Howe & Co

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Howe & Co Solicitors is a firm of human rights solicitors based in Ealing, London, England. The firm has in excess of 100 staff, and specialises in human rights cases, employment law, defamation, civil litigation, public law and personal injury litigation (including medical negligence).

[edit] Background

The firm has 3 partners, Martin Howe (Solicitor) BA (Hons), Kieran O'Rourke (Solicitor) LLB (Hons), and David Enright (Solicitor) LLB (Hons).

The firm has been involved in several high profile cases, including human rights claims following the Stansted Airport hijacking in February 2000; the criminal cases and human rights claims following the 3 day siege at the Greek Embassy in February 1999; the successful House of Lords challenge to the safety of France for asylum seekers (R v Secretary of State for the Home Department ex parte Adan & Aitseguer (2001) 2 AC 477).

Howe & Co currently acts for approximately 2000 British Army Gurkha veterans who are challenging the British Government's refusal to allow them a right to settle and live in the United Kingdom. The firm was instructed by Tul Bahadur Pun VC, an 84 year-old Gurkha veteran who won Britain’s highest military award for gallantry, the Victoria Cross, during the Second World War. Mr Tul Bahdur Pun VC was refused a right to settle in the United Kingdom[1]. Howe & Co set up a website to assist Mr Pun VC's campaign to win the right to settle in the United Kingdom named: VCHero.co.uk[2]. On 1 June 2007, the British Asylum & Immigration Minister, Liam Byrne, stated that due to the "exceptional" nature of the case,Mr Pun VC would be allowed to live in the United Kingdom[3].

The Head of the firm's Human Rights and Immigration Department, David Howe, is currently involved in representing a number of foreign nationals facing deportation by the British Home Office, following criminal conviction in the United Kingdom, and also a test case against the Home Office's decision to exclude unaccompanied minors from the Family Indefinite Leave to Remain Policy introduced in October 2003.

The firm holds the Specialist Quality Mark (SQM) awarded by the Legal Services Commission and, following an independent "Peer Review"[4] audit of Howe & Co's publicly funded legal work, the Legal Services Commission and the Institute of Advance Legal Studies awarded the firm a rating of: "1 - Excellence".

In June 2006 the firm's partner, David Enright, was shortlisted for a Law Society sponsored award at the Legal Aid Practitioners' Group's "Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards 2006"[5].

Howe & Co's personal injury lawyers are members of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), and the firm is regulated by the Law Society of England and Wales .

[edit] References

  1. ^ Daily Mirror. ""VC Hero Banned from Britain"", Daily Mirror, 24 May 2007. 
  2. ^ Jonathan Rayner. ""Lawyer in the News"", Law Society Gazette, 7June2007. 
  3. ^ BBC. ""Gurkha hero live in Britain"", BBC News, 1 June 2007. 
  4. ^ Legal Services Commission. ""Peer Review"", Legal Services Commission, 2005. 
  5. ^ LAPG. ""LEGAL AID AWARDS SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED"", LAPG, 6 June 2006. 

[edit] External links