Garden Court is delighted to announce that four of our barristers have been shortlisted for the Legal 500 Bar Awards 2018: Judy Khan QC (Crime Silk of the Year), Maya Sikand (Public Law Junior of the Year), Joanne Cecil (Crime Junior of the Year) and Shu Shin Luh (Public Law Junior of the Year).
Hayley Eustace, Editor of the Legal 500 UK Bar said: “Over many months of thorough research, the Legal 500 conducted 70,000 interviews with in-house counsel, law firms and sets in the UK to pin-point expert practitioners operating at the top of their game.”
Judy Khan QC (Call: 1989 | Silk: 2010)
Judy Khan QC has been shortlisted for Crime Silk of the Year 2018. Judy is Joint Head of Garden Court Chambers. Judy has been instructed as leading counsel in cases involving allegations of murder, attempted murder, kidnap, fraud, money laundering and large-scale importation and supply of drugs.
Judy also has extensive experience of cases involving sexual allegations, including historical sexual abuse. She spent two years representing a number of families at the Hillsborough Inquests; she led a team of barristers who dealt with the medical and pathology evidence.
Maya Sikand (Call: 1997)
Maya Sikand has been shortlisted in the Public Law Junior of the Year category, which also covers civil liberties and human rights work. Maya is Head of the Garden Chambers Civil Liberties and Human Rights Team. Maya has an almost exclusively public law and civil liberties practice, primarily holding public authorities to account through civil damages claims, statutory damages claims, inquiry and inquest work and judicial review. Her criminal work is limited to specialist appellate cases, for example in relation to victims of trafficking. She is an editor of the leading criminal text book Archbold.
Current notable cases include representing Marina Litvinenko in her ECtHR claim against the Russian Government and representing former police officer and whistleblower, Peter Francis at the Undercover Policing Inquiry.
Joanne Cecil (Call: 2005)
Joanne Cecil has been shortlisted for Crime Junior of the Year 2018. Joanne combines a mixed serious crime inquiries and public law practice with criminal justice related judicial review and civil liberties claims.
She has a strong appellate practice both domestically and internationally, appearing at all levels including the Supreme Court. Joanne has developed an expertise in strategic litigation and acting for interveners resulting in significant changes to the law. Recent cases include Jogee (joint enterprise), a challenge to the mandatory sentence of Detention for Her Majesty’s Pleasure for children convicted of murder, multi-million pound boiler room fraud, a high profile gang murder, judicial review of the Attorney General’s refusal to review a case and acting in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
Her expertise in criminal justice can be seen in her appointment as an Independent Commissioner on the Legal Aid Review Commission (the Bach Commission). Joanne is also the Secretary of the Standing Committee for Youth Justice, sits on the Board of ROLE UK (Rule of Law Expertise Programme funded by DFID) and is an elected member of the Criminal Bar Association and Bar Human Rights Committee.
Shu Shin Luh (Call: 2006)
Shu Shin Luh has been shortlisted for Public Law Junior of the Year. Shu Shin’s practice has a strong emphasis on representing the rights of children, young adults and vulnerable persons, including the mentally ill and/or incapacitated and victims of torture and trafficking. She uses public law, human rights law and EU law to challenge decision-making of public authorities at both the local and central government levels.
She has acted in a number of important recent cases including: successfully challenging the Government’s redefinition of torture in immigration detention policy, acting for Shelter as an intervener in a challenge to the benefit cap which was ruled to be discriminatory to lone parents with children under two and their children, and a ECtHR ruling on Greece acting in breach of obligations to protect Bangladeshi migrants subjected to forced labour and human trafficking.
Shu Shin’s expertise has seen her giving evidence before the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking, and advising non-governmental organisations on legal policy pertaining to children and to vulnerable victims of trafficking. She is panel counsel for the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
