Karen Doyle
Solicitor
About Karen Doyle
Karen joined Wilsons as a trainee solicitor and our first ever Justice First Fellow in partnership with Rainbow Migration, with whom she works for one day a week.
Prior to joining Wilsons, Karen spent 27 years as an immigrant rights and anti-racist activist before deciding to retrain as a solicitor. She gained substantial experience working with LGBT asylum seekers including supporting Ugandan Lesbian PN in her case to return to the UK after being removed in 2013 under the now unlawful fast-track procedure.
Alongside LGBT asylum, Karen also has extensive experience of working with immigration detainees, in particular those subject to deportation on charter flights. Her work on the deportation of Jamaican nationals via charter flight gained significant media attention in the UK and in Jamaica . She has worked on strategic litigation including four cases which sought to challenge the exclusion of Windrush descendants from the Windrush Scheme.
Professionally Karen’s background is as a mental health and disability adviser and support worker in the education and charity sector. In 2016, as a mature student she graduated from the University of the Arts London with a BA Fina Art Sculpture, Frist Class Honours.
In 2019 Karen decided to qualify as a solicitor after many years of witnessing the difficulties people faced securing good quality, ethical immigration representation. She obtained her Post Graduate Diploma in Law from London Southbank University in 2021 with distinction. She went on to complete her Legal Practice Course at the University of Westminster in 2023, also achieving a Distinction.
While studying at the University of Westminster Karen volunteered in the Immigration Clinic at the Law School’s Free Legal Advice Clinic, she went on to become a caseworker in the immigration casework clinic. She then obtained a staff role as Student Experience Coordinator where she supervised 150 student volunteers across 6 free legal advice clinics. In 2023, driven by a passion to expose students to the wealth of opportunities in the social Justice Sector, Karen organised the first ever Social Justice Law Fair .
Interests: singing, wild swimming, musical theatre and fantasy fiction