In Conversation with Jennifer MacLeod

28 November 2025

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The division hosted Jennifer MacLeod, a barrister at Brick Court Chambers, who worked pro bono for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) an intervenor in the Rwanda policy litigation.

 

The Rwanda policy originates from the Migration and Economic Development Partnership announced by the UK government in April 2022. Under this scheme, certain asylum seekers who arrived irregularly in the UK would be sent to Rwanda. Their asylum claims would be processed there, and those granted refugee status would remain in Rwanda rather than return to Britain. 

 

MacLeod was counsel for the UNHCR and described the case as one of the most intense periods of her career. She made clear that the polarised views of this case oversimplified the ruling itself, which did not permanently block the policy. 

 

She also shared her views of pro bono’s place in the legal landscape as indisputably necessary yet troubling that it is relied upon so much, as well as cases which resonated with her from her own career.