Anna Dews
Associate solicitor
Anna is an associate solicitor in the human rights team.
Anna is an associate solicitor in the human rights department. She works across a wide variety of public and private law cases including those arising from the treatment and care provided to vulnerable adults in health and social care settings. Her cases include acting for families in inquest proceedings as well as Human Rights Act claims. She has also been instructed to bring strategic litigation on behalf of campaign groups, charities and community groups.
Anna is an experienced public lawyer and has brought a number of judicial review claims with a particular focus on closure of public services, environmental challenges and she has also acted on behalf of claimants in public law discrimination claims. Anna acted for Megan and Whitney Bacon-Evans in their challenge to Frimley CCG’s fertility policy as it related to same sex couples.
Alongside litigation, Anna is an experienced public inquires lawyer, having worked with Emma Jones on the Infected Blood Inquiry, which published its long awaited report by Sir Brian Langstaff in 2024. She currently part of the legal team at Leigh Day representing three organisations namely John’s Campaign, Care Rights UK and the Patients Association, all of whom were granted Core Participant status at the Covid Inquiry, chaired by Baroness Hallet.
Anna joined Leigh Day in August 2014 as a trainee solicitor. She qualified in 2016 and worked in the Human Rights Department from 2017 onwards. In 2022 Anna took a sabbatical, returning to work at the firm in December 2023.
Anna’s cases are funded by legal aid and she works under conditional fee agreements.
Before joining Leigh Day, Anna studied Law with Spanish at the University of Sheffield.
Significant cases she has worked on include:
- Boyd & Anor v Ineos Upstream Ltd & Ors
- The Motherhood Plan & Anor, R. (On the Application of) v Her Majesty’s Treasury
- Bacon-Evans v Frimley Clinical Commissioning Group
- FXS v Mulberry Bush Organisation Limited
Lawyer in the news: Anna Dews, Leigh Day | Profile | Law Gazette
US citizen to appeal after Court of Appeal rules that UK legislation does not allow nonbinary recognition.
The Court of Appeal has ruled US citizen Ryan Castellucci is not legally entitled to a UK gender recognition certificate (GRC).
Legal challenge to NHS England and St Peter’s Andrology Centre over delays to transmasculine gender-affirming surgery
Trans men stranded between gender-affirming surgeries or waiting for their first surgeries or repairs have instructed lawyers to take up their case.
Trans men “left in limbo” between gender affirming surgeries take legal action
A legal investigation has been launched on behalf of trans men who are facing lengthy delays in receiving gender affirming surgeries after the only NHS service providing surgeries was decommissioned and a new provider wasn’t put in place for around 18 months.