He is a highly effective and incisive counsel.
Chambers & Partners, 2024
A good and sensible opponent. He's very measured and concise.
Chambers and Partners, 2021
Hilton provides clear and concise advice."
Chambers & Partners, 2024
He's very pragmatic and makes powerful submissions.
Chambers and Partners, 2021
Calm, measured and experienced.
Chambers and Partners, 2021
He often comes up with creative solutions to legal problems
Chambers & Partners, 2024
He has good drafting skills, is personable and clients like his unflustered approach.
Legal 500, 2018
He’s very approachable, gets back to you very quickly and you feel that you can ask ridiculous questions when you need a bit of reassurance. He’s good at setting out risks to local authorities.
Chambers and Partners, 2018
He is very shrewd, wise, measured and experienced. He is more than a safe pair of hands.
Chambers and Partners, 2018
A man of great experience and knowledge whom it's always a pleasure to work with.
Chambers and Partners, 2019
He has a very nice manner in court.
Chambers and Partners, 2020
He's very pragmatic, sensible and willing to take difficult points on behalf of local authorities.
Chambers and Partners, 2020
He's a safe pair of hands and has a very relaxed, calm manner.
Chambers and Partners, 2020
A very experienced local authority advocate.
Chambers and Partners, 2022
Hilton is really helpful and grasps the issues very quickly.
Chambers and Partners, 2022
Hilton has an encyclopedic knowledge of community care.
Chambers and Partners, 2023
He is very experienced
Chambers and Partners, 2023
He has a very good knowledge and understanding of local authorities.
Chambers and Partners, 2023

Tony Harrop-Griffiths practises in public (administrative) law.  His main clients are local authorities, principally their Social Services departments.  He is instructed on a regular basis by about a third of the London boroughs, as well as several city and some county councils.  He is also occasionally instructed in claims against authorities.

He has a detailed knowledge of all administrative law issues that relate to the work of Social Services, in particular with regard to the relationship between community care and immigration/asylum legislation.  He uses this knowledge in advisory work, in the High Court in claims for judicial review, in the formulation of policies and procedures and in lectures and seminars.  His general civil work mostly relates to the recovery of charges for community care, in particular where there is a personal injury claim.

Most of his reported cases concern local authority support for children and families under the Children Act 1989. However, his work as a whole is evenly split between this area and matters concerning adults, including under the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

If you would like more information about Tony’s practice, please contact his clerks or call +44 (0)20 7405 6114.

 

Current workload

Tony’s current workload includes:

Support for persons from abroad: Schedule 3 to the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, human rights, EU Treaty rights, M v. Slough cases, section 4 support from NASS, age assessments

Mainstream community care: Ordinary residence disputes, reduction in services (consultation, legitimate expectation and disability discrimination), direct payments, NHS continuing care, CRAG, charging and personal injury claims, relationship between housing assistance and section 21 accommodation

Mainstream support for children and families: Relationship between sections 17 and 20 of the Children Act, payments to special guardians and adopters, leaving care functions, intentionally homeless families, inter-authority disputes

Mental health: Court of Protection work (both property and welfare), after-care services, displacement of nearest relative

Confidentiality and disclosure: Data protection, PII

He also has experience of claims for judicial review concerning housing, education, local government finance, immigration and inquests

Recent cases

Other notable cases

Rankings

  • Leading Barrister in Community Care and Local Government – Chambers and Partners, 2022
  • Leading Barrister in Community Care and Local Government – Chambers and Partners, 2021
  • Leading Junior in Administrative and public law (including local government) – Legal 500, 2015
  • Band 1 Leading Junior in Community Care – Chambers & Partners 2013
  • Leading Junior Local Government & Public Law – Legal 500 2013 and  2012
  • Leading Junior in Community Care – Legal 500 2011 “One of the best community care barristers in practice”

Education

  • BA (Manchester)

Professional memberships

  • ALBA