Barrister Profile

Main Areas of Practice

Commercial Law
Defamation Law or Privacy Law
Insolvency
Professional Negligence

Biography

• Called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 2007; Bar of the Republic of Ireland in 2016; Bar of England and Wales in 2017; appointed King’s Counsel 2024

• Previously worked as a Solicitor for seven years both in London (Gouldens; Jones Day) and Northern Ireland (L’Estrange & Brett)

• Civil practitioner with expertise in full range of Commercial and Chancery actions

• Regularly instructed by media organisations and social media companies in privacy/ defamation/data protection claims

• Significant experience in the Employment Tribunals, as well as having appeared before the information Tribunal in matters relating to Freedom of Information and Data Protection

Qualifications

MA (Cantab) degree in law (Upper Second Class Honours) Emmanuel College, Cambridge University

Distinction in Legal Practice Course, Nottingham Law School

2002: Admitted as Solicitor in England and Wales

2005: Admitted as Solicitor in Northern Ireland

2007: Barrister at Law

2012: Appointed to Government Civil Panel of Junior Counsel

2019: Appointed to Directorate of Legal Services Civil Panel

2024: Kings Counsel

Member of British and Irish Commercial Bar Association; Committee Member, Commercial Bar Association Northern Ireland

Experience

Corporate/commercial – appearing in full range of actions; regarded as a specialist in multi-party construction claims and procurement challenges.

Chancery – significant experience in finance-related and insolvency proceedings, intellectual property disputes, probate actions, commercial frauds and partnership disputes (both at final hearing and in securing interim relief).

King’s Bench – acting for various media organisations, and ongoing representation of Facebook, in respect of claims as to defamation and privacy, both at interlocutory and final stages; recognised expert in data protection, particularly in social media context.

Employment - acting for both employers and employees in respect of equal pay, TUPE, all forms of discrimination and dismissals. Ongoing representation of multiple claimants in holiday pay claims.

Recent or notable decisions:

Ulster Garden Villages v Farrans (Construction) Limited and ors [2024] NIKB 15

Agnew, Anderson, Smyth & ors v Chief Constable of the PSNI [2023] UKSC 33; See also: [2019] NICA 32; [2018] NIIT 112/16

Morrison v Swann & Department of Health [2023] NICA 19

Omagh Forum for Rural Associations v Department of Agriculture, Environment & Rural Affairs [2023] NIKB 14

Assured Energy LLP v Raymond Pollock [2023] NICh 2

Ulster Bank v Pollock & ors [2022] NICh 3

Sherling & anor v The Competition & Markets Authority [2022] NIMaster 4

Ulster Bank Limited v Taggart & anor [2022] NICh 8; See also, [2018] NIMaster 7

The Presbyterian Mutual Society Limited v Dodds [2021] NICh 2

Ulster Bank v National Westminster Bank [2021] NIQB 38

Foster v Jessen [2021] NIQB 56

MacAirt & ors v JPI Media [2021] NIQB 52

J20 v Facebook Ireland Limited [2016] NIQB 98

CG v Facebook Ireland Limited & another [2016] NICA 54; See also [2015] NIQB 11, [2015] NIQB 28

Publications

Co-author of precedent ‘Data Processing Agreement’ jointly drawn up between the Law Society of Northern Ireland and the Bar Council, 2018; Bar representative on resulting panel discussion with the Deputy Information Commissioner

“GDPR: A Challenge On The Horizon For NI Businesses” – Business Eye, June 2017 edition

Regular speaker on topics such as data protection, privacy, social media and employment:

-“Take aways from the Agnew decision” (Employment Lawyers’ Group, October 2023)

- “Injunctions in the context of social media” (Law Society of Northern Ireland, January 2020)

- “Data Protection in a post-Brexit World” (British and Irish Commercial Bar Association (BICBA), June 2017)

- “Social media in the Employment Field” (Employment Lawyers’ Group, May 2017)

- “Data Protection and Privacy” (BICBA Annual Conference, March 2016)