Betty Shuttleworth

Practice Summary

Betty practices across public, planning and environmental, and property law. Prior to pupillage, Betty gained wide-ranging experience as a community care and public law paralegal at a legal aid children’s charity, alongside volunteering for an education law charity, and at Citizens Advice specialising in housing and homelessness, and social security law.

During pupillage, Betty was exposed to a wide variety of matters at all stages from initial advice through to substantive litigation. Betty assisted her supervisors in acting for the full spectrum of clients, including private individuals, community groups, NGOs, the Official Solicitor, local authorities, central government departments, other public bodies, and developers.

A list of notable examples of work Betty undertook and contributed to is below:

• Preparing statements of facts and grounds and interim relief applications in multiple judicial review claims, including challenges to the refusal of NRM re-entry support, and the failure to secure special educational provision
• Drafting the permission skeleton, and subsequent detailed grounds of resistance, in a planning law judicial review challenge to an Inspector’s finding on inappropriate development in the greenbelt
• Supporting in the preparation for a planning inquiry, acting for the Local Planning Authority enforcing against the development of housing in an agricultural setting
• Undertaking detailed research and advising on topics including the implementation of the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023, the treatment of planning statutory consultees, the approach to Article 3 in deportation cases centred on the availability of mental health treatment.

Since accepting an offer of tenancy, commencing in October 2026, Betty has already appeared unled in the Court of Protection, and has appeared in the Upper Tribunal led by Leon Glenister KC.

Betty accepts pro bono instructions where appropriate and is a member of Advocate’s panel of barristers. She is a member of the Young Legal Aid Lawyers group, and is keen to develop a practice with access to justice at its core.