About Carmel Maher
I qualified in Australia and in England and Wales and I have been a litigation lawyer since my first position in a city firm where I dealt with a broad spectrum of civil and criminal law cases.
I moved on to academic research, and then to criminal prosecutions for the Director of Public Prosecution and sat as a registrar of the County Court of NSW in Sydney on civil cases.
In the UK, my experience was initially gained in child protection law for 10 years and now I specialise in vulnerable adult protection, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), and migrant families with no recourse to public funds (NRFP).
The expertise I have in asylum related issues and NRPF cases was gained from front line advisory work to a large county council which is at the forefront of case law related to age assessments and the provision of services to UASC.
I regularly provide legal advice, research and legal representation to our clients at all levels on all aspects of the legal duties owed to individuals and families within the UASC and NRPF categories.
I have extensive experience of preparing cases for the Court of Protection, for the defence of judicial review claims and of instructing Counsel and QCs in the High Court, Upper Tribunal of Immigration and Asylum Chamber and the Court of Appeal.
I have been involved in several judicial review cases and notable amongst them is the Upper Tribunal case of R (AS) v Kent County Council JR/11261/2016 relating to dental age assessments and benefit of the doubt and the High Court case of R(WM) v Kent County Council [2018] EWHC 2025 (Admin) regarding who is an asylum seeker for Children Act support.