Rachel is a solicitor in our Actions against Police and State team.
She works on a wide range of claims including false imprisonment, assault, malicious prosecution, misfeasance in public office, discrimination, misuse of private information and breaches of the Human Rights Act and Data Protection Act.
She regularly represents bereaved families during inquests and other related proceedings where individuals have died whilst in police custody or under the care of mental health services.
Rachel has expertise in bringing urgent judicial review challenges on behalf of individuals who are being detained under immigration powers and facing removal from the UK and she often represents vulnerable adults who are victims of torture and trafficking.
Rachel also has a particular interest in asserting individuals’ rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly under Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Education and career
- Rachel joined Bindmans in 2014 and qualified as a solicitor in March 2017.
Experience
Cases in the news
- Sarah Everard vigil protester will bring civil suit against Met Police after charges ‘discontinued’
- ‘They saw me as calculating, not a child’: how adultification leads to black children being treated as criminals
- Traumatised asylum seeker in Greece must be reunited with brother in the UK, court rules
- Kent Police apologises ‘unreservedly’ to journalist unlawfully arrested while documenting Napier Barracks protest
- Woman arrested at Sarah Everard vigil to start legal challenge against Met
- Three police officers sacked for lying after teenager left paralysed for life in scuffle outside nightclub
- Education department to review English schools guidance on anti-capitalist groups
- Charity fined £40,000 after death of a teenager in its care
- Family of Reading man ‘sceptical’ police will make improvements after custody death
- CPS under fire for delay in charging man accused of raping boy, 12
- Thames Valley Police apologises over man’s heroin death in cell
Recognition
What clients say
Rachel has provided us with amazing support, advice and representation for the last two years.
– Bereaved family
Rachel is an incredibly talented person. She took on full responsibility for our extremely complex and distressing case after Charlotte went on maternity leave. Her ability to collate, understand and process the huge volume of evidence, prepare submissions, guide us through the legal complexities and support two barristers shows what an outstanding lawyer she is.
What the family has really appreciated, and feels hugely personally grateful to Rachel for, has been her sensitivity, understanding and empathy towards us all. She continues to support us and it is hard to imagine how we would cope without her ability to combine her legal work with her clearly sincere human interest in our case.
– Bereaved family
Legal directories
Chambers and Partners 2023
- Rachel is recognised as an ‘Associate to Watch’ in Civil Liberties & Human Rights. She is well versed in representing clients in civil and public law challenges, particularly in contentious inquests and claims relating to immigration detention.
- “Rachel is recommended and trusted by many because she is outstanding in every way.”
- “Rachel is a fantastic up-and-coming solicitor in the field.”
- Rachel is also ranked as an ‘Associate to Watch’ in Police Law: Mainly Claimant. She is described as having “a really good eye for detail.”
- Rachel Harger regularly works on both civil and public law claims for clients including individuals who have suffered harm by the police and the families of individuals who have died in police custody.
- She is ranked as an ‘Associate to Watch’ in Protest Law.
- “Rachel has always shown exceptional insight and understanding into the sensitivities involved and the communities affected.”
- She is dedicated to protecting the rights of protesters, often representing activists in multi-claimant civil litigation against the police.
- Feedback says “She is a really committed lawyer who is always spot-on.”
Chambers and Partners 2022
- Rachel is ranked as an ‘Associate to Watch’ in Civil Liberties and Human Rights.
- Feedback describes her as a “real star of the future” and “brilliant technically.”
- “Rachel is extremely engaged and brings a lot of political nous; she is able to bring forth and reach different client groups.”
- Rachel is also ranked as an ‘Associate to Watch’ in Police Law: Mainly Claimant. Feedback says she “goes above and beyond what is required.”
- “She is phenomenal; she’s a committed solicitor who is very good with clients.”
Awards
- In 2016 Rachel and her Bindmans’ Hillsborough Team colleagues jointly with other Hillsborough Family Legal Teams won an Outstanding Achievement Award at LALY Awards.
Professional memberships
- Law Society
- Police Action Lawyers Group
- NETPOL Lawyers
- Stonewall Litigation Advisory Group
- Inquest Lawyers Group
Publications
Rachel has provided comment for the below articles:
Comments
- Nearly 1,000 police officers operating in UK schools, figures show
- #StudentsNotSuspects – we must make Prevent unworkable
- Now is the time to re-examine how state institutions serve us
- Immigration detention and the politics of Covid-19
- Calls to stop the extension of stop-and-search powers in new policing bill
- A serious annoyance? How the policing bill could stifle climate protests
