Leila Ghahhary

Leila is a highly regarded international barrister with expertise spanning public, regulatory and international law. A formidable litigator, renowned for her tenacity, strategic acumen, precision judgment, and excellence in advocacy. Leila routinely acts in large scale, complex, high-profile matters of national significance where she provides legal advice and representation at the highest levels. Leila is consistently ranked by major professional guides as a leading top tier barrister.  

Recognized for her commanding and authoritative presence in court and depth of expertise in complex legal matters, she represents government departments, corporate entities, individuals and a variety of public and private organisations before a range of courts, tribunals and constitutional panels across a multitude of jurisdictions, legal areas and high-stakes disputes.  

Leila has an outstanding reputation in the field of public inquiries and inquests. She currently acts as Counsel for the UK Government’s Cabinet Office and No.10 Downing Street in the UK Covid19 Public Inquiry and recently acted as Counsel to Canada’s Foreign Interference Inquiry. Leila has also acted for the bereaved families in the Manchester Arena Inquiry, the UK Information Commissioner in relation to the Northern Ireland Renewable Heat Incentive Inquiry (‘Cash for Ash scandal’), as Counsel to the Gosport Independent Panel Inquiry, and in the Hillsborough Inquests which are the longest set of inquests in British history.

Leila’s extensive experience of acting in large complex regulatory cases, includes the largest ever UK trading standards prosecution against a group of UK energy companies and directors, in which Leila, along with other members of the prosecution team, received high praise from the trial judge for their management and conduct of this especially complex, voluminous and challenging case.

Leila’s international practice encompasses European law, public international law and international human rights. Her work has involved matters concerning ICJ proceedings, the application of universal jurisdiction and atrocity crimes. It also includes acting as the Senior Legal Advisor for an international NGO. Leila also undertakes pro-bono projects with international law and human rights organisations based in the UK, Canada, and USA.  

Leila is an accomplished leader with extensive experience of managing large scale complex legal matters, including public inquiries, regulatory investigations, and high-stakes litigation. She has led multidisciplinary teams—including lawyers, investigators, forensic experts, and analysts. With a strategic and solutions-focused approach, she skilfully directs the conduct of proceedings, ensuring meticulous case management, rigorous legal analysis, and seamless coordination among stakeholders to achieve exceptional results. 

Leila has been appointed onto several UK specialist counsel panels. Appointment to these exclusive panels are by a rigorous selection process, prestigious, and regarded as a mark of legal professional excellence. Namely: 

  • The UK Attorney General’s Panel of Counsel. Representing and advising the UK government on a range of public law and government matters.  
  • The UK Attorney General’s Panel of Specialist Regulatory Advocates. Providing advice and representation to the UK Health and Safety Executive, Environment Agency, Office of Rail and Road, Care Quality Commission, Office of Nuclear Regulation and Natural Resources Wales. 
  • The UK Equality and Human Rights Commission Panel of Counsel. Providing advice and representation to the Commission on matters relating to national and international equality, public and human rights law. 

In 2023, Leila completed her second Master of Laws with Honours at Columbia Law School in New York City, graduating with Kent Scholar status and having been awarded the Parker School Certificate of Achievement in International and Comparative Law. Leila’s scholarship was focused on Public International Law, Global Governance, and International Human Rights. Leila was also selected to undertake a leadership in law programme. Alongside her studies, Leila served as an editor for the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, as a Board Member for the Columbia Society of International Law and was also selected to undertake a UN Externship with UN Women: Peace and Security, during which she spent time working at UN Headquarters New York on matters relating to UN Women’s role on the Security Council. 

Prior to joining the UK independent Bar in 2012, Leila spent 10 years working in-house as a local government lawyer. The work Leila undertook in this role was varied, complex, voluminous and covered the whole range of common law, statutory and corporate functions of a government body in relation to a wide range of legal issues relevant to all departments and levels of seniority. Leila regularly conducted court proceedings on a wide range of public law, civil, criminal and regulatory matters, in all manner of courts and tribunals.

Chambers and Partners UK Bar 

  • “She is extremely good at getting to the crux of issues and she is very thoughtful and driven.” 2025 
  • “She gets to grip with the details very quickly.” 2025 
  • “The quality of Leila’s output is exceptional.” 2025 
  • “Leila Ghahhary is a skilled advocate who has represented both public authorities and the bereaved in numerous inquests and inquiries, including the Hillsborough inquests. She also appeared on the Gosport Independent Panel. Leila is good with clients and her written advice is really comprehensive. She is bright, thorough, meticulous and highly engaging.”  2024 
  • “She is a highly skilled advocate and has a commanding presence in court. She’s always thoroughly well prepared.” 2023 
  • “She has a very good presence when performing on her feet and she got on well with the client. She was very accessible and approachable, and the end result was really good.”  2023 
  • “Her attention to detail is fantastic and she is very proactive. She is also easy to get hold of.” 2022 
  • “Offers exceptional support, quickly grasps the key issues and complexities in the case and adopts a methodical and thorough approach.” 2022 
  • “A skilled advocate with excellent experience in this field. She has represented both public authorities and the bereaved in numerous high-profile inquests and inquiries, including the fresh Hillsborough inquests. She also appeared on the Gosport Independent Panel” 2021 
  • “I would not hesitate to recommend her as she is excellent with clients and has a commanding presence on her feet in court.” “’Leila Ghahhary is extremely bright, thorough and meticulous; her analytical skills are second to none, as is her knowledge of public and regulatory law.” “She is very sharp, delightful with solicitors and clients, and determined and fair in court. She’s also meticulously well prepared.” 2021 

Legal 500 UK Bar 

  • “Leila has excellent judgement and insight and is able to think through particularly difficult problems with ease and good humour. She is particularly skilled at being able to see the big picture in matters where it is often easy to get lost in granular detail, and she is also an absolute pleasure to work with, including under highly stressful and pressured conditions.” 2025 
  • “Leila’s written advice is comprehensive yet succinct and written in a way that is accessible to both lay and professional clients. She has a commanding courtroom presence and is clear in her oral argument and submissions; one of the go-to counsel for inquests operating on the Northern Circuit.” 2024 
  • “Leila is a superb leading junior in inquests and inquiries. She is a highly skilled advocate who presents well-reasoned arguments, captures the attention of the tribunal and always considers the bigger picture. She is meticulous in terms of approach and a fantastic team-player who will take on board the views of others.” 2023 
  • “Leila is incredibly approachable and communicative, and it is very easy to develop a positive working relationship with her. Her written and oral advice is both concise and comprehensive, and provided in a manner which is appropriate to the recipient, be that a lay or professional client. She is brilliant on her feet and has a commanding presence in court.”  2023 
  • “Leila is a fantastic addition to any team. Her attention to detail and knowledge of niche regulatory areas is worth its weight in gold. Leila is refreshingly hard working and gives masses of time and attention to any job” 2022 
  • “Leila’s attention to detail and thoroughness are outstanding. Leila is a fantastic team player and ensures that everyone’s view is considered. Leila’s view is invariably sensible and clear” 2022 
  • “A ‘commanding and authoritative presence on her feet’, Leila Ghahhary is also one to watch in this area of practice” 2021 
  • “Leila is an exceptional find! She has a background in local authority work which ideally suits some of the issues that arise in inquests and inquiries. Leila is an extremely competent advocate, compelling and impressive on her feet, always meticulously prepared and provides her clients with utmost confidence.” 2021 
  • “Leila is becoming a true expert in this field. Her background is superbly suited to the difficult and unusual regulations that appear in many cases. She is an absolute delight to work with and often has razor-like insight into complex cases. Her client care is second to none and she is always a real help.” 2021 
  • “She has good judgement and a commanding presence in court” 2020 

Expertise

Leila regularly acts in complex, high-profile public inquiries and inquests of national significance representing government departments, public and private organisations, individuals, and acting as Counsel to the Inquiry. 

With a long-standing track record of acting in these matters and described in the leading legal publications as a ‘go to counsel’ in this field, Leila brings a deep understanding of the legal, procedural, and strategic complexities involved. Leila’s multidisciplinary background spanning public, regulatory, commercial, civil, criminal and international law, allows her to approach each public inquiry or inquest with a broad perspective and sector-specific insight. This combination of experience means she provides enhanced, strategic, and effective representation at every stage, ensuring clients can navigate these processes with confidence. 

Consistently ranked as a top-tier leading lawyer and with two decades of experience, Leila has an outstanding reputation in this field. As one of the very few lawyers in Canada with extensive cross-border experience in this area, Leila also brings a unique international perspective to bear in these matters. 

Representative Cases 
  • Counsel to the UK Government Cabinet Office and No 10 Downing Street, in the ongoing UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry. An independent public inquiry established by the Prime Minister to examine the UK’s response to and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and learn lessons for the future. This Inquiry commenced in December 2021 and is ongoing.
  • Counsel to Canada’s Foreign Interference Inquiry. An independent public inquiry established to examine and assess any foreign interference in Canada’s democratic institutions and processes. The Inquiry was also asked to consider a parliamentary report which had accused sitting MPs in Canada of wittingly and unwittingly engaging in foreign interference. The Inquiry’s mandate was to examine: Any interference by China, Russia and other foreign states or non-state actors to confirm the integrity of and impacts on, Canada’s 43rd and 44th general elections at the national and electoral district levels; the flow of information to senior decision-makers and between Security and Intelligence bodies during the election periods that led up to the general elections, in the weeks following those periods, and actions taken in response; the capacity of the Government of Canada to detect, deter and counter any foreign interference directly or indirectly targeting Canada’s democratic processes. This inquiry involved consideration of thousands of items of highly sensitive classified material, the conduct of a national security review, investigatory interviews, in camera and public hearings and the production of an interim and final report. After 14 months of work, the Inquiry’s final report was published in February 2025.
  • Counsel to the bereaved families in the UK Manchester Arena Inquiry. An independent public inquiry, established by the UK Home Secretary to investigate the deaths of the victims of the 2017 Manchester Arena terrorist attack. The Inquiry’s work was ongoing for over three years and involved consideration of tens of thousands of items of evidence, including highly sensitive evidence from the UK’s intelligence services and counter terrorist national policing units, and conduct of public hearings spanning over 18 months. The Inquiry concluded in March 2023 with the publication of its third and final phase report.
  • Counsel to the UK Information Commissioner in relation to the Northern Ireland Renewable Heat Incentive Inquiry. Instructed by the Information Commissioner on matters relating to UK data protection law arising in the Northern Ireland Renewable Heat Incentive Inquiry (‘Cash for Ash’ scandal). An independent public inquiry established to investigate a controversial renewable heat incentive scheme, which involved allegations of fraud, maladministration, and data protection breaches. The controversy led to an investigation by the NI Public Accounts Committee, and a series of political disagreements, ending in the collapse of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Stormont in 2017. This Inquiry was ongoing for three years and concluded with the publication of its report in March 2020. 
  • Appointed by the UK Secretary of State for Health as Counsel to the Inquiry in the UK Gosport Independent Panel Inquiry.  An independent public inquiry established by the Secretary of State for Health, to investigate and report on historical events relating to the care, treatment, and suspicious deaths of patients of the Gosport War Memorial Hospital in Portsmouth, UK. The Panel’s work was ongoing for four years and the Panel’s report was published in June 2018. It received wide media national and international coverage. The issues and documents in this Inquiry were voluminous, varied, complex and sensitive. The number of patients and families involved were in the many hundreds and the number of documents which were under review were in the many hundreds of thousands. This inquiry required Leila to plan and implement a large-scale document review, manage, supervise and oversee the work of a team of barristers and numerous other professionals who were involved in this work, undertake legal research and provide advice, deal with matters of data protection and privilege, examine and analyse many hundreds of thousands of pages of documents relating to coronial, professional disciplinary, regulatory and criminal proceedings, present to the Panel on a regular basis and, significantly contribute to the writing of a report for submission to the Minister and for publication. After publication of the report, Leila continued to work with the Panel in handing over to a fresh police investigation which is ongoing. 
  • Counsel to the Assistant Chief Constable of West Midland’s Police in the UK Hillsborough Inquests touching the deaths of 96 men, women and children who lost their lives in the 1989 Hillsborough football stadium tragedy. These Article 2 ECHR jury inquests were unprecedented in scale and length. They began in March 2014 and after 2 years of evidence concluded in April 2016 with 96 verdicts. 
  • Leila represents the UK government in complex Article 2 ECHR inquests. Examples of this work include acting for the UK Home Office in a multi-week, multi-party jury inquest, touching the death of a person detained in an immigration detention centre and acting for the UK Ministry of Justice in a multi-week, multi-party jury inquest touching the death of a prisoner. 
  • Acting for a high school in an inquest touching the death of a student who took their own life at the end of a school day. 
  • Acting for a doctor in an inquest touching the death of a woman who died within days of her discharge from hospital and concerned the provision of care before and during her admission to hospital and the discharge decision. 

With two decades of experience in this area Leila brings significant public law expertise to any case. Leila routinely acts for government departments, corporate entities, individuals and a variety of public and private organisations before a range of courts, tribunals, and constitutional panels on a wide range of complex public law cases, providing advice and representation at the highest levels. 

In addition to her extensive public inquiry and inquests practice, Leila’s public law experience includes advising on the drafting of legislation, public consultations processes, and policy development; supporting and advising on decision making, acting in litigation – brought by and against government, public, professional disciplinary and regulatory bodies – judicial review, statutory appeals, and in administrative hearings before constitutional panels. 

Leila’s public inquiry work routinely engages an array of public law issues in multiple ways. Public inquiries operate at the intersection of government accountability, administrative law, and constitutional principles. They often investigate government actions, decisions, or systemic failures, ensuring that public authorities are held accountable. They are established under statutory frameworks e.g. Canada’s Inquiries Act or the UK’s Inquiries Act 2005, and follow statutory procedural requirements and administrative law principles, ensuring procedural fairness (natural justice) for those affected. Inquiry decisions can also be the subject of Judicial review. Inquiries generally engage constitutional and human rights protections, such as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and often require the weighing of public interest concerns e.g. national security, public safety, systemic reform, against individual rights e.g. reputational damage, self-incrimination, legal privilege. Public inquiries serve as a crucial mechanism in public law by ensuring government accountability, adherence to administrative law principles, protection of human rights, and public policy and legislative development. 

Leila has been appointed onto several UK specialist counsel panels including the elite Attorney General’s Panel of Counsel, representing and advising the government on a range of public law matters, and the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission panel of counsel, which provides advice and representation to the Commission on matters relating to equality, public and human rights law. 

Leila’s strength and depth of expertise in public law is rooted in a decade of working in house as a UK local government lawyer. This work was varied, complex, and covered the whole range of common law, statutory and corporate functions of government, across all departments, levels of seniority and areas of law – including, European, health and safety, environmental, food safety, trading standards, licensing, revenue, highways, housing, freedom of information, data protection, and social care and health. This work involved advising and representing the local authority across the full spectrum of public law including administrative and key decision-making, civil and regulatory litigation, judicial reviews, panel proceedings and on the implementation of various statutory regimes such as the Freedom of Information Act and Licensing Act. 

Representative Cases 
  • Acting in multiple large scale public inquiries which engage a wide array of public law issues for example, the Manchester Arena Inquiry in which Leila dealt with counter terrorism policy and legislative reforms both in submissions and in the examination of senior government officials.  
  • Acting for the UK Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in multiple appeals concerning the application of Personal Independence Payment assessments. 
  • Acting for a housing authority in a judicial review concerning homelessness provisions and decisions.
  • Advising a government investigation unit on the processes and procedures connected to the management of a National Anti-Fraud Network facility. 
  • Acting for a highway authority in a high value civil claim against a major UK utility company in respect of damage to highways during construction of a major shopping mall. 
  • Acting for the Association of Greater Manchester Local Authorities in respect of the Implementation of Taxi and Private Hire Minimum Standards and Conditions including providing advice on the drafting and implementation of a major consultation, policy, development and on minimum standards and conditions. This work formed part of the UK Department for Transport’s wider work to improve taxi and private hire licensing national standards. 
  • Acting for a housing authority in fully contested multi-defendant injunction proceedings concerning anti-social behaviour. This complex case engaged issues under the ECHR and resulted in injunctions containing powers of arrest. 
  • Acting for the UK Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in a deduction order appeal. 
  • Advising the UK Private Hire and Hackney Carriage trade and a Trade Union in relation to licence conditions connected to permits granted by a major UK airport. 
  • Acting for a prisoner in a judicial review concerning prison categorisation. 
  • Acting for a licensing authority in a multiday appeal hearing of a decision to revoke a premises licence due to noise nuisance and antisocial behaviour at a nightclub and restaurant. 
  • Acting for a revenue authority in a complex judicial review concerning the application of business rates to a business premises. 
  • Advising a licensing authority on the implementation of knowledge and language standards for taxi licensees following a public consultation and subsequent committee key decision to raise taxi licence standards. 
  • Representing a Sheesha business in a licensing hearing involving an action by the local authority to suspend its premises licence. 
  • Acting for an adult social care authority in relation to a direct payment scheme concerning persons who are in residential care and have appointed representatives for the purposes of administering their finances. This work included the need to advise on matters concerning suspected fraudulent activity. 
  • Acting for a defendant company in relation to planning enforcement proceedings and subsequent appeal relating to a listed (protected) building. 
  • Acting for a licensing authority in an appeal by the local taxi trade of a decision to refuse to licence a non-standard hackney carriage vehicle. The case involved issues of European and Human Rights Law. 
  • Acting for a defendant facing a multi-defendant application for a serious crime injunction, brought by a police authority. The final hearing was listed for five days. In this case the defendant was in custody for breaching an interim order and the Claimant Police Authority was seeking a heavily burdened and lengthy final injunction against him. This complex case involved arguments concerning ECHR article rights. 
  • Local Implementation of the UK Freedom of Information Act 2000 (2003 – 2012): The Act came into force in 2005 and required any arm of the State to disclose documents it holds to the public when requested to do so by a member of the public unless, the document meets one of the statutory exemptions. Leila was part of a team of lawyers responsible for designing, advising on and implementing local governance of the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and thereafter continuing to provide advice and representation on FOI requests and issues. 
  • Local Implementation of the UK Licensing Act 2003 (2003 – 2012): The Act came into force in November 2005 and overhauled the alcohol and entertainment licensing regime in the UK, transferring the administration and adjudication of licensing applications from the Courts to Local Government. Leila was part of a team of lawyers who were generally instructed to deal with licensing matters and responsible for the designing, advising on and implementing of local governance of the Licensing Act 2003 and thereafter continuing to provide advice to local licensing panels and represent the local authority in licensing appeals to the UK lower and higher courts. 
  • Equal Pay Act 1970 / European Equal Pay Directive Group Action (2006 – 2012): Broadly speaking, historical manual worker pay schemes were successfully challenged and this led to a nationwide action against local authorities across the UK. The impact resulted in a 10-year job evaluation process carried out in consultation with the unions, wide scale claims in the employment tribunal for backdated pay and pension contributions and, a resulting settlement project agreed with the unions for thousands of workers who were deemed to be affected and therefore entitled to pay and pension claims. Leila was part of a team of lawyers who assessed, negotiated, and settled thousands of claims for pay and pension contributions within the agreed terms of settlement. 
  • Local Implementation of the UK Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 (2009 – 2010): The Act introduced a variety of new powers for local authorities in relation to protecting the local environment. This included the power to make Dog Control Orders. Leila was instructed to write and implement the Dog Control Orders for a local authority. This involved the drafting of local legislation, reporting to the executive committee, dealing with public consultation and implementation of the Orders and the system of enforcement of the Orders. 

Leila has significant regulatory experience and is routinely instructed to act in large, complex regulatory investigations and prosecutions. 

With two decades of experience in this area Leila has a long track record of prosecuting and defending criminal regulatory proceedings and acting across all aspects of enforcement and administrative proceedings on a wide range of regulatory matters. 

Leila is highly sought-after in complex, high-profile multi-defendant cases to represent and advise government departments, regulatory bodies, public and private organisations, corporate entities, and individuals, before a range of courts, tribunals, and administrative panels. Such proceedings ordinarily involve large volumes of material, highly technical issues and the need to navigate specialist areas of law, on novel points which often give rise to complex legal arguments, appeals, and connected litigation such as judicial reviews or appeals. 

In recognition of her expertise and skill in this area Leila has been appointed onto the UK Attorney General’s Panel of Specialist Regulatory Advocates. Providing advice and representation to the UK Health and Safety Executive, Environment Agency, Office of Rail and Road, Care Quality Commission, Office of Nuclear Regulation and Natural Resources Wales. 

Representative Cases 
  • R v Pilley & Others: Prosecution counsel on the largest ever UK Trading Standards prosecution. Operation Best was an investigation by National Trading Standards into fraudulent mis selling by the BES group of energy companies. These were successful businesses with a combined annual turnover in excess of £100 million. Company directors were aware of the fraudulent mis selling but failed to take effective action to prevent it. The Trading Standards investigation faced a series of failed attempts by the defendants to block it through High Court claims, two Judicial Reviews, abuse of process applications and a multi-million pound civil action against the investigating authority. This case was ongoing for 8 years and involved unprecedented volumes of material. Following a 6-month trial, three company directors were convicted of fraudulent trading and the companies’ Head of Regulation and Compliance, was convicted of Fraud by False Representation. The defendants received a combined custodial sentence of 26 years and 8 months. At the conclusion of the case, Leila alongside the Prosecution’s legal and investigation teams, received high praise from the trial judge for the conduct of this especially large scale, challenging and complicated case. 
  • Prosecution of a very large retail organisation in respect of Health and Safety Breaches resulting in injury to a worker. 
  • Prosecution of a clothing supplier for multiple, longstanding and flagrant breaches of trademark law. This case involved legal arguments on novel points of trademark and European competition law. 
  • Acting for the UK General Medical Council in multiple professional disciplinary proceedings against doctors. 
  • Prosecution of a large American international restaurant chain based in a major UK shopping mall, for serious health and safety breaches resulting in risk and injury to employees. 
  • Prosecution of an internet food company and its director for breaches of food safety / health claim regulations and health products law. The regulations prohibit persons from making unapproved health claims in relation to food products. The prosecution was the first of its kind in the UK and involved technical and complicated areas of EU and domestic law. The breaches had occurred over many years and the evidence in this case was voluminous and highly specialised. 
  • Prosecution of two travel companies and their directors for consumer protection offences involving the failure to secure required visas for travel for hundreds of customers resulting in hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of loss. 
  • Acting for a nurse in disciplinary proceedings brought against them by the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council.
  • Prosecution in a taxi licensing case which was listed for legal argument on novel and complicated issues concerning licensing laws and Article 8 of the ECHR. The outcome of this case, if not favourable to the licensing authority, would have a significant impact on the enforcement powers of the local licensing officers. 
  • Prosecution of a major national retailer in respect of offences concerning sales of alcohol and cigarettes in breach of children and young persons protection laws. 
  • Prosecution of a major national car dealership for consumer protection offences.
  • Prosecution of a company for large scale environmental offences concerning breaches of an environmental permit and waste management offences. 

Leila’s international practice encompasses public international law and international human rights. Her work has involved matters concerning ICJ proceedings, the application of universal jurisdiction, and atrocity crimes.  

Leila also acts as the Senior Legal Advisor to an international NGO that works with the UN and Governments across the globe. Through its investigative work the NGO has been instrumental to important legal reforms and the successful universal jurisdiction prosecutions which have taken place across Europe, against ISIS members for grave crimes committed against the Yazidi Community. Leila’s role includes advancing the organisation’s mission through advocacy within UN institutions, special procedures, advisory committees, working groups, governments and their agencies, to pursue accountability mechanisms and influence the development of international law and policy to better protect vulnerable persons and prevent mass atrocities.  

In 2023, Leila completed her second Master of Laws with Honours at Columbia Law School in New York City, graduating with Kent Scholar status and having been awarded the Parker School Certificate of Achievement in International and Comparative Law. Leila’s scholarship was focused on Public International Law, Global Governance, and International Human Rights and Leila was selected to undertake a lawyer leadership programme. Alongside her studies, Leila served as an editor for the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, as a Board Member for the Columbia Society of International Law and was also selected to undertake a UN Externship with UN Women: Peace and Security, during which she spent time working at UN Headquarters New York on a number of matters relating to UN Women’s role on the Security Council.