Allan has specialised in immigration and asylum law since becoming a barrister in 2001.
He is a recommended barrister in Chambers & Partners 2020 which includes “He manages to bring together a good corporate head and a human rights heart” and “An excellent junior, especially with EEA and LGBT-related cases.”
Allan has a broad practice within immigration and asylum law and represents clients at all level of tribunal and court. His asylum practice includes a particular specialisation in LGBTQI+ refugees. He is a former trustee of and remains an active volunteer with the UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group and has written for the Birkbeck Law Review on LGBT asylum and procedure.
Allan is regularly instructed in cases involving business immigration, including Tiers 1 and 2, sponsor licence compliance and challenges to suspension and revocation. He has lengthy experience of defending against ‘Civil Penalties’ imposed for allegedly employing illegal workers and has had considerable success.
After 14 years as a barrister Allan became a partner in Blake Morgan LLP, where he headed up the firm’s immigration team, before returning to the Bar in 2016. His time at the Blake Morgan gave him a deep understanding of commerciality and issues such as ‘right to work’ and the Point Based System, in particular Tier 1 (Entrepreneur and Investor) and Tier 2.
Allan has many times acted as an immigration expert in family law proceeding and his work has been commended by the Family Court.
In addition to immigration and asylum law, Allan is able to advise on modern slavery and trafficking issues, in particular to organisations that wish to ensure there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in their supply chains. Allan has advised many organisations on their responsibility to prepare an annual ‘transparency statement’ under the Modern Slavery Act, including a major European airline, housing associations, an international charity, a US software giant, and a department store chain, to name a few examples.
Allan is a founding member of TELI (Trans Equality Legal Initiative) which aims to challenge trans and non-binary inequality by litigation.
ILPA
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