Trish D’Souza
Trish is a Senior Associate in our Public Law and Regulatory team. She regularly advises regulators and public bodies on lawfully exercising their powers and decision-making processes. She also has significant experience as a legal advisor at Fitness to Practise hearings.
Trish works with local authorities, government departments, banking organisations and commercial organisations like higher education bodies, further education corporations and Academy Trusts. She’s acted in several high-profile judicial review claims: challenging government consultation processes, the withdrawal of sponsorship for international students and safeguarding policies.
Trish also acts for large further and higher education bodies on a range of student or funding disputes, inspection challenges and apprentice/subcontracting claims. She also undertakes Fitness to Practice work, advising misconduct panels convened on behalf of regulators in the Education and Gambling sectors.
Trish has a keen interest in special educational or additional learning needs, and has appeared as an expert contributor on Local Government CPD training videos for Legal Network Television (University of Law).
I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for the excellent service you’ve provided to date. It’s been a revelation that you have been so easily accessible and we have not had to chase for responses, also we are pleased with the excellent quality of your work which is obviously based on a good understanding of the issues we have faced.
Andrew Gibbs, Vice Principal, Bridgend College
- Successfully settling a care home closure judicial review brought by 30 care home residents against a Midland based local authority.
- Successfully defending a Higher Education body against multiple judicial review challenges over three years in relation to its decision to withdraw over 100 international students from a course of study. Multiple costs orders were granted in the client’s favour.
- Successfully representing a Higher Education body in proceedings against the Home Office over the restriction of the terms of practice of animal test license, granted to a leading stroke research academic.
- Advising a misconduct panel convened on behalf of the Teaching Regulation Agency on novel areas of law relating to expert evidence, media intervention, and cross examination on a multi-defendant case relating to a high-profile boarding school.
- Advising a group of pay day loan lenders on the judicial review strategy to employ when seeking further consultation by the Consumer Markets Authority on its guidance on fair debt practices.
- Successfully pursuing judicial review proceedings for a group of solar energy developers seeking to challenge the Government’s unlawful consultation on the reduction of subsidies for projects over a specific capacity.
- Regularly advising a large university in Wales on student complaints relating to race discrimination and breach of contract.
- Advising a high-profile Further Education college and associated Academy Trust on its response to an investigation by the Education and Skills Funding Agency over alleged financial malpractice.
- Advising a large Further Education provider on its strategy for terminating several subcontracts for Apprenticeship delivery, including insolvency procedure and debt recovery.
- Handled an investigation, and all claims arising, for Cardiff City Football Club. The investigation into serious bullying and safeguarding allegations, raised against a high-profile coach, attracted significant media attention at the time.
- Retained by the General Counsel team of our own regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority to advise on ad hoc regulatory and public law issues.
- Advising the Gambling Commission on a host of regulatory matters.
- Advising the Welsh Language Commissioner on a successful strategy to intervene in high profile judicial review proceedings challenging school re-organisation proposals against a Welsh Council.
- Advising on the strategy for conducting interviews with an independent investigator and prepared written defence documents, for the former Chair of the Welsh National Opera, against complaints of impropriety and sexual/age discrimination from a fellow Board member.
- Public bodies powers and decision making
- Regulatory law
- Consultation procedure
- Statutory interpretation
- Funding disputes
- Judicial review
- Regulatory law
- Freedom of information and data protection
- Risk and reputation management
- Defamation
- Investigations
Career
- Senior Associate, Capital Law Limited (Sep 2018 – present)
- Senior Associate, Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP (Oct 2007 – Aug 2018)
- Trainee Solicitor, Fisher Meredith LLP (Sep 2005 – Aug 2007)
- Paralegal, Turpin & Miller Solicitors (Oct 2002 – Aug 2004)
Education
- Eversheds Sutherland: Certificate in Litigation (2008)
- College of Law Guildford: LPC (2004 – 2005)
- College of Law Guildford: Postgraduate Diploma in Law (2001 – 2002)
- University of Wales, Swansea: BA Classics (1997 – 2000)
Memberships / Trustee Positions
- The Law Society of England and Wales
- Chair of BAME Committee, Cardiff and District Law Society