We are delighted to announce that Ollie Persey, Oscar Davies and Nadia O'Mara of Garden Court Chambers have been nominated at the Bar Pro Bono Awards 2024.
The Bar Pro Bono Awards will be back on Wednesday 8th May 2024. The awards recognise those individuals and chambers who have gone above and beyond expectation when undertaking pro bono work to support access to justice.
Ollie Persey is nominated for the John Collins Pro Bono Excellence Award. This Award is in memory of John Collins. Nominations for this award only come from Advocate’s casework team.
Oscar Davies and Nadia O'Mara are nominated for the 'Young Pro Bono Barrister of the Year' Award. This award celebrates a barrister at the beginning of their career showing exceptional dedication to increasing opportunities for access to justice, with particular consideration given to those who have demonstrated a significant time commitment over the last year.
Ollie Persey (Call: 2017)
Ollie has a broad public law practice focusing on the rights of children, asylum seekers and migrants and disabled people. He has expertise in discrimination, education, community care, mental health and Court of Protection matters. He is ranked in Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500 and was a finalist for a ‘Junior of the Year’ award at the Legal 500 Awards 2022 for his work in his core practice areas. Ollie co-convenes Garden Court’s Community Care Team and Education Law team.
Ollie is a trustee of Southwark Law Centre, a director of the Education Law Association and a former co-chair of Young Legal Aid Lawyers.
Oscar Davies (Call: 2018)
Oscar is ranked as a Tier 1 ‘Rising Star’ in the Legal 500. Oscar undertakes a range of civil and public law work, including employment, human rights, commercial and property/housing. Oscar is the first publicly recognised non-binary barrister in the UK. Oscar has lots of experience representing trans and non-binary clients in a number of areas in civil and public law.
Oscar advocates for trans and non-binary rights and legal change in this area and was nominated for the 2022 British LGBT Awards in the category ‘Outstanding Contribution to LGBT+ life’ for their work. Oscar is also shortlisted across two categories at the Legal 500 ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) UK Awards 2024, for 'DE&I: Rising Star of the Year' and 'LGBTQ+: Champion of the Year'. Oscar completed the Pro Bono Pledge for Advocate, providing 25 hours of advice and representation pro bono. Oscar is a mentor at Bridging the Bar, an organisation which helps those from under-represented backgrounds gain access the Bar.
Nadia O'Mara (Call: 2018)
Nadia is a public law practitioner. Her work focuses on immigration & asylum, community care, education, human rights, and anti-discrimination. She has particular expertise in migrants' rights, regularly acting in judicial review proceedings relating to unlawful detention, age disputes, asylum support, support under the Care Act 2014, support for victims of trafficking and challenges to certification/fresh claim decisions. She also has particular expertise challenging decisions to permanently exclude children from school, often acting pro bono.
The main focus of Nadia’s pro bono work is family reunification, immigration bail and school exclusions. She works with Safe Passage, Just for Kids Law (now at Coram Children’s Legal Centre) and Bail for Immigration Detainees and does most of her pro bono work with these organisations. In 2023, Nadia completed Advocate's Pro Bono Pledge, completing over 100 hours of pro bono work.
