Verity Bell

Pupillage

Verity has acted for local authorities and housing associations in a range of County Court housing law matters. She has drafted pleadings involving disrepair and claims involving the Equality Act 2010, including section 15 disability discrimination and the public sector equality duty.

Verity assisted Estelle Dehon in R(on the application of Misbourne Environmental Protection Ltd) v Environment Agency [2021] EWHC 3094 (Admin), in which permission for judicial review of a consent granted to construct a 16-kilometre twin tunnel as part of HS2 was successfully resisted. As a pupil, she further assisted with the appeal to the Court of Appeal of the decision in R(on the application of Finch) v Surrey County Council [2020] EWHC 3566 (Admin), which concerned whether the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 required an environmental impact assessment to assess greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the future combustion of fossil fuels produced by the development.

Other planning law experience Verity developed during pupillage includes assisting Ryan Kohli in the drafting of summary grounds of defence in a section 289 planning enforcement appeal in the High Court.

Verity also assisted Estelle Dehon at the public inquiry considering the proposal to expand Bristol Airport, as well as at the public inquiry concerning the called-in application for a new coal mine in West Cumbria.

Verity assisted Ryan Kohli with the drafting of summary grounds of resistance in an immigration judicial review concerning an application for a residence card under the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016.

Verity has been supervised by Robert Williams since December 2021.

Professional Background

Prior to starting her pupillage, Verity was the Judicial Assistant to the Vice-President of the Court of Protection (Mr Justice Hayden) in the High Court.

She has also worked as a research assistant at the Law Commission of England and Wales, as a teaching fellow in law at University College London, and as an assistant legal officer at an employment and social welfare charity.

Education

Verity read law at New College, Oxford before completing her LLM (with distinction) at University College London. She was awarded Bedingfield and residential scholarships by Gray's Inn to complete the Bar course.