Anja Lansbergen-Mills

Call 2014

lansbergen-mills@exchangechambers.co.uk

"Anja is very thorough, a strategic thinker, and very easy to work with. Her advocacy is is first rate; she is clear, measured, tenacious, and clearly respected by the judges."

The Legal 500, 2025
Photo of Anja Lansbergen-Mills

  • Recommendations

    “Her technical knowledge is excellent and she is very dedicated.”

    “Anja is a quality young barrister on the up; she’s technically very good and easy to work with.”

    “Anja is ferociously bright, very responsive and great to work with as part of a team; she really knows what solicitors want from counsel.”

    “Her level of work and the consistency of her work certainly makes her someone whose name is thought of in the field.”

    “Anja is incredibly hard-working. I always get the impression she has researched all angles of a problem; she’s never going to be caught off guard. She’s a really confident advocate.”

    “Anja Lansbergen-Mills is excellent all round.”
    Chambers and Partners 2025

    “Anja is very thorough, a strategic thinker, and very easy to work with. Her advocacy is is first rate; she is clear, measured, tenacious, and clearly respected by the judges.”

    The Legal 500 2025

    “Anja is very technical, and both her advocacy and drafting skills are excellent.”

    “Anja is fantastic on her feet. She is always incredibly well prepared.”

    “Anja is a fearless fighter in court.”
    Chambers and Partners 2024

    “Anja is thorough and always incredibly well-prepared, meaning you can always rely on her to know her brief inside out. Her preparation feeds into her advocacy, and she is smart on her feet, always armed with answers to potentially difficult questions, and is very effective as a result.”
    The Legal 500 2024

    “Anja is very commercial and very pragmatic. She cuts through complex legal issues.”

    “Anja is very thorough, proactive and measured.”

    “She is very hard-working and articulate.”
    Chambers and Partners 2023

    ‘Impressive approach, thinks outside the box and really considers client requirements and aims. Really easy to work with and presents well before clients.’
    The Legal 500 2023

    “She is a safe pair of hands and always goes the extra mile to make sure her advice is spot on and we have everything we need.”

    “Anja is very commercial and she can focus on what we’re trying to achieve for the client, cutting out all the noise and making my life easier. She is focused on results rather than getting embroiled in spats with other parties.”
    Chambers and Partners 2022

    “She is one of those people who comes across as being really reasonable in her approach.” “Very polished and approachable, and very good with clients.”
    Chambers and Partners 2021

  • Beyond the Bar

    Whilst studying for her PhD Anja was employed by the University of Edinburgh as a research fellow on EUDO Citizenship, a large-scale European Commission funded project. She has occupied a number of other research roles whilst at the University and has taught EU Law to both undergraduate and masters students.

    Whilst living in Germany Anja completed an internship at the United Nations Volunteering Service. She has worked for a period at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Edinburgh and continues to be an avid ‘foodie’. Anja assisted with the Girl Guiding Association for over four years, both in Edinburgh and upon her return to her native Manchester.

  • Education

    • BPTC, Manchester Metropolitan University (2014) (Outstanding)
    • Baron Dr Ver Heyden De Lancey Prize, Middle Temple (2015)
    • Certificate of Honour, Middle Temple (2014)
    • Queen Mother’s Scholarship (Middle Temple Major Scholarship) (2013)
    • PhD, University of Edinburgh (2013)
    • Collaborative Doctoral Award, Arts and Humanities Research Council (2008)
    • LLM, University of Edinburgh (2008) (Distinction)
    • James Madison Scholarship (2007)
    • BA (Hons), Wadham College, University of Oxford (2007)
    • Erasmus year spent at the University of Bonn, 2005 – 2006
    • Wadham College Scholarship for Academic Achievement (2003 – 2007)
    • Sarah Lawrence Scholarship (2004)

  • Appointments

    • Member of the Civil Procedure Rule Committee (appointed from 12 October 2018 for 3 years)
    • Junior Counsel to the Crown by the Attorney General (Regional Civil Panel C)

  • Memberships

    • Northern Circuit Commercial Bar Association
    • Northern Chancery Bar Association

  • Publications

    • ‘Prisoner Disenfranchisement in the United Kingdom and the Scope of EU Law’ (2014) 10(1) European Constitutional Law Review 126
    • ‘Recent CJEU decisions on European Citizenship: A case-study in judicial activism’ (2012) Federal Trust Policy Brief
    • ‘European Citizenship Rights in Internal Situations: An Ambiguous Revolution?’ (Co- authored with N Miller) (2011) 7(2) European Constitutional Law Review 287
    • ‘National Membership Models in a Multi-Level Europe’ (Co-authored with J Shaw) (2010) 8(1) International Journal of Constitutional Law 50
    • ‘Metock, Implementation of the Citizens’ Rights Directive and Lessons for EU Citizenship’ (2009) 31(3) Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 285
    • ‘Testing the Limits of European Citizenship’ (2009) Federal Trust Policy Brief

  • News

Practice Overview

Anja specialises in commercial dispute resolution and insolvency. She is frequently instructed by insolvency office holders and their assignees in actions against directors and is well placed to act in shareholder actions and associated matters.

Anja gained recognition in the legal directories from an early stage in her career. She is ranked by Chambers and Partners as a band 3 leading junior in commercial dispute resolution and is identified as ‘up and coming’ in the field of restructuring/insolvency. The Legal 500 ranks Anja as a tier 2 leading junior in the field of company and insolvency.

Anja’s strength lies in combining a forensic attention to detail with strong technical skill and sound commercial judgement. Clients have observed that she is “fantastic on her feet”, “always incredibly well prepared” and “a fearless fighter in court” (Chambers and Partners 2024) and have described Anja as “commercial and very pragmatic” and “very hard-working and articulate” (Chambers and Partners 2023). Anja relates well with clients and is astute in her pursuit of their objectives, generating feedback that she “really considers client requirements and aims” and is “really easy to work with and presents well before clients” (Legal 500 2023).

Anja has proved a popular choice for led work, through which she has acquired experience of drafting, advocacy and strategy formulation in high value and complex disputes. Led briefs include a c.£4m fraud claim in which she obtained a without-notice freezing order and proprietary injunction, and subsequent Norwich Pharmacal relief, and an application brought by administrators of a peer-to-peer lending platform concerning the treatment of security realisations.

Anja’s experience otherwise includes:

  • Advising trustees in bankruptcy in respect of a purported secured debt of c.£1.5m;
  • Advising on an intimated claim concerning misuse of confidential information, for damages of c.£500k-800k;
  • Defending a claim for specific performance on the grounds of the contract being induced by misrepresentation, and counterclaiming for rescission or damages of c.£230k;
  • Securing undertakings on an application for injunctive relief brought in the course of a s.994 petition, to restrain ongoing prejudicial conduct detrimental to the company;
  • Successfully defending an application for an administration order brought on the basis of a contingent debt of circa £337k, where the contingent event was one of solvency (Interactive Digital Systems Ltd v VST Enterprises Ltd [2021] EWHC 887 (Ch)).

Anja has a firm grounding in matters of procedure. In 2018 she was appointed by the Lord Chancellor as a barrister member of the Civil Procedure Rule Committee, and thereafter was re-appointed for a second three-year term in 2021. Whilst a member of the Committee Anja has worked on projects including the re-write of Part 81 on Contempt, on which she presented to the Law Society alongside Mr Justice Kerr.

Anja was appointed as junior counsel to the Crown (regional panel C) commencing 1 March 2021, since which she has regularly appeared for the Secretary of State in director disqualification proceedings. Anja also sits on the advisory board to the University of Liverpool School of Law, which she was asked to join in 2024.