Hostile environment

Following the summer’s riots, Pete Apps speaks to CILEX lawyers about working in the challenging but rewarding area of immigration law

Just a few months on from the riots which swept across England in the summer, some of them targeting immigration law firms specifically, this rising tide of aggression could be a cause for concern for those CILEX practioners who work in the field of immigration law.

But they are a resilient bunch. CILEX practitioners already deal with an area of law which is in a near-constant state of flux – at the mercy of geopolitical events and endless political tinkering.

The riots did place pressure on them, however. “That whole period was just crazy. There was a list going around of targets,” says Tasnim Shikdar, a Fellow at MSD Solicitors in Manchester. “All these firms were getting attacked and obviously I was always constantly checking to see if our firm was on the list. Thankfully, we weren't.”

For Erin Alcock, a chartered legal executive and associate in the London office of Leigh Day, the unrest was a reminder of the importance of the work she does – ensuring people who won’t necessarily be protected by the system at least get as fair treatment as possible.

“That whole period was just crazy. All these firms were getting attacked and obviously I was always constantly checking to see if our firm was on the list” 

“It [the general climate surrounding immigration] is really sad but it is motivating as well,” she says. “Because it shows we are needed, and the work that we do, I think, has the potential to make a difference. Having access to quality legal advice and proper representation is not available for a large percentage of people who need it in this area. There's just not enough capacity within legal services to provide this because it's hard work, it's not commercially viable most of the time.”

It is not just rioters who have stepped up scrutiny of this area of the law. A recent Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) thematic review of immigration and asylum solicitors found firms taking “a proactive approach to working with prospective clients to consider the merits of a potential asylum claim”, while a related review of 143 solicitors’ training records found that around a third did not provide “sufficient assurances” that they were maintaining their competence.

And the ever-present white noise of media reports on immigration got personal, when a Daily Mail  sting in summer 2023 set off a political storm when it revealed three law firms appearing to offer advice to undercover reporters about how to game the immigration system.

One of the lawyers involved was a CILEX member and, having received a temporary suspension in August 2023, he is due to face a disciplinary tribunal at the time of writing.

Intense scrutiny

The sense of external scrutiny is intense in this area of law. Ms Shikdar says the regular changes mean it is crucial to stay completely up-to-date.

“The biggest challenge within immigration is the ongoing rule changes,” she says. “Obviously, when a new government comes in, there are changes they want to make or the various costs associated with the application increase, so we have to constantly stay up-to-date with the law.”

She leads the team of six which make up MSD’s immigration department. This management role is on top of her own caseload, which makes for a busy working life. Her firm advises private clients primarily – including some asylum seekers who have the means to pay a private lawyer.

“It's very rewarding, because you are ultimately reuniting families,” she says. “And you get a lot of praise at the end of it, which does feel good, especially when you're able to reunite parents with children. It really does make a big difference to some people’s lives.”

The flip side to this, however, is the negative emotions that come with losing a case. “When I first started, if there were any refusals I found it really hard and I had to be told by my own principal solicitor ‘Listen, it's not you, sometimes a client's personal situation means they just don’t meet the requirements and you've done what you could for them’,” she recalls.

There is no doubt that this can be an emotionally demanding area of law, and the turmoil in the wider world can make this even more intense.

Ms Alcock has had a particular focus in recent years on evacuations from Afghanistan, and judicial reviews of decisions by the Ministry of Defence or the Home Office to refuse access to certain applicants.

“A lot of my clients were refused on the basis that they posed a threat to national security, but the majority of those got turned over on reconsideration – so it does suggest there were flaws in that process, which is really disappointing because some clients had been cleared for evacuation prior to the Kabul airlift but were refused entry clearance, which meant they weren't able to get on the flight, and instead, got stuck in protracted legal battles that went on for months.

“For some of them, it took years before they actually got here, and you can imagine what they went through in that time.”

She believes the problem was that the UK government was “chronically understaffed, chronically under-resourced, and the impact of that was poor decision making”, with the “knock-on effect of that being huge numbers of incredibly vulnerable people being left in horrific situations”.

Within this context, she and her team had to do their best to support clients, many of whom were still based in Afghanistan and highly vulnerable to violence from the Taliban.

Initially, she was “on the phone 24/7” to people who were in queues trying to get to airports. But as the Taliban took control of telecommunications, “the risk of reprisals meant the firm had to be more careful and intentional about the different ways in which we contacted people, to minimise the risk of inception.”

Health warning

Ms Alcock has had clients disappear, presumed killed, and others arrested and tortured. “I’m quite resilient, but there will be moments where it does take its toll. You know, this job does come with a massive health warning on it, because when things don't go the way that you were hoping it can be devastating,” she says.

She has had to watch torture videos for verification purposes – a job she takes on herself to protect junior members of the team.

“The risk of vicarious trauma in this area of law is very high,” she says. “It is really important to have the support available for the lawyers doing that work. We have support and access to counselling if required. But it's really fundamental for people doing this work, because I think the risk of burnout is so high for those working with these vulnerable groups.”

“The risk of vicarious trauma in this area of law is really high. It is really important to have the support available for the lawyers doing that work”

For Olga Bakeeva, a consultant with LS Legal Solicitors in the City of London, the regular changes to immigration law that often come from its political status are a major challenge.

The impending switch to e-visas is proving difficult for many clients, she says. “They [the Home Office] are introducing new technologies, and a lot of people still don't know how to deal with it despite it being quite similar to the EU Settlement Scheme.

“I guess one of the major challenges of the role is just trying to keep in touch with all the changes and comprehend them. When things change, they change rapidly. Sometimes routes get abolished with little or no notification. Sometimes changes get announced without much detail which understandably cause worries but it is still better to know what is coming.”

Her clients are typically professionals who have been offered jobs in the UK and need to arrange their visa in order to take up the position, and people who are trying to bring their spouses or children into the country.

Simi Gupta, a chartered legal executive at Moore Barlow, says immigration work is a rewarding area of law to practise in, despite its challenges. “Every case is different, everyone has a story to tell,” she says. “It can be a very rewarding area when it goes in your client’s favour – although it can be quite sad when it doesn’t, especially if it means families being separated.”

Challenging conversations

The climate around immigration, and resentment towards people coming into the country illegally can result in challenging conversations with clients, as well as pressure from outside.

Ms Shikdar explains that recent changes which saw the ‘immigration health surcharge’ – a mandatory fee required to access NHS services – increase from £624 a year to £1,035, frustrated many of her clients.

“Because people are being asked for much more money than they were last time they applied, if they are unaware of any immigration changes, they think you are trying to take their money and they can get quite angry,” she explains.

“They respond, saying ‘Oh, people that come on the boats get a better deal than we do’. But I just have to say, ‘I understand, but you're doing it the correct way, and there is a cost associated with that’.”

Ms Bakeeva says access to good legal advice should be widened. “The people who come to us, they can pay for our services,” she says. “We assist them, we help them. We have a lot of knowledge we can share, and we can advise them. But those who cannot pay for lawyers, they might get stuck. I can only imagine how difficult it is for them. The Home Office doesn't have many facilities to help applicants. If you try to contact the Home Office, it can be a cumbersome task.”

But providing more resources and access to legal advice in the current political climate is not easy – legal aid is far from bountiful for anyone.

Nonetheless, all of the practitioners agree that the CILEX route has proved beneficial in making their way in this area of law.

Ms Alcock says the attraction for her was that she was already working in the area of law she wanted to practice in, and CILEX allowed her to keep doing it.

“I could just do CILEX while doing my job and not having to go and get a training contract or leave my team or my department,” she says. “And that was a draw to me. It offered me the flexibility and accessibility that I didn't necessarily have with the other routes. It was also more financially manageable, because the commitments were more spaced out.”

Overall, these lawyers seem to relish the challenge of being a practitioner in this area. And love it or hate it, immigration is a fact of life in a global, complex world. As long as it continues to be, the provision of good advice to those whose lives require them to cross international borders will keep being a necessary area of the law.

“I understand that everyone's going have an opinion on it [immigration],” says Ms Shikdar. “But at the end of the day, people’s lives are not simple. People will continue to fall in love outside the country and then they will want to reunite their families. People are coming to us because they're trying to do it the legal way, and you’d think most people should agree that’s right.”