Jonathan has a large practice in all areas of community care law (adults and children), healthcare, mental health and mental capacity law for both local authorities and individuals. Jonathan is rated by Chambers and Partners as the leading ranked junior for community care work. He is also highly ranked for Administrative & Public Law, Local Government Law and Education Law. He has acted in the most important recent cases, including R (KM) v Cambridgeshire CC (Supreme Court) and Westminster CC v SL (Supreme Court). This year he brought successful challenges to the government’s administration of its new benefit, Personal Independence Payments, in R (C and W) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and to local authority charging policies, in R (KM) v Northamptonshire CC. Jonathan has also recently acted in reported cases on care home funding disputes, age assessment disputes, mental capacity cases and SEN cases. He is a co-author of OUP’s new practitioner’s text Judicial Review: Principles and Procedure (2013) and edits the White Book.

Rebecca is regularly instructed by local authorities and persons lacking capacity (including through the Official Solicitor). 

Her cases often raise complex issues – including dealing with extreme hoarding cases, cases involving medical treatment, and cases involving contact with others including sexual contact.

She is often instructed to deal with matters related to an individual’s deprivation of liberty, including challenges under section 21A of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. 

Rebecca also has a busy Inquest and Inquiries practice, including large long-term projects such as the Covid Inquiry, in respect of which Rebecca has been instructed since 2022.

Rebecca has experience being instructed by central and local government in matters which cover varied and often high profile subject matter, regularly attracting media attention. 

In her Inquest work, Rebecca regularly takes instructions in respect of Inquests where the subject matter overlaps with other areas of her practice (e.g. the deaths of those with known or suspected mental health or mental capacity issues). 

Early on in her legal career, Rebecca worked as an in-house lawyer at the Government Legal Department, where she spent time in the Ministry of Defence dealing with Article 3 Inquests. She is now a member of the Attorney General’s C panel of counsel to the Crown.