Jed Pennington

Jed specialises in public law and human rights with a particular focus on the civil liberties of individuals detained under immigration powers. He has conduct of a mixed private and public law litigation case load.

Notable recent successes include R (S) v SSHD [2011] EWHC 2120 (Admin) and R (BA) v SSHD [2011] EWHC 2748 (Admin), which concerned challenges brought to detention under immigration powers by two individuals suffering from serious mental illness. The Court found that both S and BA had been unlawfully detained for lengthy periods and made findings that the circumstances of their detention at Harmondsworth IRC constituted inhuman or degrading treatment in breach of article 3 ECHR (the only domestic cases in which article 3 has been found to be breached by conditions of detention). In addition, in both cases transfer to hospital under the Mental Health Act and then release from detention were achieved by way of interim relief.

Jed has also been focusing on the rights of mentally ill people detained under immigration powers outside of his casework. He works pro bono on case and policy work with Medical Justice. He has presented at two seminars organised with Medical Justice for psychiatrists visiting and writing reports for individuals in immigration detention. Medical Justice presented Bhatt Murphy with an award in recognition of this work in December 2011. He has also recently provided training to lawyers for the Immigration Law Practitioners Association on this subject.

Jed qualified as a solicitor in April 2010. Prior to joining Bhatt Murphy in March 2010 he worked for five years as an immigration practitioner, four years of which he spent at Wilson & Co, where he completed his training contract. The focus of his immigration practice was representing detained clients and those threatened with deportation, particularly settled families and refugees.

Jed assisted in the case of Secretary of State for the Home Department v AP [2008] EWHC 2001, in which the Court found a control order to breach Article 5 ECHR (a decision which was upheld by the Supreme Court: [2010] UKSC 24). He also represented the claimant in R (MC (Algeria)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] EWCA Civ 347, which concerned a challenge to detention under immigration powers by a long-term detained Algerian national suffering from personality disorder.

Jed was seconded to Bhatt Murphy for six months in 2009 as part of his training contract. He assisted Mark Scott with immigration detention litigation and inquests, primarily the inquests touching the deaths of Sam Elphick and Liam McManus who were 17 and 15 when they died in the juvenile secure estate. Upon joining Bhatt Murphy, he worked with Fiona Murphy for six months on a range of private and public law litigation on behalf of victims of misconduct and human rights abuses by the state.

Jed is accredited to Senior Caseworker level under the Law Society’s Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme and maintains an interest in all aspects of immigration law. He is a member of the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (and an active member of the detention and fast-track sub-committee), Police Action Lawyers Group and Inquest Lawyers Group.