The lawyer representing campaigners behind a landmark judgement at the Supreme Court this year has won a major award.

Estelle Dehon KC has been named planning and environment silk of the year in the Chambers UK Bar Awards 2024.

She represented Sarah Finch and the Weald Action Group in their successful legal challenge over the climate impact of fossil fuel developments.

The repercussions of the judgement, issued in June 2024, have been widespread. Permissions have since been overturned for a new coal mine in Cumbria, oil field expansion at Wressle near Scunthorpe and oil drilling and production at Biscathorpe in Lincolnshire.

The government also announced it would not defend recent legal challenges by Greenpeace UK and Uplift to the development consents for the Rosebank oil field off Shetland and the Jackdaw gas field off Aberdeen.

In the past 10 years, Ms Dehon has represented campaigners against fracking and onshore oil and gas developments.

She was the barrister for Friends of the Earth at the public inquiry in 2016 into Cuadrilla’s fracking plans at Preston New Road and Roseacre Wood in Lancashire. The government allowed the Preston New Road application but refused fracking at Roseacre Wood.

She later represented the campaigner, Gayzer Frackman, in his legal challenge to the grant of permission for fracking at Preston New Road and acted in a Court of Appeal challenge over emergency planning at the same site.

Ms Dehon also represented Frack Free Ellesmere Port and Upton at the public inquiry in 2019 into plans for well testing by IGas at its shale gas well at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire. In this case, the government blocked the company’s proposals and backed the arguments of the campaigners and local council.

This year, she represented South Lakes Action Against Climate Change in its legal challenge to the Cumbrian coal mine at the High Court. She also represented Communities Against Gatwick Noise Emissions at a six-month examination of plans to expand the airport.

She has also advised local authorities on net zero and energy efficiency planning polices and international organisations on aviation and shipping emissions.

Ms Dehon is a KC at Cornerstone Barristers. She took silk in 2022 and in the following year founded Cornerstone Climate, a cross-disciplinary centre of excellence for climate litigation and advisory services.

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