Shobna brings a wealth of experience to our Law Friends seminars. Shoba worked as an advocate and litigator within busy solicitors firms for over 14 years which included the UK’s largest Legal 500 immigration law firm. Her successes have built up the well-established reputation she has today. She achieved the Civil Higher Rights qualification in November 2020 and represented clients in the higher courts . Her experience from within the law firms provides Shoba with a unique insight, allowing her to provide guidance and the necessary support that instructing solicitors desire in Counsel.

Here she dives into the sensitive and very timely topic of children and immigration law, looking at what are the best interests under the law and what it means practically

Key topics and law:

Legal framework

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Key cases

Immigration Rules Appendix private life 

Sole responsibility and case law

Practical challenges 

S:55 Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009

Immigration Act 1971

MA (Pakistan) v Secretary of state for the Home Department [2016] EWCA CIV 705

SM and TM and JD and Others v SSHD [2013] EWHC 1144 Admin

Buydov v ECO, Moscow [2012] EWCA Civ 1739

TD (Paragraph 297(i)(e): “sole responsibility”) Yemen [2006] UKAIT 0004

Mundeba (s.55 and para 297(i)(f)) Democratic Republic of Congo [2013] UKUT 88

ZH (Tanzania) [2011] UKSC 4

EV (Philippines) [2014] EWCA Civ 874  Balancing exercise

KO (Nigeria) [2018] UKSC 53  Reasonableness test child-focused