Paul Powlesland

Paul Powlesland  (barrister)
Founder of	Lawyers for Nature

Paul Powlesland is a barrister at Garden Court Chambers who specialises in upholding the rights of environmental activists to protest and protect the natural world, and uses environmental law and regulations to defend trees, rivers and wildlife.

As a boat dweller for many years, he is also determined to protect the rights of boaters and other Traveller groups.

On 12 September 2022, Paul Powlesland was threatened with arrest in Parliament Square in London for being a Blank Paper Protestor in relation to the #NotMyKing campaign.

In March 2023, Paul Powlesland was one of more than 120 lawyers who, organised by a group called Lawyers Are Responsible, published a Declaration of Conscience in which they said they will refuse to act for new fossil fuel projects or to prosecute members of campaign groups opposing new fossil fuel projects, such as Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil.

Lawyers for Nature

Paul Powlesland is the co-founder of Lawyers for Nature and regularly gives talks and workshops on the rights of nature, the relationship between the law and the natural world and what barristers and other lawyers should do in a time of climate and ecological emergency.

On 4 February 2023, Paul Powlesland tweeted:

On my way in to the Bar Council meeting this morning, I overheard someone talking about increasing fees for prosecutors. I said we don't want more prosecutors if they will be used to oppress peaceful climate activists. Just found out the person I was talking to was the DPP Max Hill!

After the Bar Council meeting, Paul Powlesland tweeted:

"My first Bar Council meeting today & although many of my arguments about the complicity of the Bar in the climate crisis are controversial, this suggestion of making it as easy as possible for barristers to act pro bono in climate-related cases is hopefully one we can all support."

Dulwich Oaks

In December 2021, Lawyers for Nature tweeted:

A year on, we review the @SaveOaks #Campaign in @wildlondon_SHW, managed by @WildLondon in which we advised the #activist intervention, blocked an #injunction and won a #TPO to #defend a pair of veteran #oaks. Please read @paulpowlesland's #casestudy here.

Case Study

This is a story about Lawyers for Nature’s work on what was variously known as the Dulwich Oaks or Save the Footbridge Oaks Campaign. I was contacted out of the blue by a member of the campaign who had heard about Lawyers for Nature and our work saving trees.

Elizabeth Line first official customer

Station manager's selfie with Paul Powlesland

On 24 May 2022, Paul Powlesland tweeted:

Arrived at Abbey Wood Station at 4:30am to make sure I got a place on the first ever #elizabethline train & I’m the only one here! Had a selfie with the station manager as the very first official Elizabeth Line customer, & got given a cute souvenir pin. Now I wait…

The Chief Operating Officer of the Elizabeth Line just came out of the station to give the first people in line free lapel badges, which was a nice gesture #Elizabethline

After a journey of a speed, smoothness and quietness that we are just not usually used to in London, the first ever Elizabeth Line train arrived at Paddington.

Interviewed on BBC Radio 2 by Jeremy Vine shortly after midday, Paul Powlesland explained that the first train coming from Paddington left 3 minutes later than the Abbey Wood train.

 

A Document by Paul Powlesland

Title	Document type	Publication date	Subject(s)	Description
Document:Peaceful Eco-activism & Lawyers for Nature are Triumphant	Article	22 December 2021	Save Cox's Walk Footbridge Oaks	"We went from trees potentially being unnecessarily felled to allow work to take place, to those trees being not only saved, but protected into the future. That could only be achieved by a combination of peaceful activism and the assistance of Lawyers for Nature. And now, those trees will hopefully far outlive us all, which is a very satisfying outcome indeed."

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:High-stakes fight for one tree comes to an autumnal crunch	Article	19 November 2023	Tim Adams	"If insurers are allowed to succeed here it will threaten many thousands of trees across the country", says barrister Paul Powlesland. "The fact is we all have a stake in Haringey's Oakfield plane – as long as it still stands."
Document:Solidarity with all protesting the imposition of an unelected King	Op-ed	12 September 2022	Radical Independence Campaign	The death of Elizabeth II means the automatic appointment, with no discussion or reflection on our future, of a King manifestly unfit to represent the modern peoples of these islands. Charles is unelected, and unelectable. He would never have been chosen in a democratic system.

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