Nancy Collins

England

Bindmans LLP · Nancy is a partner in our Public Law and Human Rights team. Nancy specialises in public law challenges and complex civil litigation relating to human rights claims. She has particular interest in representing vulnerable individuals who have suffered injustice at the hands of the State and holding public bodies to account for decisions which impact upon minority groups. Nancy was shortlisted in 2017 for the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year award in public law. Nancy has advised legal aid firms in a successful challenge to the civil legal aid procurement process. She also acts for individuals and educational bodies on decisions made by the Office for Students and the Office for the Independent Adjudicator, with particular focus on discrimination claims. She has advised early years education providers in relation to government funding arrangements. Nancy has represented individuals who have suffered mistreatment by local authorities, privately run care homes, mental health authorities, and within the immigration and criminal justice system. She has experience of public law challenges, complex group actions, third party interventions inquests and public inquiries. She represents Baroness Longfield (the previous Children’s Commissioner) in the Covid Inquiry. Nancy has experience of litigation in the domestic courts and also the European Court of Human Rights. She acted for the applicants in Edwards v UK 14 March 2002, a case which helped to establish the parameters of an Article 2 (the right to life) compliant investigation. Nancy represented a large number of bereaved, survivors and residents in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. She also acted in the civil claims arising from the Grenfell Tower fire, between 2018 and 2024. Her experience of group litigation also derives from having represented a number of Hillsborough families in their claims for misfeasance in public office, arising from the actions of South Yorkshire Police and West Midlands Police following the Hillsborough tragedy in 1989. Nancy has experience of environmental law; from 2023–2024 she acted for Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debra, whose daughter, Ella, died of asthma in 2013. Ella was the first person in the world to have air pollution listed as a cause of death on her death certificate. In 2018 she acted for Humanists UK in their intervention in the case of Noel Conway and his claim for the right to die. Nancy acted for Kristina O’Connor in her judicial review arising from the handling of her complaint about the inappropriate actions of a police officer. The Court of Appeal found that the Police Misconduct Panel had acted unlawfully in issuing the officer with a final written warning. A further Panel hearing was held and the officer was dismissed. Nancy has represented bereaved families in inquests into deaths in care homes, mental health detention, police and prison custody. She has taught extensively on prison law. She has spoken at inquest law public law events. She contributed to the prison law update in LAG for many years and contributed two chapters to the text ‘Prisoners and the Law'.

England