Wesley Gryk, senior partner and founder of the firm, is a dual British-American national and has practised law in both countries. He obtained his BA(Hons) from Harvard College and his JD(Hons) from Harvard Law School. He also attended the University of Warsaw for one year on a Fulbright Fellowship. He began his legal career as judicial clerk to the late Honorable Constance Baker Motley, US District Judge in the Southern District of New York (Manhattan), who was the first black woman appointed to the US Federal Judiciary. He went on to work for four years for Shearman and Sterling, a large New York corporate law firm, first in New York City and then in Hong Kong.

He moved to the United Kingdom in 1980 to take up the post of Deputy Representative and Legal Adviser to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and went on to work in London for the International Secretariat of Amnesty International for five years, first as its Deputy Legal Adviser and then as the Deputy Head of the organisation's research department. After retraining to become a solicitor in this country, he worked for a number of years with the highly respected civil liberties lawyer Ben Birnberg of B.M. Birnberg and Co, before setting up Wesley Gryk Solicitors in 1995. Wesley served two terms as a member of the Law Society Council, the governing body for solicitors in England and Wales, with responsibility for immigration matters. He also previously was a board member of the Refugee Legal Centre, the Redress Trust and the Legal Aid Practitioners Group. He has travelled extensively on international human rights missions having, for example, attended the trial of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and of Abdullah Ocalan in Turkey on behalf of Amnesty International and the trial of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in Malaysia on behalf of Human Rights Watch. He was involved in much of the litigation, campaigning and lobbying which resulted in the implementation of the current unmarried partners and civil partnership rules and he continues to undertake voluntary work on these issues.

His practice covers the full range of immigration issues and, in particular, his strength in gay rights cases is well acknowledged. He has represented the UNHCR in two important House of Lords cases relating to immigration law - Shah and Islam, about the persecution of women in Pakistan, and Sepet and Bulbul, relating to conscientious objection in Turkey.

Alison Hunter, who became a partner in the firm on 1 October 2006, was educated in Switzerland, Germany and the United Kingdom. She read law with French law at King's College, London and went on to do a Masters degree in Human Rights Law at University College, London. After her training at Freshfields, she joined Wesley Gryk Solicitors in 1997 as a solicitor. Her practice covers all aspects of immigration and nationality law, with particular emphasis on EU free movement law, asylum and human rights law. She maintains close links with German lawyers and academics working in the field of immigration. She was formerly a visiting lecturer for immigration law at Westminster University and a Management Committee Member of the Centre for Advice on Individual Rights in Europe and a board member of the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association.

Barry O'Leary, who became a partner in the firm on 1 October 2006, read law at Cambridge University and attended law school at the College of Law, London. He qualified as a solicitor in 1997 and joined Wesley Gryk Solicitors in January 2000. His practice deals with the full range of immigration and nationality issues, with a particular emphasis on applications based on same sex relationships and also on asylum and human rights claims on the basis of sexual orientation. In his spare time, he works as a volunteer lawyer providing legal advice on these issues. He was heavily involved in the consultation process leading up to the introduction of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 and has given a number of lectures on the immigration aspects of this Act. He is the author of the immigration chapter of the Law Society Publication "Civil Partnership – the Law in Practice".

Tim Barnden read English at Cambridge University and converted to Law studying at the College of Law in London. He qualified as a solicitor in 1998 and has specialized in immigration and asylum work since then. He undertakes advice and representation across the full range of immigration and asylum law. In recent years he has been involved closely with the asylum project of the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group (UKLGIG) as well as being an Executive Committee member of the Immigration Law Practitioners Association (ILPA) for the years 2007-9. He also continues to undertake and is known for his training work. In his spare time Tim is learning Spanish.

Having graduated with a degree in East Asian Studies from Leeds University, Carolyn Stirk worked for three years in local government on the Japanese island of Okinawa. She then returned to the United Kingdom and spent two years with International Alert, a peace-building non-governmental organisation, before joining Wesley Gryk as a paralegal in 2002. Carolyn subsequently completed her solicitors' training contract with Wesley Gryk and works now with the firm as a solicitor, having qualified in April 2007.

Katie Dilger joined Wesley Gryk Solicitors in 2007. She read law at Oxford University and later trained as a solicitor at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer where she qualified into the corporate department in 2004. Post-qualification, Katie worked on a range of corporate transactions and also spent six months working as an in-house lawyer on secondment to a client. In autumn 2006 she left Freshfields to read an LLM in Public International Law at the London School of Economics. After completing her Masters Katie joined Wesley Gryk Solicitors. Katie's practice at the firm encompasses a full range of personal immigration, asylum and nationality matters.

Ilona Bannister, originally from New York, obtained a BS(Hons) from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. After several years working with young people on leadership development and cultural diversity in US universities, Ilona went on to earn a Master's degree in international affairs and human rights from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York, where she focused on women's human rights and sex trafficking prevention. Ilona obtained her JD(Hons) from Brooklyn Law School, where she concentrated on asylum and immigration law, and was admitted to the New York Bar. Ilona joined the firm in 2008, where she completed her training and qualified as solicitor in 2009.

Diana Baxter is a trainee solicitor at Wesley Gryk. Having graduated with 1st class honours in Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford, Diana went on to work as a paralegal at a Chinese law firm specialising in foreign direct investment, employment, media and land law. Returning to the UK, Diana achieved a distinction MSc in Development Studies at the London School of Economics, following which she spent a period undertaking postgraduate studies in sociology of law and migration at the University of California. Diana is currently studying the Legal Practice Course part-time while working at Wesley Gryk Solicitors. She expects to qualify as a solicitor in early 2012.

Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession ranks Wesley Gryk Solicitors LLP equal first amongst personal immigration practices in London. Wesley Gryk, Alison Hunter, Barry O'Leary and Tim Barnden are all named as leading individual practioners.

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