Prince Harry’s trailblazing human rights lawyer: Award-winning Shaheed Fatima, 48, who was first hijab-wearing barrister to take silk and once represented Mike Ashley almost took a very different career path
The lawyer representing Prince Harry in his latest court case has been hailed as a trailblazer – while being the first barrister taking silk to wear a hijab.
Shaheed Fatima, 48, is representing the Duke of Sussex this week at London‘s High Court as he continues to battle the Government over his personal protection funding.
Her previous clients include ex-Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley, who she represented when he was in charge of football club Newcastle United and in dispute with the Premier League.
Ms Fatima was identified early on in her career as a potential high-flier – and was included in a six-strong list of ‘stars’ under 30 by The Lawyer journal in 2005.
Two years later the Times acclaimed as her as one of 10 ‘Future Stars of the Bar’ and she was also the Human Rights Lawyer of the Year Award by campaign groups Liberty and Justice for her work on human rights cases.
Ms Fatima became the first hijab-wearing barrister to be appointed Queen’s Counsel, in 2016 – with the role now known as KC, or King’s Counsel following Charles III’s accession.
And in 2019 now-Home Secretary Yvette Cooper presented her with children’s charity Theirworld’s ‘#WritetheWrong Award’.
The Labour politician praised Ms Fatima for having ‘tirelessly championed the protection of vulnerable and marginalised children living in conflict affected areas’.
Shaheed Fatima, 48, is representing the Duke of Sussex this week at London’s High Court
Harry, seen outside court on Tuesday, is battling the Government over his personal protection funding following his and wife Meghan’s decision in 2020 to quit frontline royal duties
Shaheed Fatima (left) was presented by Yvette Cooper (right) the children’s charity Theirworld’s ‘#WritetheWrong Award’ at an event in London in March 2019
Yet for her all her legal success, Ms Fatima’s life could have taken a different turn, with the option of a law career vying with other ambitions.
Ms Fatima has revealed how close she came to snubbing law school and instead pursuing life as an artist.
She has instead this week been spearheading Prince Harry’s legal case against the Home Office.
She told the court that Al Qaeda called for Harry’s murder and said his death would ‘please the Muslim community’ in a threat after his taxpayer-funded bodyguards were pulled following the ‘Megxit’ withdrawal from frontline royal duties in 2020.
Harry also feels he has been ‘singled out’ for ‘unjustified, inferior treatment’ since Megxit, the Court of Appeal in London heard on Monday.
Ms Fatima, a KC since 2016, described the demands by Al Qaeda in her written submissions to the Royal Courts of Justice.
The bombshell claim was made after Harry flew from Montecito to London for the latest stage of his legal battle with the Home Office.
The case centres around the decision in February 2020 by the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) that the Duke should receive a different degree of protection when in the country.
The Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan Markle ‘felt forced to step back’ from frontline royal duties in 2020 ‘as they considered they were not being protected by the institution’, his KC Shaheed Fatima (pictured on Tuesday) has told a court
Prince Harry making pre-flight checks in the cockpit at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan in 2012
His lead lawyer Ms Shaheed is a member of London-based Blackstone Chambers, whose website tells how she specialises in commercial law, civil liberties and human rights, public law, regulatory law and public international law.
Tributes shared online include descriptions such as ‘razor-sharp, incredibly hard-working and loved by clients for her clear and direct advice’.
She is also hailed by contemporaries as ‘extremely diligent and very thorough’ – while London based legal guide Chambers and Partners tips her as ‘Supreme Court judge material, that’s how good she is’.
Ms Fatima, who is married. studied at Glasgow University before taking a bachelor of law course at Oxford and a masters degree at Harvard in the US.
She has been shortlisted for a series of prizes, including Group Litigation and Consumer Silk of the Year at last year’s Legal 500 Bar Awards following on from International Law Silk of the Year in 2023.
She has been involved in high-profile cases before Harry’s latest, including her work representing the family of Baha Mousa who died in British custody in the Iraqi city of Basra in 2003.
Mr Mousa, 26, a hotel receptionist, died after being seized by UK forces during a raid on suspected insurgents.
Ms Fatima became the first hijab-wearing barrister to be appointed Queen’s Counsel, in 2016
Shaheed Fatima KC, watched by her client the Duke of Sussex, said in written submissions that Al Qaeda had called for Harry ‘to be murdered’
He was taken to Darul Dhyafa military base for questioning where he was so badly beaten he collapsed after sustaining 93 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose.
In September 2011, a public inquiry found Mr Mousa and nine other detainees suffered ‘an appalling episode of serious gratuitous violence’ by members of 1st Battalion the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment (1QLR).
Ms Fatima was involved in the House of Lords case that ultimately ruled the Human Rights Act 1998 applied to the conduct of British soldiers who arrested and detained Mr Mousa.
She was also called upon by business mogul Mike Ashley during his ownership of Premier League club Newcastle United, before he sold to a consortium including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in 2021.
She and colleagues at Blackstone Chambers represented the club in efforts to get the Premier League to let the Saudi sale go ahead after an initial rejection of approval.
Ms Fatima previously presented the main report for an inquiry on protecting children in conflict, chaired in 2017 by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Yet she could have been tempted elsewhere before committing herself to law, Ms Fatima herself revealed in an interview.
When asked by the Times what she would have done if not a lawyer, Ms Fatima replied: ‘I would have been an artist.
Shaheed Fatima, seen on Tuesday, is representing Harry over the loss of his UK security detail
Former Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley, pictured at their home ground St James’ Park in September 2007, hired lawyers included Ms Fatima in his efforts to sell the club
‘Choosing between law school and art school was a difficult decision.’
She also opened up on other subjects, including her ‘worst day as a lawyer’.
She told the newspaper: ‘It is difficult to isolate one – losing cases is never easy – but a particularly bad experience was travelling up to Carlisle the evening before my first hearing in the county court and realising, when I finally arrived at the hotel late at night, that I had left my suit in chambers.
‘The next morning I had to buy (and change into) a suit on my way to court.’
When asked about the most influential people in her life, she said: ‘In terms of my career: my parents, my husband, and the late Professor Peter Birks, who not only taught me on restitution but was a friend and mentor.’
And the advice she offered to aspiring lawyers was: ‘Make sure you really want it: it is a calling as much as it is a profession.’
In her latest case, the High Court was told how Harry and his wife Meghan quit as senior working royals in January 2020 but ‘wished to continue their duties in support of the late Queen as privately funded members of the royal family.
In her written submissions, parts of which were redacted for confidentiality reasons, Ms Fatima said Ravec ruled in 2020 that ‘there is no basis for publicly funded security support for the Duke and Duchess within Great Britain’.
She is seen at charity Theirworld’s International Women’s Day event in London in March 2019
Shaheed Fatima KC, the lawyer representing Prince Harry, and her team leave the High Court in central London on Tuesday this week
The High Court was told how Harry (pictured on Tuesday) and his wife Meghan quit as senior working royals in January 2020 but ‘wished to continue their duties in support of the late Queen as privately funded members of the royal family’
Ms Fatima said the Duke’s security ‘does not appear to have been discussed at any formal Ravec meeting’, adding there were ‘no official notes or detailed minutes recording the approach to be taken’ to his protection.
The court was told that a meeting took place at Buckingham Palace on January 27 2020, but in February 2020, Sir Richard Mottram – the then-chairman of Ravec – said a risk management board assessment would not be carried out for the duke.
In court on Tuesday, Ms Fatima said that by failing to undertake an RMB assessment, Ravec ‘did not apply its own terms of reference’ to its decision-making process, and came up with a ‘different and so-called ‘bespoke process’ for Harry.
She continued in written submissions that the decision was made ‘despite the existence of the other categories that only Ravec knew of at the time and which, as (the duke) now knows, do provide a basis for protective security’.
This meant the duke was ‘not in a position to make any informed representations to Ravec’.
The Home Office, which is legally responsible for Ravec’s decisions, is opposing the appeal.
Its barrister Sir James Eadie KC said in written submissions that the appeal ‘involves a continued failure to see the wood for the trees’.
He said: ‘Whether by reference to rationality generally, or by reference to the absence of an RMB analysis, (the duke) cannot show that the judge was wrong to reject his claim that his circumstances were so exceptional as to justify not just the specific bespoke process focused on him, but to require general inclusion within the Ravec cohort.’
The hearing before Sir Geoffrey Vos, Lord Justice Bean and Lord Justice Edis is due to conclude on Wednesday with a decision expected in writing at a later date.
