Carolin Ott

Carolin is a Senior Associate Solicitor in the Human Rights department. She is a dual qualified lawyer, admitted as a Solicitor in England & Wales and as an Attorney to the New York State Bar. She has experience working on both domestic and international human rights law cases. 

Legal expertise

Carolin’s work focuses on judicial review challenges and claims under the Human Rights Act 1998. Her cases include a broad range of challenges to public bodies, including in the context of social welfare, immigration and national security. Carolin also represents Core Participants in the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.  

Significant cases she has worked on include:

• Representing Asylum Aid in challenges to the lawfulness of the Home Secretary’s policy of removing asylum seekers to Rwanda.  
• Freedom from Torture v Secretary of State for the Home Department – a successful challenge to the Home Secretary’s policy of turning around small boats and diverting them from UK territorial waters into French territorial waters (commonly referred to as the “pushback” policy). 
• Representing TP and AR in a series of successful challenges in respect of the transitional provisions within the Universal Credit regime, for benefits claimants previously entitled to the Severe Disability Premium and Enhanced Disability Premium when in receipt of legacy benefits. 

• RR v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions – a successful appeal to the Supreme Court on behalf of RR relating to the application of the bedroom tax in which the Supreme Court confirmed that social welfare tribunals and local authorities have the power and duty to dis-apply regulations where applying them would result in a breach of human rights. 

• Rights Watch (UK) v Secretary of State for the Home Department – a judicial review of the appointment of Lord Carlile of Berriew as independent reviewer of the controversial Prevent strategy and the terms of reference set brought on behalf of Rights Watch (UK). The Home Secretary conceded the case, withdrew the appointment of Lord Carlile and reconsidered the terms of reference. 
• R (Nichola Salvato) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions – representing a single mother challenging the rule requiring proof of payment from working parents before they can receive childcare costs support through UC, which put families in hardship and debt. The High Court held that the rule was discriminatory and irrational, and found that it had disproportionately prejudicial effects on women. The matter is ongoing before the European Court of Human Rights.  
• R (Coughlan) v Minister for the Cabinet Office - representing Essex resident Neil Coughlan in his Supreme Court appeal testing the legality of the government’s intention to run pilots in local elections, as part of a broader plan to introduce a requirement to show identification to vote. 
• Representing John’s Campaign and others in relation to unlawful refusals to allow visiting in care homes in circumstances where the suspension of visits had a catastrophic effect on residents, particularly those with dementia. Subsequently, representing Core Participants John’s Campaign, Care Rights UK and the Patients Association in Modules 3 and 6 of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.  

What the directories say

Prior to joining Leigh Day, Carolin worked in the public law department of a large legal aid firm, where she worked primarily on asylum and human rights claims in an immigration context, acting frequently for vulnerable individuals including victims of human trafficking. She also worked for the Law Centres Network as an immigration advisor.

Carolin graduated from the London School of Economics with a First Class degree in Law. Following her undergraduate degree she worked for the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on the trial of Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic. She subsequently completed a Master of Laws at Harvard Law School. She has researched and written on both public international law and public law issues, including as a Research Assistant to Harvard Professor Alex Whiting and Professors Maurice Sunkin and Andrew Le Sueur, as well as on the Executive Board of the Harvard International Law Journal.  

See Carolin as Lawyer of the Week in The Times, Thursday February 4 2021.