Emma Foubister

Contact Emma: emmafoubister@matrixlaw.co.uk | +44 (0)20 7404 3447

Contact Emma's Practice Team (Team T): TeamT@matrixlaw.co.uk

Emma specialises in public law and human rights, environmental law, health and social care, media and information law, and employment law.

Public Law and Human Rights

Emma’s interests and experience span education, equality and discrimination, prison and police law (including parole board hearings), community care (including in the court of protection), social welfare, environment and inquests. She is a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Panel of Counsel.

• R (Saifullah) v Secretary of State for Defence, R (Noorzai) v Secretary of State for Defence (ongoing): Representing bereaved family members challenging failure to conduct an Article 2 compliant investigation into the killing of their relatives by British special forces in Afghanistan (led by Ben Jaffey KC, Eddie Craven KC, Helen Law KC and Jessica Jones).
• R (TPL1) v Secretary of State for Defence [2025] EWHC 1729 (Admin): judicial review of the “Triples Review” of ARAP relocation applications (led by Tom de la Mare KC).
• Police and Crime Commissioner for West Midlands v Secretary of State for Home Department [2024] (CA): urgent appeal relating to the quashing of the decision to abolish the role of the PCC due to flaws with the public consultation (led by James Stansfeld).
• R (I & others) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2023] EWHC 3207 (Admin): judicial review of the failure of the Child Maintenance Service to collect and enforce child maintenance payments due, including an Article 14 ECHR claim based on the discriminatory treatment of victims of domestic violence (led by Zoe Leventhal KC).
• WA v Director of Legal Aid Casework and Lord Chancellor [2023]: judicial review relating to the LAA’s application of the Civil Legal Aid (Financial Resources and Payment for Services) Regulations 2013 (led by Chris Buttler KC).
• SH v Norfolk County Council [2020] EWHC 3436 (Admin): judicial review of the imposition of charges on the claimant for care, and the compatibility of the charging regime with Article 8/14 ECHR (led by Zoe Leventhal).
• GR v Director of Legal Aid Casework [2020] EWHC 3140 (Admin): judicial review relating to the LAA’s application of the Civil Legal Aid (Financial Resources and Payment for Services) Regulations 2013 (led by Chris Buttler).
• MQ, YS and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020]: obtained an interim injunction to stop a charter flight to Spain where there was a real risk that the individuals deported would be subject to inhuman and degrading treatment on their return (led by Chris Buttler).
• A challenge by a family seeking an inquest into the death of their son who had an unusual medical condition but died of natural causes.
• R v ZA (IAC) [2019]: appeal to the upper tribunal in relation to deportation to Iraq.
• R (Buxton) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2018] EWHC 2196 (Admin): whether the cap on Access to Work awards amounts to disability discrimination (assisting Sarah Hannett).
• R (on the application of DSD) v Parole Board of England and Wales [2018] 3 WLR 829: whether the Parole Board’s decision to direct the release of John Worboys (black cab rapist) from prison was rational (assisting Phillippa Kaufmann QC and Nick Armstrong).
• Junior counsel to the EHRC investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party.
• Disability discrimination appeal in the FTT about a decision to permanently exclude a child from school.

Before joining Matrix, Emma represented claimants in immigration proceedings with the Penn Law Transnational Legal Clinic and acted for claimants in the Social Security Tribunal for the Free Representation Unit. She also provided pro bono representation to parents appealing against the permanent exclusion of their child from school with the School Exclusion Project.

Environmental Law

Emma acts for and advises a range of individuals and environmental organisations. Recent cases include:

• Oceana UK v Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero [2025] EWHC 3146 (Admin): challenge to the lawfulness of the appropriate assessments for oil and gas licensing (led by Zoe Leventhal KC and Kate Cook).
• King Berebon v Shell Petroleum Co of Nigeria Ltd [2025]: claim that Shell’s clean-up of 2008 oil spills fails to meet adequate remediation standards (led by Jeremy Hyam KC and Joanna Buckley).
• Wildlife and Countryside Link v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [2024]: judicial review of failure to review the Environmental Improvement Plan following a critical report by the OEP in relation to environmental targets (led by David Wolfe KC).
• ClientEarth v Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero [2024] EWHC 995 (Admin): judicial review of the revised strategy to meet net zero on the basis that it failed to account for the delivery risk of policies and proposals (led by Jessica Simor KC).
• Wild Justice v Ofwat [2023] EWCA Civ 28: judicial review of Ofwat’s failure to discharge its monitoring and enforcement obligations in relation to the discharge of untreated sewage into rivers and other waterways (led by David Wolfe KC).
• ClientEarth v Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [2022] EWHC 1841 (Admin): judicial review of the Net Zero Strategy and failure to comply with duties under the Climate Change Act 2008 (led by Jessica Simor KC).
• Bodo Community v Shell Petroleum Development Co of Nigeria: Advising claimants in proceedings concerning extensive pollution in Rivers State, Nigeria.
• Advising on strategic compensation and fisheries management.
• Strategic work on challenges to the use of lead shot.
• Advising on challenging the issuing of badger culling licences without consultation.

Emma is the co-author of the chapters on Climate Change in Garners Environmental Law.

Community Care and Social Welfare

Emma has significant experience in community care judicial reviews (including challenges under the Care Act and the Children’s Act) and cases which overlap with the jurisdiction of the Court of Protection. Recent cases include:

• Covid Inquiry (ongoing): representing John’s Campaign, Care Rights UK and Patients Association in Modules 2b, 3 and 6 of the Inquiry.
• KA v London Borough of Southwark [2025]: secured urgent interim care venue for brothers with complex needs.
• ODN v Merton [2023] 11 WLUK 37: claim for urgent interim relief in relation to unlawful care package for girl with complex needs.
• RW v Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead [2023] EWHC 1449 (Admin): judicial review of the local authority’s failure to include certain items as disability-related expenditure in calculating care charges.
• JE v London Borough of Southwark [2022]: secured urgent interim relief under section 19 Care Act 2014.
• CG v West Sussex County Council [2021]: judicial review of the decision to charge the claimant for care based on a flawed financial assessment and an unlawful policy of calculating disability related expenses.
• Glatter v NHS Herts Valley CCG [2021] EWHC 12 (Admin): judicial review relating to a failure to consult the public on hospital redevelopments (led by David Wolfe KC).
• SH v Norfolk County Council [2020] EWHC 3436 (Admin): judicial review of the imposition of charges on the claimant for care, and the compatibility of the charging regime with Article 8/14 ECHR (led by Zoe Leventhal). Emma has been instructed in a number of challenges to similar policies in other local authority areas.
• R (Raja) v Redbridge LBC [2020] ACD 92: judicial review of a local authority’s failure to provide two severely disabled brothers with urgent interim care under the Care Act 2014.
• A v UK Research and Innovation [2020]: judicial review relating to UKRI’s method for allocating funding for medical research and the lack of funding for mental health research (led by David Wolfe KC).

Media and Information Law

Emma practises in media and information law, with particular expertise in defamation, privacy, data protection, breach of confidence and reporting restrictions. Recent cases include:

• Advice for Open Rights Group on the Online Safety Bill (led by Dan Squires KC).
• CWD v Nevitt [2020] EWHC 1289 (QB): defamation claim arising from the #metoo movement (led by Catrin Evans KC).
• Rayner v Seabourne-Hawkins [2020] EWHC 2895 (QB): sole counsel in slander trial.
• Hijazi v Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson) [2020] EWHC 934 (QB): defamation claim brought by Syrian refugee against far-right provocateur (led by Ian Helme).
• Rudd v Bridle [2019] EWCA 893 (QB): data protection claim made on behalf of leading cancer doctor against a lobbyist for the asbestos industry who tried to get him struck off by the General Medical Council (led by Guy Vassall-Adams KC).

She has a particular interest in the overlap between media and information law, and public law and crime.  As a trainee, she was involved in a challenge to data sharing between the NHS and the Home Office and an appeal in the information tribunal relating to confidential communications between the CPS and the Requesting State in extradition proceedings.

Emma has worked with the in-house legal team of a national newspaper and is a contributor to media law blog Inforrm.

Employment Law

Emma regularly appears in the ET and EAT in multi-day proceedings. While she has a particular interest in proceedings concerning discrimination, her experience also spans unfair dismissal, redundancy, TUPE transfers, whistleblowing and wage-related disputes. Her advisory work has included employment disputes in overseas territories.

Recent instructions in the EAT, High Court and Court of Appeal include:

• McQueen v General Optical Council [2023] EAT 36: claim for unfavourable treatment because of something arising in consequence of disability under section 15 of the Equality Act 2010.
• Benyatov v Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd [2022] EWHC 135 (QB); [2023] ICR 534 (Court of Appeal), a claim for $86million for breach of contract and negligence brought by former investment banker against his employer in respect of the consequences of his prosecution and conviction while working for the bank in Romania (led by Paul Goulding KC and Paul Skinner).
• Dobson v Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust [2021] IRLR 729, 2021 I.C.R. 1699: acting for Working Families in an important EAT judgment about the role of judicial notice in an indirect sex discrimination claim brought by a nurse challenging the requirement to work irregular weekend shifts (led by Claire Darwin).
• Okedina v Chikale [2019] EWCA Civ 1393: whether an employee, who unknowingly worked when they had no right to work in the UK, was barred from bringing contractual claims by statutory illegality (led by Laura Prince).
• Brown v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2019] EWCA Civ 1724: whether QOCS applies to data protection, human rights and privacy claims arising out of treatment by an employer (led by Claire Darwin).

She was also instructed in proceedings relating to holiday pay under EU law (led by Tom Linden QC).

Other Experience

Before joining Matrix, Emma was a Court of Appeal Judicial Assistant to the Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Beatson. She worked for a number of charities, including JUSTICE, INQUEST, Reprieve, Penn Law International Human Rights Advocates and CACIT (Togo).

Qualifications and Awards

Emma holds a first class degree in Law with French Law from the University of Oxford and a certificate in French Law from Panthéon-Assas University. She was awarded the Worsley prize for academic performance and contribution to Mansfield College. She was a Dean’s scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Law School where she was awarded a Distinction in her LLM.

Emma completed her legal education at City Law School, where she obtained an Outstanding on the BPTC. She won the Human Rights Lawyers Association Judicial Review Competition, judged by Lord Justice Longmore.

Emma is a member of Lincoln’s Inn, which has awarded her Hardwicke and Denning Scholarships, and a Buchanan prize for exam performance. She was awarded a Phoenicia scholarship by the Bar European Group.

Memberships

Emma is a member of the Administrative Law Bar Association (ALBA), the Human Rights Lawyers Association (HRLA) and the Bar Human Rights Committee (BHRC).

Languages

English (native) and French (proficient)

Publications

Co-author with Sir Jack Beatson of “Public Law in the UK after Brexit” in The Frontiers of Public Law, Edited by Jason NE Varuhas and Shona Wilson Stark, 2020

Co-author with Toby Fisher of Climate Change chapters in Garner’s Environmental Law (Lexis Nexis Butterworths)

Emma is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. In order to provide legal services to her clients, including advice and representation services, Emma needs to collect and hold personal data. This includes her client’s personal data and the personal data of others who feature in the matter upon which she is instructed. To read Emma’s privacy notice in full, please see here.

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