Kirsten Powrie
Senior Associate and Team Leader
About Kirsten Powrie
Kirsten graduated from Sydney University, Australia, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Anthropology & Art History. She completed the Legal Practice Course with Distinction in 2015 at the London Metropolitan University.
Kirsten joined Wilsons in 2011 as a senior immigration caseworker. She has been a supervisor at Wilson’s since 2013 and qualified as a solicitor in 2015, having trained in immigration and public law. She is a supervising solicitor and accredited senior caseworker under the Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme, and leads a team of senior caseworkers, trainee and qualified solicitors specialising in immigration and public law work.
Prior to joining Wilsons, Kirsten worked as a team leader and senior caseworker at Refugee and Migrant Justice (formerly Refugee Legal Centre), during which time Kirsten volunteered for a year on sabbatical as a Trafficking Prevention Project Co-ordinator for a local NGO in Cambodia, specialising in children’s rights and protection from trafficking. She was also a project co-ordinator and legal officer for the Asylum Support Appeals Project.
Kirsten is an experienced specialist in immigration, asylum and human rights law, advising legally aided and private clients. She has worked extensively with highly vulnerable migrants, including victims of torture, victims of trafficking, serious mental and physical health issues, and children. Kirsten has a particular interest in assisting victims of trafficking and detained clients, on a range of asylum, immigration, and public law issues, and in related judicial review challenges.
Examples of Kirsten’s work can be seen in her cases of XYL v SSHD [2017] EWHC 773 (Admin) , successfully challenging the unlawful detention of a potential victim of trafficking under the Detained Asylum Casework process, of Q v Leicestershire County Council and the SSHD [2016] EWHC 2087 (Admin) , successfully challenging the Local Authority and the Home Office’s flawed age assessment of a young asylum seeker encountered in detention as an age disputed adult, and as an expert witness from her trafficking experience in R (O) v SSHD [2019] EWHC 148 (Admin) , challenging the lawfulness of excessive delay in the determination process for identifying victims of trafficking.
Currently Kirsten has been involved in a variety of judicial review challenges including delays in processing asylum claims, family reunion applications, or access to asylum support accommodation, unlawful detention (in the UK and within British Indian Overseas Territory), failure to investigate trafficking indicators, NRM public order disqualification decisions, and failure to grant VTS leave.
Interests: Hiking and travel.