Marina Wheeler KC

Public Law

Marina has accumulated years of experience in public and administrative law, largely through her appointment to the Attorney General’s Panel of Council on which she served until taking silk in 2016. She undertook large volumes of work for central government Departments and Agencies including the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Justice and Home Office. Her caseload ranged from those involving prisons and the management and categorisation of offenders, to detention powers in armed conflict, to the compulsory detention of mentally disordered offenders in secure hospitals, to cases involving suspected radicalisation and threats to national security.

Marina also undertakes Inquest and Inquiry work. To date, this has centred on prisons. She has been instructed in numerous inquests involving self-inflicted deaths in custody in adult and young offender institutions in which the processes for managing risks of self-harm have been scrutinised.

Marina contributed to The Inquest Book, The Law of Coroners and Inquests, Bloomsbury.

Another strand of Marina’ public law practice is in the healthcare sector. She has been instructed in many cases involving the reconfiguration of NHS hospital services, most frequently defending claims brought on the grounds of inadequate consultation and breach of the Public Sector Equality Duty. Her cases include R (Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust) v Joint Committee of Primary care Trusts & Another; R (Save our Surgery) v Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts & Another; R (London Borough of Ealing) v NHS Commissioning Board; R (Enfield London Borough Council) v Barnet Clinical Commissioning Group & others. She also handled claims brought on the closure of dangerous and severe personality disorder (DSPD) units in secure hospitals when restricted patients were transferred into the prison estate. Cases include R (RW) v Secretary of State for Justice;  R (LE) v Secretary of State for Justice.

Marina has discussed Radicalisation (Ep. 8) and the Prevent Duty Guidance (Ep. 75) on our podcast, Law Pod UK.

She chaired the recent webinar ‘India & the Rule of Law: in 2021, is India still a Liberal democracy?’