Sarah practises in public law with particular expertise in immigration and asylum. Sarah is also developing her practice in community care, social welfare, mental health and capacity law and continues to practice in family law representing in children cases.
In the Legal 500 2024 edition, Sarah was recommended in a higher band – Tier 3 – as a Leading Junior: ‘Outstanding advocate with an ever-calm approach. Reliable, resourceful and works collaboratively with instructing solicitors. She is a dynamic personality who keeps update with all aspects of the law.’
Sarah has been recommended in the Chambers & Partners 2024 directory in band 4 – Sarah Pinder has a sophisticated applicant-side immigration and asylum practice. Her work includes judicial reviews challenging systemic or policy issues, and she can demonstrate detailed knowledge of areas including age assessment and risk of return to country of origin; “She is proactive, responsive and thoughtful. She is passionate about supporting clients and works tirelessly to achieve the best outcome for them.”
In Chambers, Sarah jointly-led the immigration and public law team with her colleague Samina Iqbal between 2018 and May 2023. She is also committed to providing training to pupil barristers and was approved to become a pupil supervisor in 2019.
Sarah regularly advises and provides expert opinions on immigration and nationality issues in family and other court proceedings. She has extensive experience of representing vulnerable adults, persons who have been affected by traumatic events, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and victims of trafficking. In suitable cases, Sarah will undertake direct access work directly for members of the public.
Sarah has been appointed as a fee-paid First-Tier-Tribunal Judge of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber, sitting in Birmingham IAC. She was also cross-assigned to the Employment Tribunal in September 2021 and was appointed as a Deputy District Judge in 2022. In July 2015, Sarah was also appointed as an Independent Funding and Costs Adjudicator for the Legal Aid Agency.
Sarah is bi-lingual in French and has a good working knowledge of German.
Interested in instructing Ms Pinder?
Please call 020 7353 6802 or complete the form below:
Immigration Barrister
Sarah is a highly effective and sensitive advocate and is passionate for the field of immigration law, having worked in the field for nearly 20 years. Sarah represents in all aspects of immigration, asylum and human rights law in the immigration tribunals, the High Court and the Court of Appeal. She also specialises in judicial reviews, including certification cases, unlawful detention/false imprisonment claims, PBS, long residence and tax/deception cases as well as complex nationality matters, including Windrush and possible claims to British citizenship from British Overseas Citizens and other such nationalities. Sarah has a particular interest in cases involving children and their best interests.
Sarah is frequently instructed by solicitors to provide expert, independent opinions in immigration and nationality law for parties in family, extradition and other legal proceedings.
Sarah also delivers training for ILPA in relation to the latest immigration developments and is a contributor to Lexis Nexis PSL’s practice notes. Sarah is very experienced at delivering training doing so for a variety of training companies and CPD providers (MBL Seminars, Lexis Nexis, CLT, AstenJ Professional Training & Law Friends Society) and as part of in-house programmes for solicitor firms and second-tier organisations and associations. Sarah welcomes these opportunities as a way of updating herself on the law and current practice and liaising with fellow practitioners in a more informal and dynamic environment.
Selected Training
“Applications for costs and other procedural conundrums in the FTT and UT(IAC)” – ILPA November 2020
“Covid-19 Measures in Immigration”– Goldsmith Chambers 2020
“Update – EU Settlement Scheme”– Goldsmith Chambers 2020
“From Tier 1 Entrepreneurs to Innovators – A Whistle-Stop Tour” – May 2019, Law Friends Society with promotion clip here
“Brexit – Where are we going ?” – October 2019, Law Friends Society with promotion clip here
“The Minefield of Tier 1 Entrepreneur Applications & the Genuineness Test” – July 2019, AstenJ Professional Training
“Innovator applications – Are they for real !?” – October 2019, AstenJ Professional Training
“Article 8 ECHR Update” – September 2019 & February 2020, Society of British-Bangladeshi Solicitors & AstenJ Professional Training
Webinar on Hostile Environment Measures with Samina Iqbal (2019) – Lexis Nexis.
Notable Cases include:
- Commonwealth Veterans v SSHD & SSD– Sarah is representing eight Fijian HM Forces veterans in a group Judicial Review claim against the Defence and Home Secretaries. The Claimants challenge Home Office and Ministry of Defence (MOD) practices, which include failures to follow their own guidance and duties with regard to Foreign and Commonwealth HM Forces personnel at discharge, impacting hugely on the Claimants’ (and others’) rights to reside in the UK. The Claimants also argue unfair and inconsistent practices at the Home Office. On application fees, the Claimants seek a declaration that charging veterans and their families such high settlement application fees is unfair, discriminatory and contrary to the express terms of the Armed Forces Covenant. Media coverage of the case includes: The Guardian 8th March 2020, 9th March 2020 (quoting Sarah), 20thMay 2020, The Times, The Daily Telegraph 15th March 2020& 4thApril 2020, BBC News 28thMay 2020.
- Granted permission to apply in judicial review proceedings in the High Court in a claim involving a dual-British national challenging the fairness and rationality of the SSHD’s British passport policy “Use and Change of Names” of 16 August 2016.
- Granted permission to appeal by the Court of Appeal in judicial review proceedings where the Upper Tribunal refused permission to apply to a team of Tier 1 Entrepreneurs. Grounds of appeal included procedural unfairness and irrationality.
- Granted permission to apply for judicial review following an oral renewal hearing in a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) entry clearance case raising irrationality and unfairness grounds in response to a ‘genuineness’ refusal. This was the second time permission had been granted in the same case as the first set of proceedings settled and the applicant was then refused entry clearance again. Eventually, the Applicant was granted LTR as a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur).
- Granted permission to apply for judicial review in a fresh claim raising issues of trafficking and the impact of a previous detention as part of the Detained Fast Track.
- Reah, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (IJR) [2016] UKUT 55 (IAC)
- LH & IP (gay men: risk) Sri Lanka CG [2015] UKUT 00073 (IAC)
- EV (Philippines) & Others v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2014] EWCA Civ 874 – Sarah drafted grounds for permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal, securing permission (was unable to represent at the appeal hearing due to being on maternity leave). This case is regarded as a leading authority on the interplay between the best interests of children and the public interest in removing families with children, who do not otherwise have the right to remain in the UK.
- AK & SK (Christians: risk) Pakistan CG [2014] UKUT 00569 (IAC)
- Commonwealth HM Forces veteran Judicial review challenge and unlawful detention claim – Sarah represented a detained former member of HM forces from the Commonwealth. The case received substantial press coverage: The Telegraph 14.11.2013, The Times 14.11.2013, The Daily Mail 15.11.2013, The Independent 16.11.2013, The Guardian 16.11.2013 & The BBC 16.11.2013
- Rajbhandari (PBS: funds – available) Nepal [2012] UKUT 364 (IAC)
Publications
- “Immigration Law and Tier 1 Entrepreneur Applications” with Law Brief Publishing Ltd.
- Contributing author to Lexis PSL Immigration.
Public Law Barrister
Sarah practises in public law with particular expertise in immigration and asylum. She has become particularly specialised in public law claims involving Foreign and Commonwealth members or former members of HM Forces. Sarah is also developing her practice in community care, social welfare, equality and discrimination law, mental health and capacity law.
Sarah has extensive experience of representing vulnerable adults, persons who have been affected by traumatic events, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and victims of trafficking.
Sarah has advised in age dispute cases and represented in complex cases involving issues of mental capacity, no recourse to public funds and a person’s assessment under the Care Act. Sarah is frequently instructed to advise and represent in trafficking and modern slavery cases as well as unlawful detention and complex nationality cases where issues of public interest and/or good character arise. Sarah is also currently involved in applications and judicial reviews under the Windrush scheme.
Notable Cases include:
- Commonwealth Veterans v SSHD & SSD– Sarah is representing eight Fijian HM Forces veterans in a group action against the Defence and Home Secretaries. The Claimants challenge Home Office and Ministry of Defence (MOD) practices, which include failures to follow their own guidance and duties with regard to Foreign and Commonwealth HM Forces personnel at discharge. The Claimants also argue unfair and inconsistent practices at the Home Office and seek a declaration that charging veterans and their families such high settlement application fees is unfair, discriminatory and contrary to the express terms of the Armed Forces Covenant. Issues have also arisen concerning access to free NHS health-care. Media coverage of the case includes: The Guardian 8th March 2020, 9th March 2020 (quoting Sarah), 20thMay 2020, The Times, The Daily Telegraph 15th March 2020 & 4thApril 2020, BBC News 28thMay 2020.
- Granted permission to apply in judicial review proceedings in the High Court in a claim involving a dual-British national challenging the fairness and rationality of the SSHD’s British passport policy “Use and Change of Names” of 16 August 2016.
- R (ona PB) & another v SSHD(2016) – Represented Claimant mother and child in Judicial Review proceedings challenging the imposition of a ‘no recourse to public funds’ condition with the Claimant’s local authority joined as a party. The claim was settled after permission was granted in the Claimant’s favour and focused on the child’s best interests. The case also involved an appeal to the Court of Appeal in relation to there being ‘no order for costs’, for which permission was granted and which was subsequently settled in the Claimant’s favour at the door of the court.
Family Barrister
Sarah has developed an expertise in family law, specialising in children law, including both private disputes over child arrangement orders and public / care proceedings. Through this, Sarah has been able to pursue her keen interest in crossover areas concerning children, their best interests and their interplay.
