Kavita Modi
Senior associate solicitor
Human rights and environmental rights lawyer
Kavita specialises in bringing international human rights and environmental claims against multinational companies and governmental bodies.
She has particular expertise in complex group claims and more than 17 years’ litigation experience across a broad range of domestic and international human rights, environment and equality claims.
Legal expertise
Kavita has represented individuals and communities from different parts of the world, helping them to obtain redress for violations of their human rights or environmental rights. Her experience spans all aspects of litigation, including substantive trials and appeals.
Kavita’s work includes:
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Leading the Leigh Day team in Kenya in the Mau Mau litigation, where Leigh Day successfully represented 5,228 Kenyan victims of colonial torture who alleged that they were subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment at the hands of the British colonial administration during the Kenya Emergency in the 1950’s.
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The Iraqi civilian claims, where Leigh Day acted on behalf of hundreds of Iraqi clients in claims against the Ministry of Defence. Following a trial of four test cases, the High Court delivered a ground-breaking judgment (Alseran v Ministry of Defence [2017] EWHC 3289), ruling that the test claimants had been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment and unlawful detention in breach of the Human Rights Act/ European Convention on Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions.
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Claims against Shell plc and its Nigerian subsidiary, brought by thousands of Nigerian individuals from the Bille community. The Claimants allege that their environment has been devastated by oil pollution. The litigation includes claims brought under the Nigerian constitution and Article 24 of the African Charter (the right to a satisfactory environment).
Kavita’s areas of interest include issues of forced labour, child labour, migrant rights, environmental pollution and the disparate impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities.
Prior to joining Leigh Day, she worked at Camden Community Law Centre and Deighton Guedalla (now part of Deighton Pierce Glynn), where she acted in a broad range of UK-based human rights and anti-discrimination claims.
Kavita is an active member of Leigh Day’s Race, Intersectionality, and Structural Equality Committee (RISE) and has a keen interest in equality issues.
Blogs
High Court rules Nigerian communities can bring landmark human rights claims against Shell for oil pollution
The High Court has ruled that 13,000 Nigerian fishermen and farmers at the centre of a major oil pollution case against Shell can bring claims for breaches of their right to a clean environment under Nigerian constitutional law. If the case succeeds at trial, it will be the first time in legal history that a UK multinational will have been found to have breached a communities’ right to a clean environment.
World Day against Trafficking in Persons, 30 July 2020
Kavita Modi discusses what can be done in the UK to prevent human trafficking and forced labour
What responsibilities do multinationals have to those in their supply chains?
Kavita Modi, solicitor in our international department, discusses the responsibilities of multinational companies to those in their supply chains - particularly during the current coronavirus crisis.