Anita Vasisht

Practice Areas

Anita has vast experience in immigration law, and she also particularly relishes complex asylum and human rights cases.

As the head of our national security team, Anita litigates cases in the higher courts and the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC). Cases before SIAC include: British citizenship deprivation appeals; refusal of British national review applications; and all immigration appeals to SIAC.

Career

Head of our immigration department, Anita Vasisht is one of only six solicitors nationwide who feature in the Legal 500’s Hall of Fame immigration-human rights category. This ranking is awarded to “Lawyers at the very top of the profession, widely known and respected by peers and clients for their long-standing involvement in market leading work”.

Anita graduated in French, Russian and Law from Surrey University. She worked in Amnesty International’s Legal Office before qualifying as a solicitor in May 1997 and has been a partner at Wilsons since 2005.

Over the years, Anita has acquired expertise in representing UNRWA registered Palestinians from Lebanon and she has spent time in the southern Lebanese Palestinian refugee camps. In March 2023 Anita represented a severely disabled Palestinian child from Lebanon. That case was heard by the European Court of Justice and by a UK immigration tribunal which decided that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was unable to provide the child “protection and assistance” and, therefore, the child was automatically entitled to refugee status in the UK: AB and NB v Secretary of State for the Home Department (PA/07865/20119)

High profile clients include Algerian former billionaire, Rafik Khelifa, whom Anita represented in his extradition appeal; and Syrian BAFTA award winning activist/film maker Waad Al-Kateab.

Languages Spoken

French, spoken Punjabi

Awards