I am a public & regulatory law specialist with 30 years of experience. Having worked as a central Government lawyer for 12 years – at the Treasury Solicitor, HM Treasury and the Home Office – I understand the machinery of Government, and the political and policy levers necessary for clients to achieve their strategic and operational objectives.
My clients include public and private bodies, charities, regulators, professional bodies and associations, ombudsmen, corporates and individuals working in a wide range of sectors including central and local government, education, the environment, health and social care, and media and communications.
As a litigator, I have an impressive track record in high profile, complex judicial reviews and statutory appeals at all levels of the domestic system, as well as in the European Court of Human Rights. These cases often involve sensitive human rights arguments.
I am also a recognised expert in the field of Public Inquiries and Inquests, having acted in many of the key inquiries, inquests and investigations of recent years, including: Bloody Sunday and Hutton (representing prominent Government witnesses); Equitable Life; the (Jimmy) Savile Investigation; the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse; the Infected Blood Inquiry; and the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. I was also Deputy Solicitor to the Inquests held following the terrorist attacks on Westminster Bridge, and London Bridge and Borough Market, respectively.
As an advisory lawyer, I have dealt with the full range of public and regulatory law issues, including the modernisation of policy and procedures; the flexible use of existing, often outdated, legislative frameworks to deliver 21st Century imperatives; large-scale engagement and consultation exercises conducted with a view to implementing change projects and programmes; and information law matters, including Freedom of Information Act and data protection requests and challenges, and complex privacy and confidentiality issues. I am also an expert in helping clients prepare for and respond to Parliamentary Select Committee investigations.
As a drafter, I have great expertise in statutory interpretation. I have led the legal teams responsible for primary legislation at the heart of central Government’s reform agenda; and I have long experience of preparing secondary legislation, including statutory instruments and regulatory rules. I am also skilled in the preparation of amendments to Government legislation, and in co-ordinating associated Parliamentary outreach to maximise the prospects of those amendments being accepted and adopted.
I have full rights of audience and have appeared as advocate in a wide range of courts and tribunals.
- Representing a senior executive in connection with the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry I am currently instructed by a senior executive of Post Office Limited to help review the substantial body of evidence made available by the Inquiry team and thereafter to assist in drafting his witness statement and, if necessary, prepare him to appear and give evidence in person to the Inquiry.
- Acted for a major central Government department in connection with the UK Covid-19 Inquiry I led the team responsible for helping the senior officials in the client department prepare their witness evidence, and for co-ordinating and overseeing the associated document review and disclosure exercise.
- Acted in connection with the Brook House Inquiry I represented several detention custody officers in helping to settle their witness evidence and prepare to give live testimony to the Inquiry.
- Provided legal advice and the Secretariat to the Forde Inquiry I led the team responsible for providing comprehensive advice and support to Martin Forde KC and his Panel (Baronesses Lister and Wilcox and Lord Whitty) in investigating and reporting on antisemitism and other forms of discrimination within the Labour Party.
- Acted for a major developer client in a high-profile judicial review I represented the client in this case in defending a judicial review challenge to the decision to grant a Development Consent Order in respect of an airport.
- I advise a schools inspectorate on policy, and equalities and discrimination, issues, data protection and Freedom of Information requests and challenges, risk assessments, complaints processes and judicial review.
- I have advised regulators in various sectors, including health and social care, education, energy, the environment, and policing, on the powers and duties arising under their statutory frameworks, and helped them conduct policy reviews and draft legislation and rules changes to effect reform. I have also helped manage their engagement with Ministers and policy officials in central Government, with a view to securing helpful legislative reforms and additional fees revenue; and I have run extremely heavy regulatory caseloads, covering judicial review, statutory appeals and private prosecutions.
- I represented a senior policy adviser at the British Medical Association in connection with the Infected Blood Inquiry, and several clients called to appear as witnesses and core participants by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
- I have advised several large charities, including on constitutional, governance and electoral matters, and also on duties owed in the context of a major public inquiry.
- I have represented professional bodies and professional associations, including in opposing a petition to the Privy Council for a Royal Charter and in relation to fitness to practise structures and processes.
- I have advised on the CQC regime, including on challenges to the findings in inspection reports.
- I have advised commissioner- and provider-side bodies within the NHS, and local authorities, on policy issues, including continuing healthcare; on disputes about a wide range of issues, including after care; and on constitutional and governance issues, and the requirements for engagement and consultation, arising in the context of service reconfiguration. I have also successfully defended NHS bodies facing judicial review of their service reconfiguration plans.
- I have advised major international corporate clients in responding to central Government consultations, and on the merits (and practicalities) of judicial review challenges in the event that post-consultation decision making was adverse to the interests of those clients. I have also advised on proposed challenges to post-Brexit levies imposed by central Government.
- I have advised individuals in a wide range of cases, including in challenges to an Ombudsman’s complaints scheme, and in safeguarding matters.