Jessie Brennan

Work Highlights

• Securing the grant of leave for Afghan citizens and relocation to the UK under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy.

• Securing the release of asylum seekers detained at Napier Barracks during the Covid-19 outbreak.

• A challenge to the failure of the Government to adequately support unpaid family carers during the Covid-19 pandemic (R (CC) v HM Treasury & Anor [2020] EWHC 2817 (Admin).

• Securing an amendment to the ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19): how to self-isolate when you travel to the UK’ Guidance which allowed people with additional health needs or disabilities to leave their home as necessary to promote their health and welfare.

• The successful Supreme Court challenge to the ban on ethical divestment in local authority pensions schemes [R(PSC) v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2020] UKSC 16.

• Securing access to vital medical and dental treatment for a disabled adult with severe Autism Spectrum Disorder at her local hospital. This challenge involved three different NHS bodies working collaboratively to commission the necessary treatment for our client.

• Representing four families in their successful judicial review claim against the removal of SEND provision for children in Worcestershire without adequate transition planning where it was found the local authorities actions had breached the Claimants’ legitimate expectations (RD v Worcestershire County Council [2019] EWHC 449 (Admin)).

• Overturning the decision of the Crown Court to refuse an appeal by way of case stated (R (Pegram) v Bristol Crown Court [2019] EWHC 965 (Admin)).

Practice Areas

Jessie is a Solicitor at Bhatt Murphy, having joined in 2024. She specialises in public and civil actions against state bodies, with a particular focus on the protection and enforcement of those without regularised immigration status in the UK

She works extensively with unaccompanied asylum seeking children and young people to challenge unlawful age assessments and seek damages for unlawful detention and treatment on arrival into the UK.

Jessie was part of the Bindmans team that won the Solicitors’ Journal Legal Aid Team of the Year Award 2016, and she assisted the Public Law solicitors in the successful procurement litigation that helped force the MoJ U-turn on criminal Legal Aid ‘dual contracts’.