Hannah has experience acting in urgent applications for interim relief before the Administrative Court. Recent cases include: 

• Securing release from immigration detention for vulnerable adults in cases involving delays in the identification of suitable accommodation for their release.
   
• Obtaining urgent interim relief (preventing eviction from asylum accommodation) for newly-granted refugees at risk of street-homelessness.

She has contributed research to numerous urgent judicial review challenges, both to policies and individual decisions, including concerning the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy and the policy on temporary permission to stay for victims of human trafficking or slavery.  

As a solicitor in the public law litigation team of an international law firm, she advised and represented public bodies across a range of sectors. As a solicitor at the AIRE Centre, she contributed to expert third-party interventions in judicial review challenges before the High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court, and European Court of Human Rights.  

Hannah regularly acts for clients in immigration and asylum appeals before the First-tier and Upper Tribunal, as well as in applications for immigration bail before the First-tier Tribunal. 

Examples of recent successful appeals include acting for: 

• A potential victim of honour violence in Iran who was trafficked to the UK as a child.
   
• The spouse of a British national in a complex human rights appeal, concerning discrimination on the basis of caste and inter-caste marriage in India.
   
• A child who worked as a Kolbar in Iran.
   
• A child (living outside the UK) who successfully argued her mother (living in the UK) had sole responsibility for her upbringing and so that she was eligible for leave to enter under para. 297 Immigration Rules. 

She has particular expertise in cases concerning EU law and the Withdrawal Agreement. She has delivered training to lawyers, NGOs, and local councils across England and Wales on the impact of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU on immigration applications and access to benefits. As a solicitor, she supported individuals to make complex applications to the EU Settlement Scheme and to appeal EU Settlement Scheme refusal decisions.

Hannah also has particular interest in the overlap between social welfare and immigration law and has acted in appeals concerning eligibility to claim benefits on the basis of a person’s right to reside in the UK, including: 

• Fertre v Vale of White Horse DC [2025] EWCA Civ 1057 and Fertre v Vale of White Horse DC [2024] EWHC 1754 (KB) (led by Simon Cox): concerning whether a homelessness assistance refusal decision breached the non-discrimination provisions in the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement and, more broadly, who is ‘residing on the basis of the Withdrawal Agreement’ in order to benefit from those provisions.   
   
• SSWP v AT [2022] UKUT 330 (AAC); and SSWP v AT [2023] EWCA Civ 1307 (working as a solicitor for the AIRE Centre (third party intervener)): where the Court of Appeal found that EU citizens with pre-settled status and no other qualifying right to reside are entitled to be awarded Universal Credit where denial of benefit would risk them being unable to live in dignified conditions.
   
• Fratila v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2021] UKSC 53; [2020] EWCA Civ 1741 (working as a solicitor for the AIRE Centre (third party intervener)): concerning whether preventing reliance on Pre-Settled Status for the purposes of entitlement to benefits was unlawful discrimination on grounds of nationality contrary to EU law.

Hannah regularly advises on and acts in civil claims against the police, local authorities, and other public bodies. 

She has particular interest in false imprisonment claims in the immigration context and her work on such claims is informed by her expertise representing individuals in applications for immigration bail and challenges to unlawful detention.

Hannah also supports individuals to secure adequate and appropriate compensation under the relevant statutory schemes, has advised on eligibility under the Miscarriage of Justice Compensation Scheme, and successfully represented an individual to appeal a decision of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme.  

Hannah represents families in inquests involving deaths in prison and police custody, and in inquests considering failures of mental health and social care institutions to afford adequate care in the community.

Examples of her work include: 

• Inquests into the Gleision Mining Disaster: currently serving as Junior Counsel to the Inquests (led by Nick Moss KC) in this high-profile health and safety case involving the deaths of four miners at Gleision Colliery. The inquests are scheduled to commence in early 2027 and are anticipated to last approximately 16 weeks.
   
• Rosie Fender Inquest (representing Rosie’s family): the Coroner recorded a conclusion that Rosie’s death may have been avoided if a holistic treatment plan been put in place for her, or, even if more support had been provided to her and the people trying to care for her, in the weeks prior to her death and that Rosie had no comprehensive Care Plan, Care Coordinator or diagnosis due to the Community Mental Health Trust’s “inadequate resources / systems” for managing patients, such as Rosie, at the relevant time.
   
• Thomas Orchard Inquest (assisting Fiona Murphy KC and Alison Seaman): Thomas was killed as the result of the use of police restraint while he was suffering a mental health crisis.
   
• Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (working as a solicitor): representing a core participant. 

Hannah has a particular interest in cases involving a breach of data protection legislation and the right to privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and co-authored the publication Balancing Data Protection with Transparent Justice: the European Legal Framework with former European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judge Ledi Bianku.

She has advised on claims involving a breach of Article 8 ECHR and the Data Protection Act, including regarding CCTV and surveillance in a care setting, and wrongful/inaccurate processing, publication, and storage of a person’s data by the police and local authorities.

Hannah previously spent six months as a trainee solicitor in the data protection team at an international law firm, during which she helped advise a range of companies and organisations on GDPR implementation, widescale repapering projects, and drafting new data protection polices to ensure compliance with the relevant data protection provisions.  

Hannah has particular expertise in cases engaging rights under the ECHR. 

As part of the AIRE Centre Western Balkans Rule of Law Programme, she collaborated with ECtHR judges to help deliver training to judges, lawyers, and NGOs in the Western Balkans to further understanding and implementation of the ECHR in the region. She has co-authored guides on the ECHR with current and former ECtHR judges including the Protection of Human Rights During Times of Emergency, Gender Equality and Discrimination on the Grounds of Sex and the ECHR, and Balancing Data Protection with Transparent Justice and helped to establish the region’s first Gender Champions in the Judiciary Network. 

Case work includes: 

• V.D. v Russia, no.57893/19: Drafting a third-party intervention before the ECtHR on discrimination on the basis of bisexuality amounting to a breach of Article 3 in conjunction with Article 14 in the context of the threat of extradition to Belarus. 
   
• Drafting part of a complaint on behalf of UNICEF to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. 
   
• Siti Aisah and others v United States of America: Contributing to an amicus brief concerning diplomatic immunity against prosecutions for human trafficking and modern slavery. 

• Les droits fondamentaux et la pandémie Covid-19 (Covid-19 and Human Rights), Ledi Bianku and Hannah Smith, Annales du droit Luxembourgeois, Vol. 30 (2020).