Iain has a wide-ranging practice which focuses in particular on all aspects of Public & Regulatory and Civil Liberties & Human Rights. He also frequently undertakes work in the fields of EU & Competition, Professional Discipline, Public Procurement, Financial Services, Sport and Employment. 

Iain is ranked as a leading junior in the leading independent legal directories, Chambers UK and Legal 500. Recent comments include:

  • "A junior who provides timely, considered and thoughtful advice."- Legal 500, 2024
  • "Iain has a huge brain; he cuts through the issues and his drafting is top notch."- Chambers & Partners, 2024

Previous quotes include:

  • "He is a superb junior; very effective."- Chambers UK, 2023
  • "Extremely good drafting and very analytical. Tremendous work ethic."- Legal 500, 2023

Iain regularly appears in the highest appellate courts, including the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, as well as in the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union.  He has appeared before the Supreme Court in over a dozen cases. Iain has extensive advocacy experience and regularly appears unled at all levels.

Recent highlights of Iain’s practice include:

  • representing Unison in its successful challenge in the Supreme Court to the fees regime for employment tribunal cases (R (Unison) v Lord Chancellor [2020] AC 869);
  • representing the Charity Commission in successfully defending its decision to register a charity with controversial views on transgender rights, in what is believed to be the first case in which one charity has challenged the legal status of another (Mermaids v Charity Commission [2023] UKFTT 563 (GRC));
  • representing pensioners in their successful age discrimination challenge to statutory caps on compensation (R (Hughes) v Board of the Pension Protection Fund [2021] EWCA Civ 1093);
  • representing the former owners of BHS in the first case in which the High Court has, even on an interim basis, found an arguable breach of the duty of fairness owed to a person who stands to be criticised in a public report (R (Taveta Investments Limited) v Financial Reporting Council [2018] EWHC 1662 (Admin));
  • representing the IOPC in successfully defending a challenge to its decision that a police officer should face disciplinary action for allegedly assaulting a student at a protest in Parliament Square (R (Commissioner of City of London Police) v Independent Office for Police Conduct [2018] EWHC 2997 (Admin));
  • representing the NHS in successfully defending a challenge to the reconfiguration of the way in which NHS services are commissioned and paid for (R (Jennifer Shepherd on behalf of 999 Call for the NHS) v NHS Commissioning Board and Monitor [2018] EWCA Civ 2849).

Iain is a member of the Attorney General’s A Panel.

Experience

Shortlist

Public & Regulatory

Iain is recognised as a leading public law junior. He has a wide-ranging public law practice, advising and acting in areas including police powers, local government, education, prisoners’ rights, public procurement, social security and community care, commercial judicial review and environmental law. He has extensive experience of representing both claimants and defendants in the Administrative Court and specialist tribunals, the appellate courts and the European courts.

Iain regularly acts and advises in regulatory and commercial matters, particularly where they raise public law issues. He has acted for Ofcom, Ofgem, Ofwat, the General Medical Council and the Solicitors Regulation Authority in defending numerous judicial review challenges to their regulatory actions. He has also advised other regulators including Monitor, the Office of Fair Trading and the Financial Conduct Authority. Iain also frequently acts for claimants in this area. See the separate section on “Commercial judicial review”.

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

Civil Liberties & Human Rights

Iain is recognised as a leading civil liberties and human rights junior, and has a broad practice covering all aspects of this area. He has extensive experience of representing both claimants and defendants in the Administrative Court and specialist tribunals, as well as in the appellate courts and the European courts. He has a particular interest in cases concerning prisoners' rights, police powers and the right to protest. 

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

Commercial Judicial Review

Iain regularly acts and advises in regulatory and commercial matters, particularly where they raise public law issues. He has acted for Ofcom, Ofgem, Ofwat and the Financial Conduct Authority in defending numerous judicial review challenges to their regulatory actions. Iain also frequently acts for claimants in this area.

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

Professional Discipline

Iain regularly acts for and against professional regulators such as the General Medical Council and the Solicitors Regulation Authority, as well as other regulators such as the Financial Conduct Authority. He has extensive experience of dealing with judicial review challenges and statutory appeals against decisions of regulators.

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

Education

Iain's broad public law practice includes a particular expertise in education cases. He has frequently acted for the Secretary of State for Education and for Ofsted. 

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

Financial Services & Banking

Iain’s expertise in the crossover between EU, public and commercial law leads to instructions in the financial services field.

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

EU & Competition

Iain is regularly engaged in EU and competition law matters, in both commercial and regulatory contexts. He has acted for and against numerous regulators on EU and competition law issues, including Ofgem, Ofcom, the Office of Fair Trading and Monitor. He has experience of litigating EU law issues in both the domestic courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

Procurement

Iain’s expertise in the crossover between EU, public and commercial law leads to instructions in procurement cases. He has recently acted and advised in cases involving the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. 

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

Employment

Iain’s practice encompasses all areas of employment law. He has a particular interest in discrimination law and regularly appears in cases involving sex, race, age, disability, sexual orientation and religious discrimination.

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

Sport

Iain has appeared and advised in a number of sports cases covering a range of contractual and regulatory sporting disputes, and has also advised on the exploitation of media rights to sporting events.

Cases

Grid view
List view

Achievements

Education

MA (Cantab) (Law) First Class; BCL (Oxon) First Class, (Princess Royal Scholar, Inner Temple)

Prizes & Scholarships

  • Eldon Law Scholarship (University of Oxford, 2005; awarded to the most promising Oxford graduate intending to practise at the Bar)
  • Overall grade of Outstanding and Worshipful Company of Arbitrators Prize for Civil Law and EC Competition Law (Inns of Court School of Law, 2005)
  • Prize for BVC Results (Inner Temple, 2005)
  • Princess Royal Scholarship (Inner Temple, 2004)
  • College Prize (Magdalen College, Oxford, 2003)
  • Arts and Humanities Research Board Award for Postgraduate Study (2002)
  • Lucas-Smith Memorial Prize (Queens’ College, Cambridge, 2002)
  • Foundation Scholarship (Queens’ College, Cambridge, 2001)
  • Squire Law Scholarship (University of Cambridge, 2000)
  • College Exhibition (Queens’ College, Cambridge, 2000)

Publications

Iain was a co-author of the Bingham Centre report ‘Streamlining Judicial Review in a Manner Consistent with the Rule of Law’ (February 2014).

Iain is the co-author of the chapter on equal pay in the Tolley’s Discrimination in Employment Handbook (first edition 2008; second edition 2011) and of the chapters on the Human Rights Act 1998 and principles of interpretation in Lester, Pannick and Herberg: Human Rights Law and Practice (published in April 2009).

Iain has published work in a wide range of academic journals. Previous articles include:

  • ‘Holding the police to account using judicial review’ (Legal Action 2013/2014)
  • ‘Judicial Review in an Age of Austerity: Costs and Funding’ [2012] JR 249
  • ‘Public Law Liability – the End of the Road (For Now)’ (2011) 127 LQR 512
  • ‘Sex discrimination and the material factor defence under the Equal Pay Act 1970 and the Equality Act 2010’ [2010] ILJ 264
  • ‘Judicial Review of the Crown Court and Section 29(3) of the Supreme Court Act 1981’ [2008] JR 180
  • ‘Negligence Liability for Failing to Prevent Crime – the Human Rights Dimension’ [2008] CLJ 239
  • ‘Judicial Independence: Privy Council Divided’ (2008) 124 LQR 185
  • ‘Beyond Equal Pay?’ [2008] ILJ 119
  • ‘Substantive Legitimate Expectations: Striking the Right Balance?’ (2005) 121 LQR 300
  • ‘Tracing the Single Source: Choice of Comparators in Equal Pay Claims’ [2005] ILJ 338
  • ‘Public Law Liability – a Common Law Solution?’ [2005] CLJ 543
  • ‘Public Law Liability – the Human Rights Act and Beyond’ [2005] CLJ 8
  • ‘Note on R (National Association of Health Stores) v Department of Health’ [2005] JR 232
  • ‘Judging judicial inquiries’ [2004] PL 738

Memberships

  • LIBERTY
  • ALBA
  • HRLA
  • ELBA
  • ELA

Selected earlier reported cases

Public & Regulatory 

  • R (Dally) v Cwm Taf Community Health Council [2015] EWHC 365 (Admin)
  • R (Flatley and Donohoe) v Hywel Dda University Local Health Board [2014] EWHC 2258 (Admin), [2014] PTSR D22
  • R (Nash) v Barnet LBC [2013] EWCA Civ 1004, [2013] PTSR 1457
  • R (Brown) v Canal & River Trust [2012] EWHC 3133 (Admin)
  • R (Cart) v Upper Tribunal; R (MR) v Upper Tribunal [2011] UKSC 28, [2012] 1 AC 663
  • R (One Search Direct) v City of York Council [2010] EWHC 590 (Admin), [2010] ACD 60 
  • R (Cordant Group plc) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills [2010] EWHC 3442 (Admin) 
  • R (Welsh Water Limited) v Ofwat [2009] EWHC 3493 (Admin)
  • R (Morrison) v Independent Police Complaints Commission [2009] EWHC 2589 (Admin)
  • R (Faithfull) v Ipswich Crown Court [2007] EWHC 2763 (Admin), [2008] 1 WLR 1636 

Civil Liberties & Human Rights

  • R (Barclay Brothers) v Secretary of State for Justice [2014] UKSC 54, [2015] AC 276
  • Grainger and others v United Kingdom (2012) 55 EHRR SE13
  • R (Alaa’ Nassif Jassim al Bazzouni) v Prime Minister and others [2011] EWHC 2401 (Admin), [2012] 1 WLR 1389
  • Al-Jedda v United Kingdom (2011) 53 EHRR 23 
  • Ahmed and others v Her Majesty’s Treasury [2010] UKSC 2, [2010] 2 AC 534
  • R (SRM Global Master Fund LP and others) v HM Treasury [2009] EWCA Civ 788 
  • YL v Birmingham City Council and others [2007] UKHL 27, [2008] 1 AC 95

Employment

  • Bainbridge v Redcar and Cleveland BC; Surtees v Middlesbrough BC [2008] EWCA Civ 885, [2009] ICR 133

News

VAT registration number: 888124490

Barristers regulated by the Bar Standards Board

+44 (0)207 5831770

Clerks

Staff