects and publications over the years. With the Refugee Legal Centre he advised the Opposition in Standing Committee on their legal stance during the passage of immigration legislation during the 1990s.

Other activities

Mark is keen on socialising. He plays the classical guitar.

Updated October 2009

Year of Call

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