About Us

Phil Shiner, Supervisor

Phil Shiner leads the team at Public Interest Lawyers (PIL). He is a lawyer with an international and national reputation for his work on issues concerning international, environmental and human rights law. He has been practicing as a solicitor in the UK since 1981. He has written and spoken at international and national conferences on all the areas of law covered in PIL's present work.

Phil has developed the practice to attract top rankings in the areas of human rights and administrative and public law. He acts for over 30 Iraqi civilians killed or injured by British soldiers during the occupation in the case of Al Skeini, which will be heard at the House of Lords in April 2007. He also acts for a British national who has been held without charge in a British detention centre in Basra since October 2004 in the case of Al Jedda, which is also proceeding to the House of Lords. He acts for the families of British soldiers whose challenge to the legality of the Iraq war will be heard for three days in the Court of Appeal in November this year. In 2003 he represented CND in a judicial review challenge to the Government's decision to go to war.

Phil has acted for the Gurkhas in a series of discrimination cases and more recently for a Pakistani national held as a prisoner of war by the Japanese in World War II while serving the (British) Indian Army. See Gurung and Mohammed.

PIL recently won a challenge at the High Court to the validity of the Edge Lane CPO. This case strikes a blow to the Government’s Housing Market Renewal (“Pathfinder”) Initiative, which affects 250 million people nationwide. The practice also acts in numerous environmental and planning cases on behalf of both groups and individuals. See Pascoe and Derker.

Phil is a visiting professor at London Metropolitan University and a visiting fellow at LSE. He was made "Human Rights Lawyer of the Year" by the Joint Liberty and Justice Awards in 2004.

 

Daniel Carey, Solicitor

Daniel completed his training contract at City firm Denton Wilde Sapte, and then went on to work for US firm Steptoe and Johnson in Real Estate, Construction and Corporate matters. Daniel carried out pro bono work for the legal charity Reprieve during this time, and later took up a voluntary position at the Lousiana Capital Assistance Center in the US, where he assisted on death row cases. Following this, Daniel worked for a year for the Human Rights NGO Peace Brigades International (PBI) in Guatemala, for which he received the Law Society’s New Solicitor of the Year Award in 2007. Daniel continues to volunteer with PBI.

At Public Interest Lawyers, Daniel works on cases involving issues of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law, and also assists in relation to the Baha Mousa Public Inquiry.

 

Aonghus Kelly, Solicitor

Aonghus completed his studies at University College Cork in Ireland and was admitted as a solicitor and barrister of the High Court of New Zealand in 2005. Having returned to Ireland Aonghus worked as a solicitor at Blake & Kenny Solicitors in Galway and completed an LLM in International Human Rights Law at the Irish Centre for Human Rights in the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Aonghus was admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in February 2010.

Aonghus is primarily involved in the ongoing Baha Mousa Inquiry.

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Tessa Gregory, Solicitor

Tessa completed her training contract in 2007 at Bates, Wells & Braithwaite London LLP where she specialised in Charity and Education law until joining Public Interest Lawyers in February 2009.

Tessa has a longstanding interest in international human rights and has spent time abroad doing capital defence work in the Philippines and investigating human rights abuses in Romania and Nepal. In 2007 she spent a four-month sabbatical working in Kathmandu at an organisation called Advocacy Forum where she investigated and documented cases of torture and disappearance that occurred during the civil war.  Tessa is Vice-Chair of the Solicitors International Human Rights Group (SIHRG) www.sirhg.org.uk and a member of the Haldane Society of lawyers.

At Public Interest Lawyers, Tessa works on cases involving issues related to International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law.

 

Jim Duffy

In 2005, Jim graduated from the University of Glasgow with a First in Law with French and the class prize.  He had previously studied at the Université d’Aix-Marseille.  He completed the Diploma in Legal Practice in 2006 whilst teaching seminars in public law. He has also acted as a research assistant in the preparation of human rights textbooks and in advising the UK Government on appropriate structures and mechanisms for the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.

 

In 2007, he graduated with an LL.M from the University of Toronto, after being awarded a university fellowship and scholarships from Rotary International and the Clark Foundation.  As a member of the University’s International Human Rights Clinic, Jim acted on behalf of a community of Roma in the Strasbourg case, Tanase and Others v Romania.  With University of Toronto funding, he subsequently worked at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva. 

 

Following a training contract with Shepherd and Wedderburn, Jim acted as a Consultant to the Council of Europe and European Union on a mission to Ukraine aimed at combating ill-treatment in police detention. He joined PIL in 2009.