Pride & Prejudice: Memoirs of an LGBTIQ+ Rights Lawyer  Event

Listed as a Leading Junior in Immigration by the legal directories for the past decade, Chambers and Partners UK 2017 refers to him as “an esteemed and highly respected immigration barrister who is particularly recognised for his LGBTQ rights work.”, with one source commenting “he is extremely well respected for his LGBTQ asylum seeker cases”, and another stating he “knows everything there is to know about same sex asylum seeker cases”. Awarded Legal Aid Barrister of the Year award in 2014 in recognition of his national and international expertise in the field, he is additionally profiled by the Black Law Directory as a “powerhouse” in their 2015 Power list of the top 32 black lawyers.

The Bar Council, Law Society and CILEX named him a Legal Hero for Legal Pride in 2015. Chelvan litigates from the First-tier Tribunal to the Supreme Court and the European Courts, developing a case precedent practice in LGBTQ asylum law for the past 15 years. His Difference, Stigma, Shame and Harm model, invented in 2011 to create a human approach to determining an LGBTQ asylums claim is now used globally by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the International Organization of Migration and lawyers, activists, and governments throughout the world including New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and since 2015, the UK’s Home Office.

In November 2015, the Independent on Sunday ranked him the highest ranked lawyer at Number 43 for their Rainbow List of the 101 most influential LGBTI individuals in the UK.