Lizan Ghafoor
Senior Associate and Team Leader
About Lizan Ghafoor
Lizan joined Wilson Solicitors in February 2023. She is a public law and human rights solicitor with experience across community care, housing, and education matters. She acts for individuals in challenges to the decisions and actions of public authorities, with experience in both judicial review claims and civil actions against public bodies.
Lizan has particular expertise in judicial review challenges, including claims issued at short notice and within expedited timeframes. Her practice focuses on migrants’ rights and the rights of vulnerable groups, including LGBT+ asylum seekers, and children and young people.
She has experience in strategic litigation concerning the treatment and accommodation of asylum seekers and migrants, including challenges relating to the use of the Bibby Stockholm barge and the placement of LGBT+ asylum seekers in large-scale contingency accommodation. Her work also includes a successful policy challenge concerning the criminalisation of children arriving in the UK via small boat crossings.
Lizan works closely with NGOs and support organisations representing migrants, asylum seekers, and individuals with no recourse to public funds. She has an interest in cases involving systemic unfairness and unlawful treatment by public authorities.
Alongside her practice, Lizan has undertaken voluntary and trustee roles focused on migrants’ rights and social justice, including with New Life Organisation for Anfal Women in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan, supporting women affected by genocide, and with The Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens , a charity focusing directly on children and young adults’ rights to British citizenship.
She is also a mentor through the Lawyers Who Care mentorship scheme, supporting aspiring and early-career lawyers. Lizan is a Trustee of The Care Right Project , supporting adults with no recourse to public funds and care needs in obtaining local authority support under the Care Act 2014, and sits on the Legal Reference Panel for Centre for Women’s Justice .
Interests: trying new food, live music and netball