News

We are delighted to announce that Gergana Pentcheva has been appointed Director of Immigration at Duncan Lewis Solicitors and will be based at our City of London office, representing clients from across England and Wales.

Gergana has more than 10 years’ experience conducting complex Legal Aid, private immigration, asylum and public law matters, which include legal challenges before the immigration tribunals, administrative court and Court of Appeal.

She joined Duncan Lewis as a paralegal in 2011 and was admitted as a solicitor in 2014. She is now an experienced advocate who can conduct her own advocacy at the First-tier and Upper Tier Tribunals of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber.

She has a superb success rate in appeal matters with a considerable number allowed ‘on the spot’, as a result of excellent preparation, attention to detail and refined advocacy skills.

Gergana is passionate about representing vulnerable people, such as those detained under immigration powers, victims of modern slavery and trafficking, unaccompanied children seeking asylum, as well as victims of domestic violence and torture.

She is a senior caseworker and supervisor accredited by the Law Society under the Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme and is CRB Enhanced. This means she has shown specialist knowledge and experience in the area of immigration law and can represent vulnerable clients.

As director, she is responsible for supervising and inspiring a team of solicitors, trainees and caseworkers, all committed to tenaciously protecting the rights of the most vulnerable in society and challenging the Home Office when it fails them.

In a recent successful case, Onos v SSHD [2016] EWHC 59 (Admin), Gergana’s client was successful in her unlawful detention claim - she and her children were found to be entitled to a declaration that the entire period of their detention was unlawful. They were entitled to nominal damages for the first 72 hours of that detention and compensatory damages for the extent to which detention exceeded 72 hours.