Shanthi specialises in public inquiries and inquests. She has been instructed as Counsel to Inquiry and on behalf of core participants in major public inquiries of national importance. She is adept at analysing large bodies of evidence and cutting through to the key issues.

She was instructed as junior counsel to the Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry. She maintained a key role supporting lead counsel in Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Inquiry.

She is currently instructed as junior counsel to Category F Core Participants (families of deceased children whose identities were stolen),  several Category H core participants (women deceived into sexual relationships) and a child born of a relationship with an undercover officer in the Undercover Policing Inquiry.

Shanthi represents the Long Covid Groups in multiple modules of the Covid-19 Public Inquiry.

Shanthi is regularly instructed on behalf of bereaved families in Article 2 jury inquests. She has experience in deaths in prison custody, psychiatric detention and following police contact.

Shanthi is known for her collaborative approach to working with instructing solicitors and clients.

Shanthi has a broad public law and human rights practice. She advises on merits of judicial review, procedure and costs risks.  She is adept at identifying innovative means to advance a case and raise issues in the context of strategic litigation. 

Drawing on previous experience in the field, she has advised on cases raising issues related to immigration and asylum law. She has a particular interest in challenging unjustified discrimination in Home Office policies affecting vulnerable migrant communities. In 2017, Shanthi was instructed as Junior Counsel in the landmark High Court challenge to the policy of removing EEA nationals for rough sleeping R (oao Gureckis & ors) v SSHD  [2017] EWHC 3298 (Admin). 

Drawing on her background working with a broad range of civil society organisations, she understands community organisers and activist groups and is able to advise them on potential public law challenges to policies affecting their communities.

She has advised on cases ranging from the application of universal jurisdiction principles in potential prosecutions for war crimes, to complaints to UN Special Rapporteurs to challenging the proscription of organisations before the Proscribed Organisation Appeals Commission. She has extensive knowledge of the law on diplomatic immunity and can advise on cases raising these issues. She also has experience of international criminal tribunals following a placement with the Defence Team for Mustafa Baddredine, the former military leader of Hezbollah, at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Shanthi works creatively to use national and international mechanisms in order to secure accountability and redress for victims of grave human rights violations.

She currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Bar Human Rights Committee (BHRC).

Previous instructions include:

• Led by Peter Haynes KC in one of the few appeals to have reached the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission (POAC) challenging the ongoing proscription of the LTTE. Arumugam & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department Appeal No: PC/06/2022.
• Instructed by Public Interest Law Centre to advise Tamil Information Centre on the prospects of a prosecution for war crimes committed by Keenie-Meenie Services (KMS), British mercenaries, in Sri Lanka during the civil war. She drafted a complaint on behalf of Tamil Information Centre to the Metropolitan Polices Service (MPS) inviting them to open an investigation into KMS. Following receipt of the complaint, the MPS moved their scoping exercise into a full investigation.
• Led by Peter Carter KC in the private prosecution of Brigadier Fernando, a former Sri Lankan Defence Attaché, for threatening protestors outside the Sri Lankan Embassy in the United Kingdom. This is a seminal case considering residual diplomatic immunity in the criminal jurisdiction. Fernando v Sathananthan [2021] EWHC 652 (Admin)
• Co-drafted submissions on behalf of an NGO to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on the arrest and detention of a politician in an East African Country.
• Co-drafted submissions to the UN Human Rights Committee on Civil and Political Rights regarding the independence of the legal and judicial profession in Zimbabwe. 
   

Shanthi regularly advises claimants in civil claims against the police, prisons and the home office. She also has experience pursuing claims for damages under the Human Rights Act 1998. In relation to claims against the police, she has advised in claims concerning police assault, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and misfeasance in public office.

She is currently instructed in civil claims against the police related to conduct being investigated in the Undercover policing inquiry. She represents the families of deceased children whose identities were appropriated by undercover officers, led by Jude Bunting KC.