Prerna joined Birketts in September 2024 as an Associate and is based in our Cambridge office.
Prerna qualified as a Solicitor in 2004 and has over 20 years post qualification experience specialising in social housing and anti-social behaviour litigation. Prior to joining Birketts, she was working as an in-house Senior Litigation Solicitor in Cambridge City, South Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire District Councils.
Her areas of expertise range from advising local authority clients on all matters of social housing, including anti-social behaviour, possessions, trespass, injunctive relief, data protection, defending homelessness appeals and judicial review challenges to conducting advocacy in the County Courts.
Sitting as a Legal Advisor to the Review Panels conducting quasi-judicial hearings, Prerna has frequently advised and trained the Panel members on conducting fair and just reviews, having regard to the Wednesbury principles and the impact of the equality duty under the Equality Act 2010.
Recent work highlights
Prerna successfully represented Cambridge City Council in the County Court to obtain highly challenging and sensitive ASB Injunctions (under the ASB, Crime and Policing Act 2014) to stop city centre wide persistent begging and drug abuse issues. This was covered by BBC Cambridgeshire news.
She also advised and supported local authorities in seeking injunctive relief against individuals and ‘persons unknown’ to prevent trespass on local authority land, following the court of appeal decision of Barking and Dagenham LBC v Persons Unknown [2022] EWCA Civ 13.