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Flora Curtis
Year of call: 2019
Flora’s practice is focused on environmental, planning and public law.
Flora has been ranked as one of the top planning barristers under the age of 35. She acts for a wide range of
clients including NGOs, central and local government, developers and landowners, and local residents.
She regularly appears in court, inquiries and hearings, both in her own right and as junior counsel. Flora has particular experience in cases involving complex environmental matters, and has acted in high profile climate change litigation. Between August 2023 and March 2024, she was seconded to the Office for Environmental Protection.
In appropriate cases, Flora undertakes work on a pro-bono basis.
Areas of expertise
Environment
Flora has particular expertise in environmental law, advising regularly on domestic and international environmental law. She acts for both NGOs, local interest groups, and central Government. Many of her cases have involved novel and complex environmental issues. Flora has a particular interest in climate change, the protection of habitats and species, marine protection, and environmental assessment.
Until recently Flora was on secondment to the Office for Environmental Protection. She gained experience across the range of the OEP’s work, including complaints and investigations into breaches of environmental law, the monitoring of environmental law, and interventions in judicial and statutory review proceedings.
Cases of note:
- R (Friends of the Earth Ltd) v Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [2022] EWHC 1841 - Flora acted as junior counsel to Richard Honey KC and Ned Westaway responding to three landmark challenges to the Net Zero Strategy, published by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The case was the first to interpret ss.13-14 of the Climate Change Act.
Judgment - R (Plan B Earth) v Prime Minister [2021] EWHC (Admin) - Flora acted as junior counsel to Richard Honey KC and Ned Westaway responding to a challenge brought against the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer by Plan B Earth and four individual claimants. The claim raised questions concerning the Government’s overall compliance with the Climate Change Act 2008, the Paris Agreement, and Articles 2, 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Judgment
Planning
Flora has a busy planning practice. She acts for a range of clients including local government, landowners, developers, and local authorities.
Flora has experience bringing and resisting planning statutory and judicial review claims. She also has experience appearing at planning inquiries. She has acted as sole and junior counsel in planning inquiries and local plan examinations, representing local authorities, rule six parties, and developers.
Flora has particular experience in planning cases raising environmental issues, including the need for renewable energy, EIA, carbon emissions, impacts on habitats, BNG, and flooding.
Flora has advised on and appeared in enforcement proceedings.
Cases of note:
- R (Clarke Holland) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 3140 (Admin) - Flora acted as junior counsel to Richard Honey KC at the permission stage, representing the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in an application for permission to challenge an EIA screening direction relating to the use of Wethersfield Airfield as temporary asylum seeker accommodation.
Judgment - Objecting to a proposed solar farm in Northamptonshire - Flora acted as sole counsel representing a rule six party seeking to prevent the development of agricultural land for the provision of a 49.9MW Solar Photovoltaic Farm.
- Resisting an appeal made against a s.215 notice - Flora successfully acted for a local authority resisting an appeal brought against a notice issued under section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
Administrative and Public
Flora has experience in a wide range of public and human rights law matters. She has acted in both the High Court and the County Court in public law claims brought by or against individuals, local government, and central government. Flora also has considerable experience advising local authority clients on matters including constitutional arrangements, licensing, and planning.
Flora has an interest in equality law, and the law relating to human rights and civil liberties. She has been involved in a number of cases concerning the relationship between human rights and climate change.
Cases of note:
- R (Plan B Earth) v Prime Minister [2021] EWHC (Admin) - Flora acted as junior counsel to Richard Honey KC and Ned Westaway responding to a challenge brought against the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer by Plan B Earth and four individual claimants. The claim raised questions concerning whether the Government’s overall compliance with the Climate Change Act 2008, the Paris Agreement breached the Claimants’ rights under Articles 2, 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Judgment - Whitehouse v Secretary of State for Justice (unreported) - Flora was instructed by the Secretary of State for Justice to respond to an application for permission to apply for judicial review brought by a prisoner who alleged that the Secretary of State’s decision to depart from Parole Board recommendations was unreasonable.
Memberships
- UK Environmental Law Association (UKELA)
- Administrative Law Bar Association (ALBA)
- Human Rights Lawyers Association (HRLA)
- Planning and Environmental Bar Association (PEBA)
Qualifications
Education
- 2019, City, University of London, BPTC – Very Competent
- 2018, City, University of London, GDL – Distinction
- 2017, University of Cambridge, MPhil in Early Modern History – Distinction
- 2016, University of Edinburgh, MA in History – First
Scholarships and prizes
- EFTA Court Scholarship, Lincoln’s Inn (2019)
- Thomas More Scholarship, Lincoln’s Inn (2018)
- Lady Katherine Barnardiston Scholarship, St Catharine’s College Cambridge (2018)
- College Award, St Catharine’s College Cambridge (2018)
Additional information
Before coming to the Bar, Flora spent four months as a trainee in the cabinet of Judge Bernd Hammermann at the Court of Justice of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). She gained experience in the application of EEA law in a wide range of contexts. Flora also spent three months volunteering as a research assistant to Professor Meg Russell, Director of the UCL Constitution Unit, conducting research into Brexit, parliament, and parliamentary sovereignty.
Outside of practice, Flora is the Deputy Chair of Legal Voices for the Future, a collaborative learning forum whose objective is to give voice to a new generation of lawyers on issues connected to the climate and biodiversity crises.
