Helen Peden practices in immigration, housing, and public law.
Helen is experienced in working with young and vulnerable clients, owing to her professional background. She accepts instructions nationally across her core practice areas and is interested in public law challenges relating to immigration and housing issues.
Before joining the Bar, Helen worked for NGOs in the UK and Greece, including the British Red Cross and Refugee Council. During her legal studies, she worked as a civil litigation paralegal at two national law firms.
Helen read law at the University of Bristol, where she was a team leader at the Human Rights Implementation Centre and a caseworker at Innocence Network UK. During her year abroad, she represented Finland at the Jessup Moot Cup international rounds in Washington D.C. Helen completed a Master’s degree in International Law at the University of Glasgow, with a focus on public international law and human rights monitoring mechanisms. She received the Bruno Simma Prize for top performance in her LLM class.
Helen was awarded a Queen Mother Scholarship from the Middle Temple and the ICLR Pupillage Award for 2023.
Helen regularly appears in the First-tier Tribunal and advises in all areas of asylum and immigration law.
Owing to her professional background, Helen is particularly experienced in working with young and vulnerable asylum seekers. As a Children’s Adviser at the Refugee Council, Helen supported unaccompanied minors through asylum appeals, age assessments, and judicial review proceedings. Helen also coordinated the International Family Tracing Service at the British Red Cross for the Greater Manchester area.
Helen is interested in family immigration and entry clearance appeals, having previously worked as a family reunion caseworker with a grassroots NGO in Greece. Helen has acted on a number of successful Article 8 appeals resulting in the grant of ‘Leave Outside the Rules’. Helen is committed to access to justice for separated families and is open to appearing pro bono on out-of-scope matters.
Helen completed her pupillage under the supervision of Lucy Mair and Vijay Jagadesham. She has completed ATLAW, a specialist training programme for immigration and public law practitioners run by the Anti-Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit (ATLEU).
Helen has a busy housing practice and regularly appears in the County Court on a broad range of matters. Helen frequently acts on cases involving possession, disrepair, anti-social behaviour injunctions, and committal applications.
Helen draws on her previous experience as a civil litigation paralegal and appreciates the challenges faced by instructing solicitors in this area. She is experienced in working with young and vulnerable clients with complex needs due to her professional background in the NGO sector.
Helen is eager to expand her experience of homelessness appeals and housing-related judicial review. Helen has a particular interest in cases impacting the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
Helen accepts instructions in public law matters, particularly those overlapping with her core practice areas of housing & homelessness and immigration & asylum.
While completing pupillage under the supervision of Lucy Mair and Vijay Jagadesham, Helen gained experience in a wide range of immigration judicial review matters, including age assessments, fresh claims, certified appeals, and trafficking decision challenges. Helen is eager to expand her practice in these areas.
Helen is also interested in public law actions on housing and homelessness issues, having been involved with charities and community action groups addressing systemic problems in this area for many years.
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