Walker Syachalinga
Associate solicitor
Walker is an associate solicitor in the international and groups claims department
Walker is an associate solicitor assisting Martyn Day and Benjamin Croft on international and group claims, and Jacqueline McKenzie on reparations claims.
Walker qualified into the international and group litigation department in September 2023. He assists on human rights, environmental damage and UK group claims against multinational corporations and state-actors, including cases relating to reparations for historic wrongs.
Legal expertise
- Vedanta v Lungowe: assisted Martyn Day and Olly Hollandon the landmark case in which 2,577 Zambian villagers brought a claim for damage to their land and waterways from copper mining effluent and emissions. The Zambian claimants and Vedanta reached a settlement in 2021.
- Andre Bravo v Amerisur Resources Plc. : assisted on an environmental claim involving members of a remote Colombian community (campesinos) who alleged water contamination from Amerisur’s oil operations. In 2020, the community succeeded in freezing £3million worth of Amerisur’s UK assets prior to a trial of the case.
- Shehabi and another v Kingdom of Bahrain (Spyware cases): assisted on cases involving political activists living in the UK for their alleged targeting with foreign spyware.
- Asbestos and Industrial diseases: assisted Vijay Ganapathy on cases involving people suffering from asbestos-related diseases arising from exposure to asbestos.
- Reparations claims: investigating claims arising out of the present-day impact of the enslavement of Africans during the era of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
- UK group claims: assisting with claims on behalf of 42,000vehicle owners against Vauxhall, Peugeot and Citroën manufacturers over alleged ‘cheat devices’ fitted on some oftheir diesel vehicles artificially reducing emissions to pass regulatory tests:
- Wragg and ors v Opel Automobile GmbH and Anor QB-2021-004264 and orso
- Lott and ors v PSA Automobiles SA and ors QB-2021-002286
Before joining Leigh Day, Walker worked in legal publishing as a law reports editor. He also gained vast experience with various human rights organisations including Friends of the Earth UK, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), Liberty (National Council for Civil Liberties) and Redress
Walker's publications
Personal injury in the spotlight NLJ 28.1.22
Righting Historical Wrongs at Court: Lessons from Litigation against the British Government J.P.I. Law 2022, 2, 78-8
News and blogs
Has the Supreme Court opened the door to reparations claims?
Walker Syachalinga considers a recent decision of the Supreme Court which could mean that people seeking to bring historic claims by relying on previously concealed information face lower hurdles.
What King Charles should do on his State visit to Kenya
As King Charles makes his first visit to Kenya as British Monarch, he will acknowledge the wrongs suffered by thousands of Kenyans at the hands of British forces but will stop short of apologising. Associate solicitor in Leigh Day’s international department, Walker Syachalinga, argues that the King should go further and apologise for the ill-treatment of Kenyans under British colonial rule.
Reparations for British chattel enslavement: time to pardon Guyana abolitionists?
Trainee solicitor Walker Syachalinga argues that the British government has a responsibility to pardon those involved in an uprising 200 years ago on a British-owned plantation on which enslaved Africans were forced to work.