Maya Naidoo

Practice

Maya Naidoo practices predominantly in the areas of housing, community care and immigration law. She is committed to providing services of the highest quality to all her clients, acting in judicial reviews, homelessness appeals, possession and injunctive proceedings as well as immigration appeals. She is a robust and able advocate sensitive to the needs of her clients and responsive to the concerns of the tribunal. She has a particular interest in European Community law and its impact on housing assistance, having gained her LLM in EC law at the College of Europe, Bruges.

Background

Maya's South African origins gave rise to an early commitment to human rights. She taught in South Africa in 1995 at a time of critical change and worked as a researcher into South African trade unions and politics. She has worked as an in-house lawyer in an immigration solicitor's office on cases in preparation for the European Court of Human Rights; as a stagiaire at the European Commission and at the AIRE Centre, London. She was formerly a pupil at Doughty Street, as well as Garden Court, and took a third six specializing in housing law at Hardwicke Building.

As a student she won a number of awards including the Baron Dr Ver Heyden de Lancey Prize (awarded by the Middle Temple for Outstanding results in the Bar exams, 2002); the Cloisters' Prize (for coming first in her year at the College of Law in the Bar exams, 2002); the Graham Turnbull Essay Prize (awarded by the International Human Rights Committee of the Law Society with the essay published in the New Law Journal, 1999); Julia Wood Prize (St Hugh's College Oxford, proxime accesit, 1994). She was a Diplock Scholar at the Middle Temple (1998 and 2001) and received a scholarship to study for her LLM in Bruges.

Notable Cases

Payne v Kingston RLBC, Central London Civil Justice Centre, 3 January 2008, Legal Action March 2008 (homelessness - priority need - failure to give a reasoned assessment of the impact of drug abuse on the appellant's vulnerability).

Publications

Maya has published in The Legal Executive Journal on housing law: ‘Slipping into Trespass: tolerated trespass and postponed possession orders’, September 2006; ‘The Pre-Action Protocol on Rent Arrears’, October 2006. She has also published in the New Law Journal, the Times Educational Supplement and in the Journal Multicultural Education.

Training

Maya has delivered training for solicitors in immigration, human rights and housing. Most recently she has provided training in Chambers on defending anti-social behaviour cases with John Beckley and on eligibility under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 with Adrian Berry.

Interests

Maya cycles to Chambers, swims in the Thames (not in London!), runs, climbs and sometimes does yoga. Other pleasures are theatre, film, literature. Other Publications include 'Ama' in The Redbeck Anthology of British South Asian Poetry (2000) and Baba's Gift (with Beverley Naidoo, Puffin Books, 2003).

Societies

The Housing Law Practitioners’ Association, the Legal Action Group, Amnesty International.

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