Isabella Kirwan (Pupil Barrister) Guernica 37

Introduction

Isabella joined Chambers as a pupil in October 2022 and is available to take instructions.

 

Previous Experience

Isabella is a qualified solicitor. Over the past 5 years she has worked on litigation in both domestic and international courts. Her main areas of specialism are human rights law, public law, judicial review and immigration and asylum law. Isabella has been involved in several key judicial review cases including R (CSM) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 2175 (Admin) in which, for the first time in a UK domestic court, the Court held that a Home Office system resulted in a breach of the “systems duty” under Article 3 ECHR. 

 

Isabella’s expertise includes immigration detention cases, human trafficking and modern slavery cases and asylum applications and appeals. She also works on immigration cases, including applications for Leave to Remain and nationality and citizenship applications. Isabella has featured in the media on numerous occasions in interviews about her cases, including by ITV, the Independent, the Guardian and the Metro.

 

Isabella has both domestic and international experience. Until October 2022, Isabella worked as a lawyer at the United Nations’ Migration Agency in London. She advised and trained government agencies and Local Authorities on immigration law and had conduct of complex legal cases. Between 2017-2018 she worked at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in London, and as a trainee at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg.

 

During her studies, Isabella specialised in International Criminal Law and International Human Rights Law. She was awarded the University of Manchester award for Distinguished Contribution to International Criminal Law for her work on Transitional Justice, analysing the effectiveness of late transitional justice measures in post-conflict states. Isabella was also awarded a scholarship to study in Shanghai, China.

 

Education

LLB Law (Hons), The University of Manchester with study abroad at the University of Lorraine, France; French Law & International Law

LLM Public International Law, The University of Manchester

LPC, BPP Law School

 

Memberships

The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple