Career
Graham has a broad practice in civil, public and immigration law, working at all levels of court as sole counsel, leading junior, or part of a team.
Graham’s civil work takes in High Court and County Court claims against public authorities, including the Home Office, the police, local authorities and NHS trusts. His public law practice has a grounding in migrants’ rights but extends across the full range of chambers’ work. He has a particular interest in privacy and data protection litigation involving public authorities, and in public and private law litigation relating to emerging technologies including artificial intelligence.
Graham has many years’ experience in immigration law acting at all levels from the First-tier and Upper Tribunals to the Supreme Court. He deals with private client matters as well as deportation, asylum and human rights appeals. His expertise in immigration detention is widely recognised, and he is happy to act in linked immigration and detention proceedings.
Graham is regularly instructed by the Official Solicitor on behalf of incapacitous claimants and has particular expertise in the management of damages awards in such cases.
Graham is a trained mediator and is committed to ADR as a means of securing positive outcomes for his clients in appropriate cases.
Industry Sector Expertise
Actions Against the Police and Public Authorities
Graham acts in complex and high value civil actions against the Home Office, the police, local authorities and NHS trusts. Recent work includes claims in false imprisonment, misfeasance, assault and battery, negligence (including clinical negligence), claims for Francovich damages, claims under the Equality Act 2010, and claims under the HRA 1998 raising Articles 3, 4, 5 and 8 ECHR (see also Immigration Detention, Data Protection and Information Law, Emerging technologies and Artificial Intelligence, Anti-trafficking and Modern Slavery).
Graham is an experienced trial lawyer known for his excellent written work, his measured and analytical advocacy and his effective negotiation. He has taken many multi-track civil claims to trial in the High Court and County Court and has acted in countless others that were successfully compromised. He is happy to be involved from an early stage in proceedings, working collaboratively to develop a litigation strategy.
Graham’s procedural expertise encompasses a detailed knowledge of the law of limitation, the procedural rules relating to disclosure, and costs. He acted, with Janet Farrell of Bhatt Murphy solicitors, in the disclosure application before the High Court in AZT v The Home Office [2019] EWHC 4 (QB), described as a “masterclass” in the popular Free Movement immigration law blog. In the costs sphere, he acted for the successful appellant before the Court of Appeal in the costs appeal in Emezie v SSHD [2013] EWCA Civ 733.
Many of the cases in which Graham acts include claims for psychiatric injury and other forms of personal injury. He is experienced in advising on the instruction of expert witnesses and has deep knowledge of the procedural and substantive law relating to expert evidence. He is an effective and focussed cross-examiner of expert witnesses.
Immigration
Graham has over twenty years’ experience in immigration law and is ranked in Chambers & Partners UK Bar 2023 at Band 1 and in the Legal 500 2014 at Tier 2.
Graham’s immigration practice extends from personal and business matters, including EU free movement law / EUSS cases, to complex asylum, human rights, and deportation cases. He has extensive experience of human rights cases involving children and has conducted numerous age dispute judicial review claims (and related civil damages actions). He has a particular interest in the impact of Brexit on EU nationals in the UK and on those employing EU nationals.
Graham is well known for his work challenging immigration detention and is happy to take on immigration appeals and detention challenges together (see Immigration Detention).
Immigration Detention
Graham jointly heads Chambers’ Immigration Detention Group. He is recognised as one of the leading practitioners in this field in the country, described in the Legal 500 2024 as “the ultimate counsel when challenging immigration detention.”
Graham is the co-author of Detention Under the Immigration Acts: Law and Practice (Oxford University Press, 2015), the only specialist practitioner text on this area of law, described by Lord Dyson in his foreword as “an essential addition to the library of anyone who practices in the field of the law of immigration.” The work has been cited in judgments of the High Court and the Court of Appeal, most recently being relied upon by the Court of Appeal in AC (Algeria) v SSHD [2020] EWCA Civ 36, [2020] 1 WLR 2893.
Graham’s work in the field of immigration detention encompasses public and private law challenges. He brings to bear detailed knowledge of the ever changing legislative and policy framework and a deep understanding of the jurisprudence in this field.
In the public law realm, Graham acts in challenges by way of judicial review to detention and in related challenges involving issues such as detention location and conditions, bail conditions, electronic monitoring, release accommodation and Approved Premises.
In the private law realm, Graham has acted in numerous High Court and County Court claims alleging false imprisonment and human rights breaches arising from immigration detention (see also Actions Against the Police and Public Authorities). He is experienced in securing positive outcomes through ADR in these cases but has also successfully taken a number of claims to trial, recovering damages into six figures.
Administrative and Public Law
Graham is ranked as a leading barrister in Administrative and Public Law in Chambers and Partners. His public law practice spans a range of different areas (see Immigration, Immigration Detention, Data Protection and Information Law, Emerging technologies and Artificial Intelligence, and Anti-trafficking and Modern Slavery).
Graham welcomes instructions across the full range of Chambers’ public law work. In addition to public law challenges in his core areas of practice, he has experience in cases raising issues relating to education (SEND appeals, judicial review challenges to student funding decisions for care leavers and others), mental health and housing. Graham’s broad expertise in immigration law means he is particularly well placed to advise in cases in which immigration status is a live issue.
Data Protection and Information Law
Graham has a growing practice in data protection and information law matters, particularly (but not exclusively) where they arise in the context of migrants’ rights issues. He is particularly interested in data protection litigation relating to the use of artificial intelligence platforms and other automated systems by public and private bodies, including in such areas as algorithmic decision making, facial recognition and automated risk assessment.
Emerging technologies and Artificial Intelligence
Graham has an interest in Lawtech (the use of technology in the practice of law) and tech law (the law regulating technology). His article Generative AI: Change, opportunity, risk?, which considered the potential impact of generative AI tools on the work of the Bar, was published in the September 2023 edition of Counsel magazine. Graham has a particular interest in the impact of automated systems on fundamental rights and welcomes instructions for advice and representation in this area.
Anti-trafficking and Modern Slavery
Graham has acted in numerous cases raising issues relating to modern slavery including immigration appeals and judicial review claims, immigration detention civil actions and judicial review claims, police actions and data protection claims. He is well versed in the national and international legal framework applying to such cases. With his longstanding experience as a civil litigator he is well placed to act in civil claims against traffickers and welcomes instructions in such cases.
Mediation / ADR
Graham is an experienced public and civil law barrister whose practice encompasses civil actions against central and local government, judicial review claims and the full range of immigration work. He has experience of personal injury litigation, housing law, property disputes, contractual disputes, planning enforcement matters and litigation relating to art and antiquities. Graham is an effective negotiator and has long experience of successfully resolving disputes using ADR. He trained as a mediator with the Society of Mediators in 2020 and is building his practice as a mediator. He is acutely conscious of the financial and emotional burden that prolonged litigation can impose on those involved and the benefits that can flow from the prompt and collaborative approach to dispute resolution that well managed ADR can offer. Graham accepts instructions as a mediator and mediation advocate in all areas and is happy to consider pro bono instruction in appropriate cases.
Direct Access
Graham is accredited by the Bar Council for Direct Access, which means that, in appropriate cases, he can accept instructions directly from members of the public and businesses for the provision of advisory and advocacy services.
