Alison Gerry

Alison Gerry practises in prisoners' rights, mental health, community care, inquests and related public law, as well as in crime.

Before joining Doughty Street from pupillage, Alison was the Human Rights Adviser to the Consular Directorate at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. Alison has also worked as a caseworker at the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex taking cases to the European Court of Human Rights and worked on the Human Rights Project at JUSTICE.

Alison has particular expertise in international human rights law, and in particular the European Convention on Human Rights. She has conducted human rights training on behalf of the Council of Europe, in Albania and in Serbia, the British Council and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

In July 2007 Alison was awarded the LAPG Young legal aid barrister of the year award and in December 2006 she was also short listed for the Peter Duffy Award (formerly the Young Human Rights Lawyer of the Year Award). She was nominated for "her tenacity and dedication to grassroots human rights issues", and "for her work in representing vulnerable people and for her battles on behalf of the families of prisoners and mental health patients who have died in detention".

Alison appears regularly in the Crown Courts, at Parole Board hearings, at mental health review tribunals and at inquests.

Her public law work includes challenges on behalf of prisoners (on issues of discipline, parole, recall, and conditions of detention), as well as community care and mental health and inquest cases. She was junior counsel in the case of R (on the application of B) v (1) SS (Responsible Medical Officer) (2) Second Opinion Appointed Doctor (3) Secretary Of State For The Department Of Health (2006) 1 WLR 810 (challenge to the forcible treatment of mentally capacitated detained patients) and represented the family in Paul Anthony Howlett v HM Coroner For Devon & (1) Mr Holcroft (2) Mrs Holcroft (2006) [2006] EWHC 2570 (Admin) (application for fresh inquest on the grounds of insufficiency of inquiry).

Alison was also junior counsel in the successful claim against the Home Office concerning the treatment of opiate dependant prisoners, in which the Home Office conceded liability in negligence, breach of human rights and assault.

Alison has also appeared in the Privy Council, including in Boyce & Joseph v R (2005) 1 AC 400 (challenge to the mandatory death penalty in Barbados) and before the Inter American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica.

last updated August 2007

Year of Call

2003

Education

LLB (First Class), LLM International Human Rights Law (Distinction), Princess Royal Scholar Inner Temple

Email Address

a.gerry@doughtystreet.co.uk

Specialist Teams

Alison Gerry is a member of the following specialist law teams:

• Actions Against the police
• Criminal Law
• Housing and Social Welfare
• Human Rights
• International Law Group
• Mental Health
• Public and Administrative Law