Our Trainers

David is a co-founder of HJT and a tenant at Garden Court Chambers practising in immigration, asylum and human rights law, with an emphasis recently on unlawful detention cases.

He is a lecturer for BPP, Liberty, EIN and Garden Court (LSC Contract) and a trustee of the Electronic Immigration Network (EIN). He also founded HJT Research, creators of the Immigration Consortium Country Information Database (ICCID).  

David contributes to a number of publications including MacDonald Immigration Law and Practice 6th Edition (Butterworths), Your Rights (Liberty), HJT's Accreditation Manual and the Immigration Volumes of Atkins Court Forms and the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents.

Mark is a co-founder of HJT, has trained for organisations including JCWI, CLT, ILPA, the College of Law and the Inns of Court School of Law.  He is a tenant at Garden Court Chambers specialising in all aspects of immigration law.

Mark is a Consultant Editor on the Immigration and Nationality Law Reports; a Legal Consultant to the Electronic Immigration Network; Author of Caselaw on the Refugee Convention (RLC) and Co-author of Asylum Law and Practice (Butterworths, 2003); and an Editor of Atkins Court Forms and Encyclopedia of Forms and Precedents (Butterworths Lexisnexis).

Colin is a barrister at Renaissance Chambers, specialising in all aspects of immigration law and child care proceedings. He was formerly Director of Legal Services and Training at the Immigration Advisory Service.

As well as his work with HJT, Colin has delivered training for IAS, RLC and ILPA. He is a contributing editor for Butterworths Immigration Law Service, contributes to HJT immigration manual and has written articles for the International Journal of Refugee Law and Tottel's Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law

Sandra has practiced in immigration, asylum and human rights law since 2002. Currently a tenant at Mitre House chambers, she previously worked in both the advisory sector and the asylum support sector. She also practices in crime.

Prior to being called to the bar, Sandra worked predominantly in human rights research. She was part of the United Nations secretariat for the World Conference Against Racism, a position that took her to Durban for the Conference in 2001. She worked for various NGOs, including Interights and Alliance for Africa. She has also worked as a caseworker in a solicitors' firm specialising in immigration and asylum law.

Sandra has been a trainer with HJT since 2006.

Allan has specialised in immigration and human rights law since 2000, with a particular interest in the law surrounding the rights of European Union citizens and their families. He is one of 60 barristers who is officially recommended by the Bar Council and the Legal Services Commission to undertake publicly funded immigration and asylum work.

He is a registered trainer with the Joint Council of Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) and is an assessor on The Law Society's immigration accreditation scheme for solicitors.

Jake is the Principal and founder of Waldegraves – a firm of Solicitors specialising in Employment Law.

He is deeply dedicated to and passionate about Advocacy and Employment Law.

He is a Solicitor-Advocate and non-practising barrister. He has regularly appeared in Employment Tribunals over the past 10 years, as well as the County Court, Employment Appeal Tribunal and Court of Appeal, and has established a reputation as a first rate advocate. He is also regularly instructed as an advocate and consultant by other firms.

He is currently writing a book on unfair dismissal, due to be published by HJT Training, which provides a detailed and comprehensive coverage of the technical and complex subject. On one hand he is intellectual rigorous and ever keen to argue a point of law on the other he listens to clients, ascertains and is sensitive to their needs and adopts a practical and commercial approach to his cases.

His understanding and experience of Employment Law practice is profound. He has acted both for household corporate names and small businesses as well as trade unions and workers on low incomes. He regularly undertakes work funded on legal expenses insurance, was previously employed by a leading Trade Union firm and has carried out many cases on a no win no fee arrangements. He was previously a partner and Head of Employment of a firm in the Thames Valley.

Jake also has an interest in Immigration Law. He has made numerous appearances in the Immigration Courts and is the author of the article “What to believe? A critique of the Assessment of Plausibility of Asylum Applications” which was published by the Electronic Immigration Network in October 2003.

After a successful career in Wholesale Banking, Vincent specialised in the trade of Debt Securities within a Global Custody environment, Vincent went on to retrain in law. 

Vincent embarked on his studies (1999) at a time when Human Rights and Immigration were emerging as new areas of law in the professional arena.  Vincent recognised the value of studying these areas with a view to focussing his career.  Since graduation from the LLB, he went on to qualify at the Bar.  Vincent targeted the UK Border Agency for work experience, as he rationalised that to work for the Government body responsible for decision making was the best experience to understand their culture, expectations and demands.  This experience has provided Vincent with an edge in making representations to the UK Border Agency, as he often identifies and satisfies issues that a Case worker/ Entry Clearance Officer will raise.  Vincent then went on to work in private practice as well as in local Government, always in Immigration related roles.  His training has marked him as a respected advocate at the Asylum and Immigration Chamber and he often appears in a range of cases from Points Based System to Asylum. 

Vincent designed and delivered the LPC Immigration elective for Staffordshire University as a visting lecturer and continues to provide consultations to the current lecturer.  His experience and passion for this field of law is consistently well received by delegates. Vincent has recently completed his LLM in Human Rights and continues to dedicate himself to continued learning.  

David practises predominantly in immigration, employment and general civil litigation.

In immigration and asylum he regularly appears before both levels of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal as well as the Court of Appeal, which has described his oral advocacy as displaying “great skill but also economy.” David also has extensive experience in the Administrative Court, primarily through judicial review challenges to fresh claim applications. As well as lecturing extensively on new developments in this rapidly changing field, David is also approved by the Law Society and acts as an assessor on the Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme, for solicitors and legal representatives.