About Erica Ffrench
Erica is a highly experienced lawyer with over 15 years’ experience in litigation within community care. She qualified as a solicitor within a legal aid practice, where she advised a high volume of vulnerable clients including unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and people with no recourse to public funds in relation to housing, community care and age litigation. She also advised private clients in relation to property and family law disputes.
She moved from high street practice to local government and spent several years providing in-house legal services to a large local authority on a wide range of local government law issues. She developed particular expertise in policy and litigation in respect of the duties of local authority social services. She also provided extensive advice on the risks of judicial review litigation to other services within the local authority.
Erica now regularly provides legal advice and representation to local authority clients at every level on legal duties owed to vulnerable adults, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, and care leavers. Her practice spans both adult social care and asylum, and includes complex litigation in the Court of Protection, the High Court and the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber.
During her legal career, Erica has devised and delivered training programmes, including courses around local authority duties to provide care and support to individuals with NRPF, Care Act duties, judicial review and the intersection between housing and social care.
She has successfully defended a number of pre-action and judicial review challenges and has provided effective advice around ceasing support to individuals with NRPF where appropriate.
