Odette Chalaby is a specialist planning, environmental and public law barrister.
In her first year of practice, she was recognised in Planning Magazine’s Guide to Planning Lawyers as one of the 20 top-rated planning juniors under 35, the most recently qualified entrant on the list.
Odette represents developers, public authorities and interested parties at all stages of the planning process. She is particularly interested in matters at the intersection of planning and environmental law, including renewable energy, biodiversity net gain and retained EU law.
She has been instructed in cases before the Privy Council, High Court, Crown Court, magistrates court, and at both s.78 TCPA appeals and DCOs. She regularly appears at significant multi-week planning inquiries, including solar farms, minerals development and large housing schemes.
Odette is also an elected trustee of the UK Environmental Law Association (UKELA), where she has responsibility for coordinating regional groups, editing the e-law publication and organising junior seminars.
Odette’s broader public law experience extends to education and immigration. She is a member of the Attorney General’s “Junior Junior” scheme. As to international public law, she was part of the team that represented the Appellant pro bono in Moss v The King (Bahamas) [2023] UKPC 28, a case relating to conspiracy to murder in the Bahamas.
Odette represents developers, public authorities and interested parties at all stages of the planning process, including in the High Court, s.78 appeals, and DCOs.
In her first year of practice, Odette was recognised in Planning Magazine’s Guide to Planning Lawyers as one of the 20 top-rated planning juniors under 35, the most recently qualified entrant on the list.
Odette has significant experience in renewable energy planning, in particular solar and battery storage schemes. She has already appeared at ten inquiries/hearings for solar and battery storage schemes, several of these Secretary of State call-ins. Her experience spans proposals in the Green Belt, National Landscapes, and on best and most versatile agricultural land.
Recent instructions include:
Odette has experience of both bringing and defending judicial and statutory reviews, including under s.288 and s.289 TCPA.
Recent experience includes:
During pupillage, Odette assisted her supervisor Nina Pindham on two landmark climate change cases: the successful judicial review of the Government’s Net Zero Strategy (R (Friends of the Earth et al.) v SoS [2022] EWHC 1841 (Admin)); and R (Finch) v Surrey County Council [2022] EWCA Civ 187.
Odette has a particular interest in, and growing experience of, major infrastructure projects. She has appeared at both DCO examinations and s.78 inquiries dealing with such schemes.
Current instructions as junior counsel include promoting a series of solar farms that fall just below the 50MW threshold for nationally significant infrastructure projects and representing a local community group in the Gatwick Airport second runway DCO.
Odette is an active member of the National Infrastructure Planning Association’s (NIPA) early years practitioners’ group.
For more details of her experience, please see the Energy section.
Odette has experience in both advisory and appeal work relating to minerals development. This includes:
Odette has also presented a legal update at the annual RTPI Minerals Planning Conference.
Odette has already appeared in more than 25 planning inquiries and hearings, related to developments in the energy, residential, minerals and commercial sectors. She represents developers, public authorities, and interested parties, both unled and as junior counsel.
Her experience includes:
Odette has experience representing and advising clients in relation to planning enforcement matters, including immunity from enforcement, lawful development certificates, enforcement notices and planning injunctions. Recent instructions include:
Odette frequently represents developers, local authorities, and interested parties at all stages of the residential planning process.
Example recent instructions include:
Odette’s practice spans a broad spectrum of environmental law matters, including environmental assessment, climate change, water law and protected sites and species. She is particularly interested in issues at the intersection of planning and environmental law, including renewable energy, biodiversity net gain and retained EU law. Since 2021, Odette has been an elected trustee of UKELA.
Odette has significant experience in renewable energy planning, in particular solar and battery storage schemes. She has been instructed on cases in the High Court and on ten inquiries/hearings for solar and battery storage schemes, several of these Secretary of State call-ins. For more details, please see the Energy section.
In addition to her renewable energy work, Odette has experience of a wide range of climate change matters. Recent examples include:
During pupillage, Odette assisted her supervisor Nina Pindham on two landmark climate change cases: the successful judicial review of the Government’s Net Zero Strategy (R (Friends of the Earth et al.) v SoS [2022] EWHC 1841 (Admin)); and R (Finch) v Surrey County Council [2022] EWCA Civ 187.
Before coming to the Bar, Odette volunteered for the Environmental Law Foundation researching local authorities’ climate change emergency declarations. As a law student volunteer, she also assisted Plan B Earth in drafting its human rights submissions in R(Friends of the Earth Ltd et al.) v Heathrow Airport Ltd [2020] UKSC 52.
Odette can advise across a wide range of issues arising from environmental assessment, from EIA screening and scoping to habitats assessment and legal reform.
Odette has a particular interest in retained EU environmental law. She has provided expert legal commentary for LexisNexis on the implications of the Retained EU Law Bill for domestic environmental law. She is also part of PEBA’s retained EU law working party and a member of UKELA’s Environmental Assessment Working Party.
Odette has growing experience in water and waste water law. Led by Richard Kimblin KC, she has advised statutory undertakers on interpretation of the Water Industry Act 1991 and the suite of retained EU law, including the Urban Waste Water Treatment Regulations.
Odette also has experience of advising developers, statutory undertakers and local authorities on various matters arising out of the interaction between the planning system and water and waste water regulation.
Odette has successfully conducted a number of waste prosecutions under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. She has appeared unled in the Crown Court for sentencing of such offences, with one of her prosecutions resulting in significant custodial sentences for two defendants.
Odette has been involved in a number of inquiries involving protected habitats and species issues, including phosphate mitigation and the Wild Birds directive.
She has also advised clients in the public and private sectors on legal questions related to protected habitats and species. For example, together with Nina Pindham, she was instructed by the Planning Advisory Service to provide legal advice on the implications of the Habitats Regulations for all local authorities affected by Natural England’s “nutrient neutrality” guidance.
Thank you to all who attended the Local Planning Authority Seminar Yesterday. We hope it was both informative and enjoyable for you all.
Finch is a Supreme Court judgment which has been long awaited. It deals with the effects of development which are ’downstream’. Many practitioners want to know…
Thank you to all who attended the Local Planning Authority Seminar Yesterday. We hope it was both informative and enjoyable for you all.
Finch is a Supreme Court judgment which has been long awaited. It deals with the effects of development which are ’downstream’. Many practitioners want to know…
