Matthew Evans

Matthew Evans is a Solicitor and has been the Director of the AIRE Centre since October 2013. Prior to joining the AIRE Centre, Matthew was Managing Solicitor at the Prisoners Advice Service and in private practice, where he undertook mental health, community care and public law work. 

Matthew has been involved in 20 cases before the UK Supreme Court including Janah and Benkarbouche (challenge to UK’s State Immunity Act), AM (Zimbabwe) (the applicable test for when removal of seriously ill people to their country of origin breaches Article 3), Gubeladze (challenge to Worker Registration Scheme extension), Simkova (concerning the EU social security co-ordination rules) and MS (Pakistan) (the identification/treatment of trafficking victims and application of ECAT), as well as a number of other cases in the UK Higher Courts such as Gureckis (EU Rough Sleeper challenge), MK (Pakistan) (Extended Family Members appeal rights) and Hafeez (the need for the Home Secretary to conduct proportionality assessments in every removal/deportation  case). Third Party Interventions in the European Courts, include cases on LGBTI rights (Sabalic v Croatia and Oliari and others v Italy), and immigration detention (OM v Hungary), as well as before the CJEU such as NA (derived rights and domestic violence victims) and Bajraktari (self-sufficiency and Chen parents). 

Matthew conducts direct litigation in the First Tier and Upper Tribunals. He was awarded Human Rights Solicitor of the Year at the Law Society Excellence Awards 2020 (having been shortlisted in 2017 and 2018) and highly commended in the Managing Partner category of the Modern Law awards in 2023. He was formerly Director of External Relations at Queen Mary University of London and holds degrees from Southampton, LSE and King's College London. 

Matthew is a co-author of European Court of Human Rights and Mental Health: The Case Law, published in October 2024 by Bloomsbury. This book was given the first ever international book award by the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association in 2025.