Sonia Burgess (born David Burgess; 25 September 1947 – 25 October 2010) was a leading British immigration lawyer. Winstanley-Burgess solicitors, co-founded by Burgess in 1975, became one of the UK's "most respected asylum and immigration law practices".
Burgess initiated several important cases, including M v. Home Office (1993), described by legal scholar William Wade as "the most significant constitutional case [in the UK] for more than 200 years", and Chahal v. United Kingdom (1996), in which the European Court of Human Rights confirmed the scope of its protection against deportation.
Early life and education
Burgess grew up in Castleford, West Yorkshire, with her mother, Comfort, a secondary-school headteacher, and older sister, Ros. Her father was absent. From 1959 to 1966, she attended Ermysted's Grammar School in Skipton as a boarder, where she was a fan of rugby league. After Ermysted's, she studied law at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, graduating with an upper second in 1969.
Career and marriage
Winstanley-Burgess
After training in Skipton, Burgess moved to London, where in 1972 she worked at Dawson & Co in Lincoln's Inn with Robert Winstanley, a friend from Cambridge, and did voluntary work for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. In 1975, she and Winstanley founded Winstanley-Burgess solicitors above a Pizza Hut in Islington. The barrister Frances Webber wrote that the company, a legal-aid firm specializing in asylum work, "soon set the standard for all legal aid immigration practices for its superb work and tenacious dedication to refugee rights". Harriet Wistrich trained at Winstanley-Burgess from 1995 to 1997.
Burgess acquired a reputation for showing great kindness to her clients, helping them financially and with housing. Jawaid Luqmani of Luqmani Thompson called her "extraordinarily talented, with an encyclopedic grasp of the law" and someone who had "almost no ego". In an obituary for Burgess, Stephen Whittle noted that the Winstanley-Burgess offices reflected its partners' priorities: "I entered a dark, dingy, decaying building on the East London Road, where dirty magnolia woodchip papered stud wall partitions, with holes where they had been torn and kicked in frustration by the firm's clients, and which looked as if they would collapse at any moment. ... Rarely did money change hands."
MP David Winnick paid tribute to Burgess in the House of Commons in 1997, telling MPs that "in Government circles", Burgess was "probably looked upon as one of those difficult characters who pursue matters when they should not and who become over-interested in civil liberties. It is a good job that we have such people in Britain. The rule of law and the democratic process is strengthened by such solicitors."
Marriage
In 1985, Burgess married Youdon Lhamo, a Tibetan refugee working as a nurse in the UK and one of Winstanley-Burgess's former clients. The couple set up home in Highbury and had three children—two biological and one adopted (Lhamo's biological niece). Burgess, who was transgender, began to transition from male to female during the marriage, adopting the name Sonia Burgess, but she continued to practise law as David. From 1992 until 2002, she represented Press For Change sometimes or always pro bono, a group co-founded by Stephen Whittle that campaigns for transgender rights.
Cases
In Rees v. the United Kingdom (1986), Burgess represented Mark Rees, a British trans man who asked the government to amend his birth certificate to allow him to marry a woman. Burgess and Rees's barrister, Nick Blake, argued unsuccessfully that English law violated the European Convention on Human Rights Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) and Article 12 (right to marry) in its treatment of transgender people. Also in 1986, Burgess represented Viraj Mendis, a Sri Lankan national who claimed the right of sanctuary at the Church of the Ascension in Hulme, Manchester.