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She acts for a range of individual and institutional clients, including in inquests and in public inquiries. Angela understands the importance of timely, clear and affordable advice and puts the needs of her professional and lay clients at the heart of her practice.
She has appeared in a range of high profile claims, inquests and inquiries. She is currently acting in the long-running statutory inquiry concerning the Post Office Horizon IT scandal on behalf of former subpostmasters whose unlawful convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal. She has previously represented the bereaved families of victims in the Birmingham Pub Bombings inquests, Olivier Bancoult, exiled from his Chagossian home and a range of men, women and children challenging their treatment by public authorities.
Angela helped secure a new inquest for the family of Ella Kissi-Debrah. A Coroner went on to find London air pollution contributed to her death. She represented the families of Janet Scott, Oskar Nash and Sammy Alban Stanley. Janet was unlawfully killed by her former partner following contributory failures by the probation service. Oskar was a disabled child referred urgently to local mental health services before he died. The Coroner found neglect and other significant failings by public bodies contributed to his death. Sammy was a child with Prader Willi-Syndrome, who again died against a background of inadequate support.
Angela has helped secure compensation for individual human rights violations in a range of settings, including for women treated without dignity in police cells and for children and disabled people failed by local authorities . She represents the family of Lewis Skelton, who died after he was shot and unlawfully killed by a police firearms officer, B50.
Angela was previously Director of Human Rights at JUSTICE, the UK branch of the International Commission of Jurists. She ran public interest interventions in the UK and at the European Court of Human Rights and has managed collaborative teams of both leading and junior counsel.
Angela has been a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Panel since 2019. She is recognised as a leading junior in the Chambers and Partners and the Legal 500 directories.
"A brilliant and very experienced public law expert with a particular mastery of human rights law" - Legal 500 2025
"Angela is an effective, precise advocate. Her analysis of complex issues is excellent" - Legal 500 2025
“She is a real all-rounder, and her drafting is great. She is empathetic and sympathetic with clients, and really builds their trust quickly. She can achieve unexpectedly good results, down to her hard work and attention to detail.” - Chambers and Partners 2024
"Angela has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the law. She has the ability to assimilate a large amount of evidence and identify the good from the weak points – a commanding advocate!" - Legal 500 2023
"She is very sensitive, clever and practical in everything she does. She is extremely good at reading the room and makes a good impression on coroners and other counsel." - Chambers and Partners 2022
"Truly excellent. She's often the one keeping the wheels on the case. She's enormously in demand, and the quality of her work and advocacy is often better than those leading her." - Chambers and Partners 2021
"Extremely impressive in the area of human rights, as well as practical and tactical. She's realistic and she gives good advice." - Chambers and Partners 2021
"She is a delight to work with: clear, direct, conscientious, intellectual and principled. Her advice is clear, accurate and speedily produced." - Chambers and Partners 2021
"She is confident and takes the measure of her clients, the court and those she is in contention with. She can grasp the essence of a matter quickly and has a tremendous work ethic. She works well as a team including with those she is instructed by." - Legal 500 2021
Angela accepts instruction in a broad range of civil liberties and human rights matters, in the domestic courts, the European Court of Human Rights and a range of international tribunals.
Angela regularly advises on systemic challenges to legislation, policy and practice. She frequently represents clients in claims against public bodies for breaches of the individual rights protected by the common law, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Equality Act 2010, from actions against the police to claims against local authorities who fail to respect the rights of children and their families in the discharge of their duties under the Children Act 1989. These claims frequently result in a favourable early settlement.
Angela previously advised the Independent Custody Visiting Association on the failure of domestic law to meet international human rights standards for the treatment of menstruating women and girls in custody, helping secure important changes to Code C to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 to protect the dignity of all detainees in police cells.
Angela has expertise in human rights, counter-terrorism and national security, access to information, open justice, disclosure and closed material proceedings (advising a range of NGOs, MPs and Peers on the Justice and Security Act 2013; acting in in Tariq v UK on closed proceedings in employment tribunals).
Previous case work includes Smith & Ors v Ministry of Defence (intervention on the extraterritorial application of the HRA 1998) and Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office v Rahmatullah (on the scope of habeas corpus).
Angela is a member of chambers’ Actions against the Police and Community Care and Health teams.
Angela accepts instruction across chambers’ administrative and public law practice.
She has particular experience in complex public law cases involving sensitive material. She represented (with Tim Moloney KC) the family of Lewis Skelton in the Divisional Court resisting a challenge to an inquest jury’s conclusion Lewis had been unlawfully killed when he was shot by B50, an authorised firearms officer (R (on the application of Officer B50) v. HM Coroner for the East Riding of Yorkshire and Kingston-Upon-Hull) and again in their successful challenge of the IOPC’s refusal to re-investigate (R (Glenn Skelton) v Director General of the IOPC and (1) Officer B50 and (2) The Chief Constable of Humberside Police). Angela previously acted in the latest challenge to UK Government policy on the exile of the Chagossian people from the Chagos Islands – Hoareau; Bancoult v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. This is one of only a handful of judicial review claims where a confidentiality ring has been used to manage sensitive material.
Angela regularly acts in urgent judicial review proceedings under the Children Act 1989 and the Care Act 2014 and has obtained favourable settlement terms for clients challenging decision-making on public law and human rights grounds.
She regularly advises on the scope of judicial review, costs risk in public law proceedings and third-party interventions. Angela advises private clients and civil society organisations on parliamentary procedure and engagement with Government and Parliamentarians on legal issues.
Angela is the Deputy Leader of the Public Law Team at Doughty Street Chambers.
Angela accepts instructions for bereaved families in inquests and for a range of organisations and individuals in public inquiries.
She has particular experience in complex, document heavy cases and lengthy inquiries involving the exploration of historic failures by public bodies. She acted (with Heather Williams QC) for the families of three people killed in the Birmingham Pub Bombings in the reopened inquests.
Angela regularly acts for bereaved families and vulnerable people failed by the state. She is currently acting in the major statutory inquiry following the Post Office Horizon scandal representing over 70 former subpostmasters whose unlawful convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal (with Tim Moloney KC). She has a wide experience of acting in statutory inquiries, including in the Independent Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) investigation of child abuse within the Roman Catholic Church and the Bloody Sunday inquiry.
She acts for the families of those who die in custody and those whose loved ones’ deaths raise questions about the conduct of healthcare providers, police and probation services. She is instructed by the family of Lewis Skelton, who was unlawfully killed when he was shot by an armed police officer.
She has a particular interest in open justice, disclosure and the management of sensitive material by inquests and inquiries, having advised on closed material in the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 and led JUSTICE’s response to the Justice and Security Act 2013. She recently represented The Times, the BBC and ITN in the Fishmongers Hall Inquests.
Angela regularly delivers training on inquests and inquiries (including on anonymity applications, reporting restrictions and access to inquests for the media) and she accepts instructions across all areas of chambers’ inquiry work.
Angela accepts instructions in all aspects of chambers domestic and international media and information law practice.
She regularly provides pre-publication advice for a range of national outlets, including The Guardian, The Times and The Sunday Times.
Angela has a particular interest in open justice, reporting restrictions and closed proceedings. She acted on behalf of The Times, the BBC and ITN in the Fishmongers Hall Inquests. She represented The Guardian in the High Court challenge to the treatment of sensitive material in the inquest into the death of Alexander Perepilichnyy (Secretary of State for the Home Department v HM Senior Coroner for Surrey). She has prepared legal submissions for publication for a range of media and free expression organisations, including Reporters without Borders and the Media Lawyers Association.
Angela is a member of Doughty Street International. She advises individual clients, civil society organisations and National Human Rights Institutions on the compatibility of domestic law and practice with international human rights standards.
She advised the Joint Committee on Human Rights on both the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the conclusion of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Her past case work includes Belhaj & Ors v Straw & Ors (intervention for JUSTICE, the International Commission of Jurists, Amnesty and REDRESS on the scope of foreign act of state doctrine and state immunity, redress for torture and rendition).
She regularly acts as a trainer on international human rights law and the scope of international treaties for the protection of individual rights, including for the International Bar Association, the Council of Europe and the OSCE.
Human Rights Practice, General Editor, Sweet & Maxwell.
Angela frequently contributes to a range of publications including Legal Action.