Saima's practice covers financial services, public law, employment and information rights. She prides herself on her depth of legal knowledge (publications include Phipson on Evidence and the forthcoming Tribunal Practice , of which she is a co-author) and on providing excellent client service ('extremely user friendly, fast, efficient and extremely bright, Legal 500, 2011). She recently represented the claimant in a groundbreaking victory against the FSA, cited as 'one of the most headline-grabbing cases of its kind for many years (Chambers & Partners, 2012) and one of the 'ten most significant cases of 2011 (PLC).
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Saima is a Recommended Junior in Financial Services (Chambers & Partners, 2012) and has published widely in this area ( A Practitioner's Guide to FSA Investigations and Enforcement, Prospectuses and Public Offerings in Tolley's Company Law and Lexis Nexis Practice Notes in Financial Services ). She is currently acting for Mr Ford (the former CEO of Keydata) and is led by Hodge Malek QC. Notable cases include the extensively-publicised Upper Tribunal decision in Karan v FSA and UBS and the landmark High Court judgment in Ford v FSA .
She has advised on a range of matters including PPI claims, the operation of collective investment schemes and consumer credit matters. A bond issuance programme on which she advised was described by The Lawyer magazine as 'ground-breaking'.
Her experience has been enhanced by secondments to the Financial Services department of Clifford Chance, the Bank of England and the FSA Enforcement Division. At Clifford Chance, she worked on high-profile matters including the collapse of Northern Rock and drafted the law of partnership for Qatar. At the Bank of England, she was the Legal Assistant to the Financial Markets Law Committee and assisted with the drafting of 8 papers on esoteric legal issues in financial markets (see www.fmlc.org). At the FSA, she advised extensively on the provisions in the FSA Handbook.
PUBLIC LAW
Saima has a strong Public Law practice, with particular expertise in licensing law, regulatory law and education. She has represented individuals and public bodies at all levels up to the Court of Appeal.
Licensing: Saima is a Recommended Junior (Legal 500 and Legal Experts) in this area. Her work covers entertainment and alcohol licensing, taxi licensing and gaming. She has experience in the entire licensing process, from licensing committees, right through to the Court of Appeal (see list of cases on the right). She is regularly instructed by applicants (some as public access clients), interested parties and councils.
Regulatory: Saima's regulatory expertise encompasses financial services (see above), healthcare regulation and commercial matters such as consumer credit and public procurement. Within healthcare, her clients include individuals (e.g. doctors and dentists) and public bodies such as PCTs and the NHS Litigation Authority. Her consumer credit practice covers both lenders and borrowers. She appears across the range of regulatory tribunals and courts.
Education: She advises on all areas of education law from pre-school to university and on matters including SEN, disability discrimination, admissions and exclusion issues. Her commercial expertise means she is particularly well-placed to advise on breach of contract claims. She is published in this area.
EMPLOYMENT
Saima's experience in this area covers the full range of issues from unfair dismissal claims to complex TUPE and discrimination issues. She has a speciality in health-related employment disputes representing Deaneries, Doctors, Nurses and PCTs. She is regularly instructed for hearings of seven days or longer, and offers a comprehensive service from preparing pleadings right through to advising upon and drafting compromise agreements.
INFORMATION RIGHTS
Saima advises and represents corporate clients (including FSA-regulated entities), individuals and public bodies in respect of data protection and freedom of information matters. She appears in both the First-Tier Tribunal and the Upper Tribunal (see list of cases) and has a particular expertise in electronic information and the internet. She is a contributor to the leading text Information Rights and has lectured widely in this area.