Serena Sekhon

Community Care

Serena is very frequently instructed on behalf of asylum seekers and refused asylum seekers in relation to various asylum support and accommodation decisions.

Serena has secured a number of settlements in asylum support cases, as well as positive interim relief decisions from the Administrative Court. Her cases have included challenges to failures to provide suitable accommodation (including in a disability/care needs context), challenges to the amount of financial subsistence support received by clients, challenges to location/dispersal decisions, and challenges to failures to implement asylum decisions/issue a BRP.

Serena also acts in judicial reviews relating to trafficking and has secured a quashing of a negative NRM decision in the High Court.

Serena advises and represents clients at all stages of the judicial review process, including pre-issue advice on prospects and preparing the claim, as well as drafting urgent applications for interim relief.

Serena represents clients in the Asylum Support Tribunal as a volunteer advocate for the Asylum Support Appeals Project. As such, she is able to understand well the wider asylum support landscape and the broader legal and policy framework. She brings this knowledge to her public law practice in order to resolve her clients’ issues.

Serena also represents clients in age assessment challenges and has been led in urgent judicial review and policy challenges relating to section 17 Children Act support for families with no recourse to public funds (NRPF).

Education

Serena has extensive experience with school admission appeals. She also appears regularly in the First Tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) in relation to Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).

Serena welcomes instructions relating to higher education providers, and judicial review in the context of education.

Mental Health

Serena represents individuals who are detained under the Mental Health Act before the First-tier Tribunal (Mental Health).

Inquest & Inquiries

Serena’s inquests practice includes Article 2 inquests with and without a jury, as well as non-Article 2 inquests. She provides advice and representation at all stages of the inquest process, including in relation to post-inquest civil claims.

Recent inquest instructions include:

• Re Chenise Gregory – inquest into the killing of Chenise by her partner MM, who was on licence and under multi-agency management at the time. The jury returned a conclusion of unlawful killing and found that failures by the Metropolitan Police may have caused or contributed to Chenise’s death. Serena was instructed by Chenise’s family, led by Maya Sikand KC.
• Re Christopher Kapessa – inquest into the death of a Black child who drowned in a river in Wales. The Coroner concluded that another boy deliberately pushed Christopher off a bridge and that this act was capable of meeting the criteria of “being an intentional act, an unlawful act and one that caused Christopher’s death.” Serena was instructed by Christopher’s family, led by Michael Mansfield KC
• Re Ryan Harris – sole counsel for the family, inquest into a death in prison custody.
• Re Katie O’Neill (current) – instructed by the family, led by Nick Brown.
• Sole counsel for an IP in a four-week inquest with a jury.
• Assisting Philip Rule KC (instructed by the family) on a two-week inquest relating to a death in prison custody.
• Coroner’s Investigation into Ian Paterson – inquests into the deaths of tens of former patients of Ian Paterson, a consultant breast surgeon alleged to have carried out an unapproved “cleavage-sparing mastectomy” procedure on patients with breast cancer. Serena was a member of a team of Counsel to the Inquest.

Serena is a member of the INQUEST Lawyers’ Group.

Prison and Police Law

Serena’s prison law experience includes:

• Representing clients in oral hearings before the Parole Board
• Judicial review
• Civil claims in a prison context, including those arising out of the Equality Act 2010

Serena has experience in inquests involving criticisms of the police and prison staff.

During pupillage, Serena assisted with civil actions against the police.