Sarah Dobbie

Practice Areas

Sarah works across the fields of public and administrative law, immigration, civil liberties and human rights, international law, and public inquiries. She has acted in appeals and judicial review proceedings before the FTT and UT, High Court, Court of Appeal, and Supreme Court.

Sarah is regularly instructed in judicial review matters in a wide range of areas, with a particular focus on immigration and asylum. She has appeared in several high-profile public law challenges, including challenges to: (i) a proposed prison transfer from the British Indian Ocean Territory under the Colonial Prisoners Removal Act 1884; (ii) the increase to the minimum income requirement for family visas; (iii) the use of RAF Wethersfield to accommodate asylum seekers; (iv) the Rwanda removal policy; and (v) the small boat ‘pushback’ policy.

Sarah’s immigration practice covers all areas of immigration and asylum law. She regularly appears in complex asylum and human rights claims, and has a particular interest in family reunification claims.

Sarah is regularly instructed in claims challenging the unlawful use of detention powers under the Immigration Acts and related damage claims. She is instructed in several large group claims, including on behalf of individuals and families detained at Manston House Short-Term Holding Facility during the “humanitarian crisis” in 2022, and individuals detained pending removal to Rwanda in 2022 and 2024.

Sarah is also currently instructed on behalf of the Bereaved Families in the Independent Inquiry relating to Afghanistan, and the Bereaved Families and a Survivor in the Cranston Inquiry.

Sarah has expertise in international law with a focus on international human rights law. Her work includes:

• member of international legal team for Jimmy Lai (British citizen, prominent pro-democracy activist and publisher, imprisoned in Hong Kong) and his son, Sebastien Lai

• advising a former state hostage on potential means of redress, including via the UN Special Procedures and ICJ;

• advising an NGO on potential legal challenges—at the regional and international levels—to colonial-era “buggery” laws;

• advising an NGO on the UK’s obligations to investigate and prosecute sexual violence against black and other ethnic minority women under international law.

Career

Prior to joining the Bar of England and Wales, Sarah practised as a solicitor in Sydney, Australia and worked as a Refugee Legal Advisor in Cairo, Egypt and Lesvos, Greece.

She has previously held various research assistant roles, including for Jason Pobjoy KC and Jennifer Robinson, during which time she worked on academic texts, complaints to the UN Special Rapporteurs, and a range of advisory projects.

She has previously interned for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Legal Protection Unit, the Office of the Co-Prosecutors in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, and the Australian Law Reform Commission.

Professional Memberships

Administrative Law Bar Association (ALBA)

Immigration Law Practitioners Association (ILPA)

Education

Awards