Esther regularly advises and represents local planning authorities, residents, developers and planning authorities on all aspects of planning law and in all forums. She has considerable experience as an inquiry advocate, both in her own right and as a junior, including lengthy, high-profile, called-in and recovered appeals. Recent experience includes representing National Highways (led by Mark Westmoreland Smith KC) in relation to the impacts of the proposed 8,400-home development at Highsted Park near Sittingbourne on the strategic road network, representing Buckinghamshire Council (led by Simon Bird KC) in the four-week recovered inquiry into a £750-million film studio in Marlow and appearing for the Greater London Authority in a four-week inquiry into the proposed redevelopment of the Stag Brewery in Mortlake, an iconic building which marks

Esther also regularly acts for local planning authorities, objectors and developers in legal proceedings involving planning matters. She has successfully defended (unled) a number of planning judicial reviews on behalf of local planning authorities ranging from challenges to decisions not to take enforcement action, challenges to decisions to decline to determine planning applications pursuant to s.70C of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and challenges to the grant of planning permission and listed building consent for development affecting heritage assets. Esther has also advised on and acted in a number of High Court proceedings seeking to enforce obligations in s.106 agreements through injunctive relief, which have settled with the outcome of compliance with those obligations.

Esther’s experience and ability in planning is recognised in her ranking as a Leading Junior in the Legal 500. She has also been recognised as one of the top-rated junior planning barristers in the Planning Law Survey 2025.

Esther is a contributor to Butterworths’ Planning Service, responsible for Division C “Obtaining planning permission”. Esther was previously seconded to the Legal Department at the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, where she advised on a broad range of legal issues involving planning, regeneration and local government law, as well as gaining a close insight into the workings of a local planning authority.

Esther regularly advises and represents clients on all issues to do with compulsory acquisition, including powers of compulsory purchase, the compensation code and limitation provisions. Esther successfully promoted the Dinnington Town Centre CPO (led by Caroline Daly) on behalf of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, a £12-million Levelling-Up regeneration scheme which will transform an aging, unsafe and disused high street. She has represented the Secretary of State for Transport (led by Andrew Tait KC) in two appeals against CAAD certificates granted by Ealing Borough Council in relation to land acquired for the HS2 Scheme (Secretary of State for Transport v John Lewis Partnership Pensions Trust (decision awaited); Secretary of State for Transport v Bleep UK Plc [2022] UKUT 331 (LC), [2002] RVR 108 (appeal allowed)). She has recently advised an acquiring authority on the procedure and merits of promoting a CPO as well as advising landowners on the relationship between the DCO regime and compulsory acquisition.

Esther is currently instructed as sole counsel by Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council in relation to two Transport and Works Act Order inquiries into proposed new guided busways from settlements outside Cambridge into the city centre. The first of these inquiries, into the draft Cambourne to Cambridge Order, closed on 21 November following a 9-week inquiry.

Esther was instructed by an interested party representing local residents in examination into the proposed DCO to relocate the Cambridge Waste Water Treatment Plant onto a Green Belt site. She advised at all stages of the process and made oral submissions at DCO hearings, in particular on the applicable legal and policy framework and the need for the relocation. Many of the submissions she made were accepted by the Examining Authority which advised the Secretary of State to refuse to make the DCO, although the Secretary of State ultimately disagreed.

Esther has attended and assisted on a number of infrastructure inquiries, including inquiries into development consent orders for new rail and road links as well as orders under the Transport and Works Act. She provided initial advice to the Claimant in Pearce v SSBEIS [2021] EWHC 326 (Admin), the first challenge under s.118 of the Planning Act 2008 that was successful after oral argument.

Esther was previously seconded to the Department for Transport, where she undertook advisory work for the Roads Team on public law matters relating to major infrastructure projects, including the public sector equality duty, special development orders and the delegation and contracting out of functions.

Esther is regularly instructed to advise and act in cases involving environmental law issues, both in the planning context and more broadly. She is a member of UKELA and the Environmental Law Foundation and was invited to speak at the 2023 UKELA Annual Conference. She is also the co-Commissioning Editor of and a regular contributor to FTB’s Environmental Law Blog. Esther is regularly called on to speak and provide training on environmental law matters.

Esther acts for a range of environmental organisations, individuals, public authorities and private companies in environmental matters. Recent work includes advising on the definition of “environmental information” in the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, advising and making submissions on environmental aspects of the marine licensing regime and protection of marine habitats, and challenging the lawfulness of a grant of planning permission on the basis of failure to comply with the law on environmental impact assessments. Esther is well-versed in the costs capping regime for Aarhus Convention claims. She has also advised on environmental issues in the private law context, including liability for private nuisance in the context of flooding and subsidence.

Esther is currently instructed by a consortium of NGOs in a legal challenge to a decision by the EU Commission to include certain activities relating to aviation and shipping in the EU Taxonomy, thereby labelling investments in those activities as “green” and channelling investment towards them. The action for annulment, which will be heard by the General Court of the EU in February 2026, includes grounds relating to errors of law as to the Commission’s competence as circumscribed by the parent Taxonomy Regulation and manifest errors of assessment in relation to specific activities.

Esther has (with Claire Nevin) advised NGOs in Ireland regarding environmental impact assessment obligations and their relationship with the regulation of PFAS or “forever chemicals”, including in relation to a high-profile challenge to the decision to grant consent for the Greater Dublin Drainage project.

Esther has a keen interest in public law, and regularly acts for and advises clients on a range of public law issues which arise in conjunction with public authority decision-making in all areas of specialism within Chambers. For example, she has successfully challenged and defended public authority decision-making in legal proceedings concerning the adequacy of consultation the duty to give reasons, the public sector equality duty and procedural fairness more generally. Esther is often instructed to advise on and draft requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. She has also advised on matters relating to devolution and the devolved nations, such as the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 and planning policy in Wales. Her work for local authorities in the planning context often requires consideration of issues under the Human Rights Act 1998.

Under the Attorney General’s Junior Junior scheme, Esther advised the Department for Levelling-up, Housing and Regeneration and the Department for Transport on matters engaging various public law issues including the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights, the public sector equality duty, the liability of public authorities for tortious acts and the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement.

Esther is has a particularly strong rights of way and highways practice, and is regularly instructed by user groups and highway authorities in inquiries and court hearings in both England and Wales relating to (among other things) Traffic Regulation Orders, the duty to maintain and repair the highway under s.56 of the Highways Act 1980, the obstruction and stopping up of highways and Definitive Map Modification Orders.

Recently, Esther has advised Natural England in relation to a threatened legal challenge to proposals for a section of the King Charles III England Coastal Path and has appeared in the Magistrates Courts and at public inquiries in relation to the proposed stopping up of highways under ss.116 and 247 of the Highways Act 1980 respectively.

Esther was part of the Counsel team which appeared on behalf of the intervening Open Spaces Society in Darwall v Dartmoor National Park Authority [2025] UKSC 20 which upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal establishing that the right to access commons for open-air recreation set out in the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 does extend to wild camping.  

Esther has been particularly successful in securing the quashing of a large number of Traffic Regulation Orders on substantive and procedural grounds, as well as in s.56 repair cases where the highway authority has ultimately accepted liability to repair and agreed to an order requiring it to carry out repairs. She has also advised local authorities on the effect of the extinguishment provisions in the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006.

Esther regularly acts for, advises and provides training for local authorities across England and Wales in all areas of Chambers’ specialisms. Recent work includes representing local authorities in relation to judicial review challenges to planning decisions relating to enforcement and s.70C of the Town and Country Planning Act and advising local authorities on issues ranging from Ombudsman investigations to the extinguishment of historic rights of way.

Esther is regularly instructed off-panel by the Government Legal Department to appear in immigration judicial reviews. She was recently successful in resisting an application for permission to judicially review the decision of the Secretary of State for the Home Department to cancel the leave to remain of a Tier 2 skilled migrant. She successfully obtained permission to appeal a decision of the First-tier Tribunal to allow a human rights claim against a decision to deport a high-profile foreign criminal who was formerly the Mayor of a local council, notwithstanding the application was many months out of time.

Esther has also acted pro bono for appellants in immigration appeals in the First-tier Tribunal, instructed by Advocate.

• Honorable Society of the King’s Inns, Dublin Degree of Barrister-at-Law (2025)
• City Law School, London, Bar Professional Training Course (Outstanding) (2015-2016)
• European University Institute, Florence, LLM in Comparative, European and International Laws (2014-2015)
• Merton College, University of Oxford, MA in Jurisprudence with European Legal Studies (German Law) (2.i) (2008-2012)

• Administrative Law Bar Association
• Bar European Group
• Compulsory Purchase Association
• National Infrastructure Planning Association
• Planning and Environmental Bar Association
• UK Environmental Law Association

Bar Awards & Scholarships

• Buchanan Prize (Lincoln's Inn) (2016)
• Lord Denning Scholarship (Lincoln's Inn) (2015-2016)
• Hardwicke Award (Lincoln's Inn) (2014)

University Scholarships & Prizes

• Academic Scholarship (Merton College) (2009-2012)
• Norton Rose Prize (Merton College) (2009)

Before coming to the Bar, Esther spent two years working as a Research Assistant at the Law Commission on a project to reform electoral laws across the UK. She was subsequently Judicial Assistant to Lord Justice Lloyd Jones in the Court of Appeal. Immediately prior to commencing pupillage, Esther spent a year as Planning Caseworker at Southwark Law Centre, advising and assisting local residents and businesses on how to engage with planning applications for major developments, the local plan process and other planning-related matters.

Esther has undertaken pro bono work on immigration and social security claims for Oxford Legal Assistance and the Free Representation Unit, and worked as an Advice and Information Volunteer at Liberty advising on a broad range of human rights issues

Does the SRA Treat Sexual Misconduct Cases Seriously? (with Jeremy Phillips KC). Solicitors Journal, April 2020  

Esther is fluent in German.

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