Imogen Townley

About Imogen Townley

Imogen Townley read Arabic and Modern Middle Eastern History at the University of Manchester, and graduated in 2013 with First Class Honours. One year of her undergraduate degree course was spent studying in Cairo, Egypt.

She joined Wilsons in 2014 and qualified as a solicitor in 2018. She is a Supervising Senior Caseworker under the Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme and a public law supervisor, and she leads a dynamic team of eight.

Imogen specialises in immigration-related judicial review applications and asylum law. She regularly accepts instructions in urgent removal cases and has developed considerable experience assisting people detained under immigration powers, bringing applications for interim relief and challenges to curfew decisions. Her work preventing unlawful removals has been covered in the national press . In 2023 she was invited to address practitioners at PLP’s Advanced Judicial Review conference where she gave her analysis on new legislative provisions affecting litigation.

Following Imogen’s involvement in the ground-breaking work the firm undertook challenging the Home Office’s unlawful plans to remove asylum seekers to Rwanda, Imogen was profiled as a lawyer in the news and interviewed before a large audience on Matt Chorley’s Times Radio show.

Imogen is now co-ordinating the firm’s work on the France-UK returns Treaty and was interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, the ITV morning news, and by Carole Walker on Times Radio. Her interviews were picked up by the national press, including the BBC , Independen t and Guardian .

Imogen has a particular interest in assisting victims of trafficking to be properly identified; she regularly comments publicly on governmental approach to protection of trafficking victims and her broad-ranging practice is well-placed to address clients’ grievances across varied areas of law. Her Article 4 ECHR work includes challenging failures by the police and other public authorities to investigate trafficking, as well as accommodation and support-related public law challenges. Imogen’s dedication to justice for trafficking victims is also reflected in her work on the important case of R (MN & IXU) v SSHD (AIRE Centre and Anti-Slavery International intervening) , a landmark appeal to the Court of Appeal in the area of human trafficking which was reported in the national press . The appeal challenged a negative Conclusive Grounds decision and resulted in an important judgment regarding the assessment of credibility in trafficking claims and the correct standard of proof to be applied. Not only was this a great outcome for Imogen’s client IXU, the impact of the judgment is widely significant; it will help vulnerable people be more easily identified as trafficked persons, which in turn will enable them to gain protections which they are entitled to.

Imogen also conducts statutory appeals before the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal, with a particular focus on complex deportation appeals. The Legal 500 praised her ability for ‘…taking apparently hopeless cases and turns them into winners.’ She is noted as an ‘Star Associate’ in Chambers & Partners, which reports that she ‘”…really fights to the bitter end for her clients. She just tries to really explore every aspect of the case, no matter how difficult it is.”’

Imogen volunteers at the New North London Synagogue (NNLS) destitute asylum seekers drop-in service. She also sits as an expert panel member for the Strategic Legal Fund .

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Interests: film and fiction, recipes, travel.