On Saturday 09th February 2019 AstenJ hosted an all-day immigration Seminar at the BPP University in Holborn. The event carried a whopping 6 CDP points. For those who sacrificed their Saturday to attend this event would have found it fully worth their time.

This was an essential seminar for any immigration practitioner. With Brexit around the corner and the ever changing nature of the Immigration Rules seminars such as these should be an essential part of any immigration practitioners diet.

Judge Richard McKee (Retired Judge of the Upper Tribunal) chaired the conference and ensured that the speakers and audience participated in a timely and efficient manner. He opened the conference with a welcome speech before handing the platform onto Sarah Pinder.

Sarah Pinder (Barrister, Goldsmith Chambers) is a rising star in the field of immigration law and family law (children). She was featured in the Legal 500 2019 as “an excellent advocate with a high success rate because of her aptitude to preparation”. More recently, Sarah was appointed as a part-time First-Tier Tribunal Judge of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber.

Sarah focused her talk on Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) Applications and the Genuineness Test. Sarah’s talk provided some useful advice on how to overcome and deal with the genuineness test especially where you are left with no option but to apply for Judicial Review. She also provided some very useful case law that should prove useful if ever having to challenge a Home Office decision.

After Sarah, Judge Richard McKee, a veteran of AstenJ events, took to the stage to update the audience on the latest developments in Immigration Law. There is no better source than Judge McKee for these updates as he is a passionate scholar of Immigration law and all things Immigration. There are some members of the audience who come simply to receive Judge McKee’s lessons. If you haven’t picked up a copy of AstenJ’s handout with Judge McKee’s notes, please do your best to get your copy now.

Following Mr McKee was Sarah’s colleague Samina Iqbal (Barrister, Goldsmith Chambers) who has also been appointed as a part-time judge to the Immigration and Asylum Chamber. Samina’s seminar focused on unlawful detention claims and provided some very useful tips for immigration practitioners on bringing unlawful detention claims in the civil courts. For those practitioners who are familiar with this field of work will know that this is becoming a very lucrative area of work and as such, Samina’s talk was highly useful for any practitioner who would be thinking of adopting this type of work. Taking a case through the civil courts, as you may know, is very different to taking a case through the Immigration Tribunal. For those reason, seminars such as these are always useful.

After Samina, the audience took a break for a delicious Asian style lunch. Some members of the audience confessed that they came to the seminar primarily for the lunch service – the lessons were simply an added advantage.

After lunch we heard from Nishan Paramjorthy (Barrister & Head of Chambers, Paramount Chambers) a well-known figure within the immigration sector for his work in immigration law and human rights law. Nishan’s talk was probably the most thought provoking of the day as it is a hot topic being discussed in the media today – the impact of paragraphs 322(5) of the immigration rules. Nishan’s talk provided some very useful advice on how to tackle adverse Home Office decisions under paragraphs 322(5) of the immigration rules.

Up next was Adeel Malik (Barrister, 12 Old Square). Some of you may be familiar with his brother, Zane Malik who has built a formidable reputation for himself in the immigration sector, however his brother Adeel is now fast catching up with Zane. Adeel exhibited his vast experience in Judicial Review Claims by discussing developments in Judicial Review practice. It is clear that Adeel spends much of his time reading up on case law as he analysed a number of useful cases with the audience to bring them up to date on the latest developments.

In the evening we had talks from Judge Richard McKee, who discussed what we could expect to see as a result of Brexit, and from Pierra Gorget (Barrister, Goldsmith Chambers). Pierre had a difficult job of keeping the audience engaged at what was the end of a long day however his talk was so interesting that the audience continued to discuss his topic, Immigration Bail, well after the end of the event.

AstenJ certainly put together a seminar of the very highest quality. The speakers that delivered talks are at the very top of their fields and the day was certainly well worth the time. AstenJ will hold another Immigration Seminar on 6 July 2019 at the same venue.