Zoe McCallum

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

Contact Zoe's Practice Team (Team X): TeamX@matrixlaw.co.uk

Zoe practices media, data and public law. In media and data, many of Zoe’s clients are businesses, high net worth individuals, journalists, media organisations and people covered by the press. In her public law practice, Zoe frequently represents modern slavery survivors, asylum seekers, bereaved families and prisoners.

Media and Data law

Zoe is listed as a “leading junior” in Defamation & Privacy law in the Legal 500 and as “up and coming” in Chambers & Partners.

Zoe acts in the full range of data, privacy, defamation and harassment actions.  Her work as a junior includes acting in:

• The Vardy v Rooney “Wagatha Christie” case (led by Hugh Tomlinson KC and Sara Mansoori KC);
• The Daedone v BBC defamation, privacy and data litigation (led by Sara Mansoori KC);
• MTVIL phone hacking litigation for six years (led by Anthony Hudson KC);
• For a tech company defending group UKGDPR/DPA litigation following a cyberattack on their servers (led by Lorna Skinner KC);
• RAK-related breach of confidence litigation (led by Adrian Waterman KC).

Zoe’s unled work includes:

• Acting for claimants in a range of data actions against public authorities (often involving a crossover between a data/privacy breach and concurrent human rights act proceedings);
• Acting for high net worth clients bringing data and defamation claims against financial risk databases;
• Obtaining urgent injunctive relief on behalf of two journalists at The Times and The Sunday Times in a case against a former source;
• Acting for Times Newspapers Ltd and Telegraph Media Group successfully overturning reporting restriction;
• Representing a vulnerable defendant in setting aside judgment in a harassment and defamation claim against her, arising from her #metoo post about a musician.

Zoe has a special interest in the legal implications of the development in artificial intelligence. She has been discussing, thinking and (on occasion) speaking about AI and law issues for the last three years.

Zoe draws upon her experience prior to joining the Bar, where she worked in a cross-party political office and was involved in the reform of defamation law, the politics of press regulation and the passage of the Investigatory Powers Act. For the first 8 years of her career at the Bar, and alongside litigation, Zoe regularly provided pre-publication advice to national print and broadcast news.

Immigration, Asylum and Trafficking

Zoe is recognised as a “leading junior” in Immigration law in the Legal 500.

Zoe frequently represents modern slavery and trafficking survivors in judicial reviews challenging detention, deportation and NRM decisions and is strongly committed to strategic litigation in this area of law.

Zoe has acted in key judicial review claims challenging government policy, including

• XY (ruling that the Secretary of State ran an unlawful secret policy which frustrated the rights of confirmed victims of modern slavery to leave pending resolution of their asylum claims);
• KTT (ruling that confirmed victims of modern slavery are entitled to leave pending resolution of their asylum claims, upheld in the Court of Appeal);
• VT & Os (ruling that asylum seekers stranded on Diego Garcia were entitled legal aid);
• KA & Os (the case which ended the blanket biometrics barrier preventing entry clearance applications by families of British nationals left behind following UK withdrawal from Afghanistan);
• DA & Os (the case that brought an end to a secret asylum screening interview policy which failed trafficking victims during the Covid pandemic);
• NN and LP (the case which ended to 45-day support limit for confirmed victims of slavery; and led to its replacement with a needs-based assessment of entitlement to support).

Zoe also accepts instructions in complex asylum, Article 8, deportation and family reunion appeals before the IAT and applications for injunctive relief against unlawful detention and removal.

Inquests and Public Inquiries

Since the start of 2025, Zoe’s public law practice increasingly involves inquests and public inquiries, including:

• The inquest into the death of Brian Ringrose in 2025, at which the jury returned a conclusion of unlawful killing (manslaughter) by a police officer and neglect by healthcare staff and three other police officers at the scene (acting for Brian’s family);
• The Cranston Inquiry in 2025 into the tragedy on 24 November 2021, when at least 27 migrants, including children, lost their lives crossing the Channel in a small boat (acting for bereaved families and one survivor);
• The Inquiry into the treatment of detainees at Manston Short Term Holding facility in 2022 (acting for a group of survivors);
• The Public Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (the exploitation of children in Catholic schools).

Zoe is recognised as a “up and coming” in Administrative & Public law in Chambers & Partners.

Zoe was junior counsel in a successful Strasbourg case challenging the compatibility of the Human Rights Act with Article 13 ECHR (SW v United Kingdom [2021] 73 EHRR 18).

Life Before the Bar

Zoe worked in politics and law reform for five years before coming to the Bar. From 2013-2016, she worked in a cross-party political office on issues including the funding of safe abortions for rape victims in armed conflict and reform of investigatory powers and defamation law. In 2012, Zoe worked for an independent commission established by the (then) coalition government to investigate the case for a UK Bill of Rights. From 2010-2011, she worked in New Delhi alongside grassroots disability rights activists, towards a federal bill implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Life away from the Bar

Away from the Bar, Zoe hikes and swims and loves to dance. Before moving to London, Zoe worked and lived for periods in Russia, France, India and Vanuatu. She speaks rusty bislama, rusty french and some hindi.

Publications

Zoe has drafted op-eds for the national press (The Times, Guardian, Telegraph), speeches for politicians and written evidence submitted to parliamentary committees.

Zoe worked with Lord Lester of Herne Hill and drafted the first cut of Five Ideas To Fight For: How Our Freedom is Under Threat and Why it Matters (Oneworld, 2016). The book charts the evolution of the legal protections given to the rule of law, human rights, equality, free speech and privacy in the UK; and the ways in which those protections are under threat. It was endorsed by Mary Robinson (former UN Commissioner for Human Rights and President of Ireland), Harold Koh (former legal advisor to President Obama), Sir Sydney Kentridge KC, Baroness Helena Kennedy KC; and positively reviewed, including by Lord Pannick KC in The Times. It was cited by the UK Supreme Court in the majority ruling in PJS v NGN [2016] UKSC 26.

Education

Zoe has a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) and an MPhil degree in International Relations and was awarded a full departmental scholarship for the duration of graduate study. Her MPhil thesis (for which she was awarded a distinction) concerned the politics of international law on torture and specialist counter-terrorism prisons. Zoe gained a distinction in the Graduate Diploma in Law and was graded ‘Outstanding’ in the Bar Professional Training Course. Lincolns Inn awarded her Hardwicke and Lord Denning scholarships and the Buchanan Prize for exam performance.

Memberships

Zoe is a Trustee of the Alliance for Lawyers at Risk and a member of the Bar Human Rights Committee (BHRC), the Human Rights Lawyers Association (HRLA), the Immigration Law Practitioners Association (ILPA) and JUSTICE.

Zoe is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. In order to provide legal services to her clients, including advice and representation services, Zoe 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 Zoe’s privacy notice in full, please see here.

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