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About the author
Philippa Southwell is Managing Director of Southwell & Partners, a leading law firm specialising in criminal, modern slavery and regulatory law. She was called to the bar of England and Wales in 2009 as a Barrister, having cross qualified, she practices as a Solicitor Advocate. Prior to founding Southwell and Partners, she established the human trafficking and modern slavery department at Birds Solicitors. Philippa is also Managing Director of the Human Trafficking & Modern Slavery Expert Directory. She lectures extensively both domestically and throughout the Middle East and Europe. Philippa advises companies on modern slavery and human rights compliance. She was called to give evidence as a legal expert in the Home Affairs Select Committee Modern Slavery Inquiry. Philippa has acted on several hundred modern slavery cases and was one of first lawyers in the country to raise a s45 modern slavery defence. She has acted in most of the significant and leading cases involving victims of modern slavery and forced criminality of the last decade and has acted at all levels, representing the interests of victims of trafficking, including the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights. She has been highly commended by the Law Society who have described her as ‘a fierce criminal defence solicitor, who specialises in defending and representing victims of human trafficking who have been prosecuted for criminal offences. She is a leading criminal solicitor in this field’.Michelle specialises in judicial review, human rights and civil claims against public authorities. She has acted at all levels, representing the interests of victims of trafficking, including at the Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights. As described by Chambers and Partners: Michelle is "Very highly regarded for her expertise on immigration detention and trafficking cases. With an established track record of being at the forefront of trafficking case law, she is renowned for her handling of cases where children and vulnerable witnesses are involved." Similarly by Legal 500, she is described as, ‘Highly intelligent, passionate and a creative thinker’. Michelle is regularly invited to attend and speak at expert roundtables and conferences concerning issues of trafficking. Michelle has been invited by the Council of Europe Expert body on Trafficking [GRETA] to train lawyers.Ben Douglas-Jones KC is a barrister at 5 Paper Buildings in London. He is also an attorney-at-law in Grenada, with rights of audience in the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal, a Deputy High Court Judge, Recorder of the Crown Court and Master of the Bench (Gray’s Inn). He specialises in human rights, human trafficking and modern slavery, appeals, complex fraud, homicide, serious crime and regulatory law, including consumer and intellectual property. His human rights and appellate practice has seen him appear in many recent leading cases concerning human trafficking and refugees, and human rights in financial crime, including special court cases before three successive Lords Chief Justices. Chambers and Partners describes him as “An extremely talented barrister with exceptionally broad knowledge of the law, who can juggle the preparation of multiple complex cases concurrently.” Ben co-wrote the Crown Prosecution Service and Law Society Guidance on human trafficking and immigration crime and Judicial College Guidance on trafficking. He is a contributing editor of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery Law and Practice, Southwell, Brewer and Douglas-Jones KC, Bloomsbury Professional, 2018 (1st Ed) and 2020 (2nd ed) and an author of Blackstone’s Guide to the Consumer Rights Act 2015. He provides domestic and international training on human rights in the context of judicial, practitioner and regulatory compliance training and has provided evidence to governmental committees on trafficking and transparency of supply chains. Ben has been a Gray’s Inn advocacy trainer for many years.
