About Us
Agnes Lai is a solicitor, specialising in UK immigration law. She is a member of ILPA (Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association), and is the sole principal of Just Immigration Solicitors.
She has specialised in the area of immigration law since qualifying in 1994. She was a Member of the Law Society Immigration Law Panel from 2000 - 2003 and has headed immigration departments in the practices in which she has been employed since 1997, being responsible for all areas of immigration and asylum casework, including business applications, appeals and judicial reviews, together with working with the Official Solicitor and local authorities. In addition, she has an LLM (Master of Law) specialising in human rights and administrative law.
Agnes’ voluntary work has included acting as a volunteer adviser for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), and being a specialist immigration adviser for the Woking CAB and regularly advised CAB advisers in the surrounding areas, including Guildford. She has also given talks to immigrant support groups and advised Justice and Peace organisations, and she remains a volunteer legal advisor for the Human Rights organisation, Liberty, and regularly advises on immigration and other human rights cases.
Agnes Lai has been involved with campaigning work, particularly the campaign against Clause 52 of the National Asylum Immigration Bill 2002 where she drafted the Briefing Paper for the Refugee Working Party, together with an amendment that was tabled at the committee stage of the Parliamentary Debate. She is also credited as a contributor to the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) publication on ministerial statements with regard to the said Bill, and has contributed to the drafting of the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association’s guidelines for Best Practice on ‘Working with Children and Young People subject to Immigration Control’, and was a member of the advisory group.
Agnes continues to write about immigration and human rights issues and cases. She has prepared an analysis of whether the Children Act 2004 is compatible with the Human Rights Act 1998, with regards to the protection of asylum seeking children, which was published in the Journal of Immigration Asylum and Nationality Law.