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Statutory interpretation and “wild camping”: Supreme Court upholds the right to wild camp on the Dartmoor Commons
Sahil Kher
Sahil is a senior associate in the public law team. His practice covers all aspects of public law from judicial reviews to public inquiries, with particular expertise in environmental and climate change judicial reviews, planning challenges, human rights-based challenges, and public procurement litigation.
Sahil has worked with a wide range of clients – including organisations in financial services, sports, transport, and energy sectors. In addition, he has acted for regulators, campaign groups and individuals. Sahil also advised a core participant in a major public inquiry over a number of years.
He has worked closely with several not-for-profit organisations on strategic litigation and third-party interventions, including the Good Law Project (where he was their first full-time litigator), the Marine Conservation Society, the AIRE Centre, Liberty, and the Public Law Project.
Sahil joined the firm in April 2024 from a not-for-profit law firm that he helped establish and grow into a “firm to watch” in its first year in the directories. In a previous role at another top-ranked public law team, he was listed as a “key lawyer” in the public law team and described as being a “star in the making” (Legal 500, 2021), and as being “bright and responsive to client needs” (Legal 500, 2020).
With experience of working with journalists, politicians and campaign groups as well as senior executives and in-house teams, Sahil brings a rounded perspective to public law and public policy issues, and understands the importance of considering wider commercial or campaigning objectives when advising clients. Sahil is media-trained, and has appeared on BBC News, BBC Radio, and Euronews to discuss various cases, in addition to appearing on several podcasts and contributing to a module for the Open University.
Sahil is a dual-qualified solicitor, having first qualified as an Advocate in India (2013), and then trained in the London and Tokyo offices of an international law firm (2014-2016) before becoming an associate and Solicitor-Advocate in the public law team.
Outside work, Sahil sits on the Board of Middlesex Cricket, captains the England and Wales Solicitors Cricket Club and Acton Cricket Club, and is an advisor on environmental law issues to a community group based in Devon.
Recent Work
- Advising a party on potential breaches of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and transparency policies by the NHS in the context of two high-value contracts
- Representing the successful claimant in judicial review proceedings in relation to the Government’s Net Zero Strategy and in a further set of ongoing proceedings in relation to its Carbon Budget Delivery Plan
- Representing a claimant in a test case in relation to the s19 Environment Act duty on decision-makers to have “due regard” to environmental principles when making decisions
- Acting for a conservation charity and two impacted individuals in a challenge to the Government’s Sewage Discharge Overflow Reduction Plan and securing substantial pre-hearing concessions from DEFRA
- Advising a consortium on an intervention in Court of Appeal proceedings concerning the regulation of water companies under the Water Industry Act 1991
- Advising a community group on negotiations with a water company to secure improvements on the River Dart
- Advising advocacy groups on information rights issues and on their organisational status.
- Assisting and briefing MPs at committee stage on the implications of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (now Act)
- Acting for a core participant in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse
- Acting for a bus operator in a challenge to a franchising scheme introduced by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority
- Assisting the in-house team of a bank (on secondment) on an Independent Review into issues arising out of a migration to a new IT platform
- Acting for the Public Law Project, Liberty and Child Poverty Action Group in Supreme Court proceedings dealing with the power of public bodies, including the FTT, to disapply regulations that are incompatible with human rights legislation.
PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES AND MEMBERSHIPS
- Constitutional and Administrative Law Bar Association (ALBA)
- The Law Society
- The Bar Council of India
- The Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa (India)
