Monckton Chambers specialises in disputes arising over loss suffered as a result of negligent advice given by professionals. There is particular expertise in claims arising from failed investment schemes, particularly those which have a tax and financial services dimension, and members have been instructed in several such claims against IFAs and solicitors.
Monckton Chambers is at the forefront of the fast development in the law of freedom of movement and immigration. We advise and act in cases regarding all aspects of freedom of movement, including cases relating to EU citizens and their family members, as well as Association Agreements between the EU and non-Member States. Of particular significance to members’ practices are cases involving the rights of workers and the self-employed.
Members consistently appear in the leading EU freedom of movement cases in both domestic courts and in the Community Courts.
Allied to our strength in EU freedom of movement cases, we have extensive expertise in asylum and humanitarian protection law as it develops within the framework of the Qualification, Reception and Procedure Directives.
Members of Monckton Chambers appear in leading cases in the field from tribunal-level appeals to references to the European Court of Justice.
We also have wide experience in domestic immigration cases at all levels, but particularly on applications for judicial review and statutory appeals to the Court of Appeal and The Supreme Court.
Specific areas of expertise include:
Monckton Chambers is recognised as a pre-eminent set in all areas of EU Law. Members regularly advise and litigate on behalf of private sector clients, the UK and government departments, local authorities, NGOs, the EU institutions and non-UK clients including other Member States, and have acted in many of the leading EU law cases.
We can offer specialists at every level of seniority, from leading KCs with decades of experience to junior tenants, several of whom have worked within the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and other EU institutions. We are able to provide teams of barristers to suit every type of EU law case.
Many members of Chambers are qualified in EU Member States, meaning that they retain rights of audience at the ECJ and privilege to advise on matters of EU law even after Brexit.
On 31 January 2020, the UK left the EU. No longer an EU Member State, the UK’s relationship with the EU has altered fundamentally. Monckton Chambers specialises in all aspects of the new arrangements between the EU and UK post Brexit.
Members of Monckton Chambers have been involved in advice and litigation concerning all aspects of Brexit leading up to the new relationship between the UK and the EU. For example, members were instructed in the Miller and Wightman cases concerning Article 50 TEU and have advised a multitude of private and public bodies concerning all aspects of the Brexit process.
Members are now actively engaged in advising a range of private and public bodies on all aspects of the new UK-EU relationship, UK-EU Relations Law, inluding in relation to:
Members of Monckton Chambers have launched a website and blog covering all matters related to UK-EU Relations Law, which can be viewed at www.eurelationslaw.com.
Members of Monckton Chambers’ act both for regulators and for the regulated in the energy & utilities industries as well as representing environmental organisations and concerned individuals. The regulated sectors of which members have experience include airports, electricity, gas, postal services, rail, telecommunications and water. Whether it is price controls in the electricity market or consultation on new nuclear power, the development of renewables or modifying the gas network, we have been called upon to advise and act in a wide range of cases for a variety of clients.
Our expertise in EU law gives us a particular awareness of the impact and importance of EU provisions. Our public & administrative law knowledge ensures we can identify where the pitfalls lie in decision-making processes. These combined with our competition expertise and experience in the sector mean we are in a very strong position to provide advice and representation.
Members regularly act for regulated companies, the sector-specific regulators (CAA, Coal Authority, Ofcom, Ofgem, Ofwat, ORR and Postcomm) and other industry participants at administrative hearings as well as appearing in the Administrative Court, Competition Appeal Tribunal, Competition Commission, the Court of Appeal, House of Lords and European Court of Justice in cases concerning utility regulation.
Specific areas of expertise include:
Monckton Chambers is at the forefront of data protection and information law. Members’ expertise across the range of Chambers’ practice areas means that they equally experienced in dealing with the public and regulatory dimensions of matters before the Information Commissioner and in judicial review, and in dealing with the nuanced commercial dimensions, and technical complexities, of private disputes. Members are ideally placed to deal with competition and data; data in the financial services industry; calculation of penalties for breach of data protection law; and requests for complex and commercially sensitive information. They are regularly involved in landmark cases, including recently Case C-623/18 Privacy International; Big Brother Watch and others v UK (application nos. 58170/13, 62322/14 and 24960/15); Elgizouli v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] UKSC 10 and Information Commissioner v Poplar Housing and Regeneration Association (GIA/1078/2019).
Our members are regularly instructed by the Information Commissioner, government departments, commercial organisations, NGOs and private individuals, and frequently appear in the Information Tribunal, the Upper Tribunal, the High Court, Court of Appeal and the European Courts on all aspects of information law, and privacy and data protection litigation.
Our members’ expertise encompasses:
Members of Monckton Chambers have considerable experience of advising businesses on regulatory compliance issues under both EU-Retained law and GB law post Brexit. They also assist with regulatory investigations in the UK and within the EU and advise on strategic options dealing with corrective measures, recalls and undertakings in lieu of enforcement.
With their unparalleled EUand regulatory expertise, they offer an all-encompassing perspective to consumer protection issues. They can assist in regulatory investigations and disputes, whether in preparing responses to information requests, provisional views statements or in formulating commitments or consensual undertakings to modify business practices. If consensual solution if not possible, they can put forward a robust defence to administrative enforcement action, appeals, injunction applications or enhanced consumer redress measures.
Members regularly advise and act for regulators and surveillance authorities (including the CMA, FCA, CAA, Ofcom, OFGEM, OPSS, DVSA, MHRA and the Department for Business and Trade). They also act for manufacturers, importers and distributors as well as regulated entities such as banks, insurance companies, airlines, professional, retail and trade bodies, consumer representative bodies (such as Which?) and private individuals and companies on a wide range of consumer law cases.
Key issues include:
Some members have an intimate knowledge of particular retail sectors as a result of having advised clients operating in those markets over several years. Examples include motor vehicles, machinery, airlines, rail transport, travel, package holidays, timeshares, financial products, energy, online platforms, digital content and services, supermarkets, clothing, mobile phones, pharmacies, medicines, human tissue regulations and opticians. Retailers may be subject to investigations by the CMA and/or Local Trading Standards and members offer pragmatic solutions to resolve such enquiries amicably or, where necessary, defend the companies’ position before the courts.
On the litigation front, there is an increased focus on consumer-facing claims, being brought either before the High Court as part of a Group Litigation Order (“GLO”) or a representative action under CPR Part 19.6 or as part of a collective opt-out or opt-in competition class action before the Competition Appeal Tribunal. Members are representing claimants and defendants in the Dieselgate litigation, Gutmann Trains CPO (Boundary Rail Fares), Boyle CPO (Differentiated Rail Fares), Gutmann v Apple CPO (Lack of transparency regarding battery issues and slow-down of smartphones) and Gormsen v Meta CPO (Lack of transparency and fairness re use of data).
Members also appear in judicial review and magistrate court proceedings challenging enforcement measures adopted by OPSS or Local Trading Standards.
Members of Monckton Chambers have acted in many of the leading social care and local government cases of the past decade. The team has very significant experience of cases in the higher courts, including the Supreme Court.
Barristers at Monckton advise and represent individual claimants, charities and NGOs, private companies in the social care sector and public authorities.
The team’s expertise includes:
Counsel teams from Monckton are regularly instructed in major challenges to local authority policies. Our barristers, particularly junior members of the team, frequently act as sole counsel in challenges to decisions relating to provision for individual adults or children.
Monckton Chambers has been at the heart of an enormous growth, in the last decades, in human rights litigation, both in our domestic courts and in the European courts before the General Court of the European Communities, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Court of Human Rights and before international tribunals.
As well as protecting the rights of individuals, human rights law plays an increasingly important role within Chambers’ core areas of commercial and regulatory litigation and Chambers has particular expertise in the protection of commercial interests through international human rights proceedings.
There has been a significant increase in domestic human rights cases, particularly in police law, abuse of authority cases, social and health care, disability discrimination, mental health and information law. There is also an increase in cases brought before the European Court of Human Rights.
A particular strength of Monckton Chambers is the overlap between commercial and regulatory litigation and that of human rights, as well as the protection of commercial interests through international human rights proceedings. More generally, the human rights expertise of Monckton Chambers forms an essential part of its public law practice, covering such wide-ranging areas as fair trial rights, privacy and data protection, freedom of information and freedom of expression, asylum and immigration, the right to property, and equality and non-discrimination.
Monckton Chambers can also a significant number of members with previous careers in the forefront of Human Rights and Civil Liberties: Eric Metcalf was the Director of Human Rights Policy at JUSTICE; Nikolaus Grubeck worked for the United Nations in Afghanistan and Sudan; Gerry Facenna was also at JUSTICE, and he was a founding member on the Executive Committee of the Human Rights Lawyers Association.
Monckton Chambers is at the forefront of the law, as evolved, relating to the Aviation sector and its related industries.
In late 2012 the Civil Aviation Authority held an open competition for the role of its standing counsel. This role created for the first time in light of the CAA’s new sectoral powers to enforce competition law jointly with the Office of Fair Trading. Anneli Howard of Monckton Chambers was successful in being appointed to this role. Subsequently, in 2018, Fiona Banks appointed standing counsel for procurement at the CAA.
Members continue to advise in relation to the Civil Aviation Act which came into force in 2014. Members have also been retained for litigation relating to market power assessments and licensing arrangements for Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted Airports. In addition to the airports Monckton has a strong client base consisting further of airlines, regulators, central government concerned with aviation emissions and environmental groups. Significant cases include the ongoing Air Cargo cartel damages claims which has involved a number of Monckton barristers representing the plethora of airlines involved
Administrative and public law is one of Monckton’s core specialisms, and is an area in which we have long had a strong reputation for both wide-ranging and in-depth expertise. Regardless of the complexity of a particular public law dispute, Monckton Chambers has an array of market leading practitioners at all levels of seniority able to assist. Our members’ rare blend of experience means we are equally sought after in connection with judicial review claims in the commercial regulatory sphere as in respect of high–profile public interest and civil liberties challenges.
‘Administrative and public law’ is a broad practice area, within which our specific areas of expertise include:
Legal issues arising in the context of public law disputes are often cross-cutting, involving diverse other areas of law. Our public law expertise overlaps with practice areas including:
Our practitioners undertake work on behalf of both claimants and defendants, offering the exceptional quality of service our clients have come to expect. Members act for individuals, families, NGOs and charities, companies, regulators and local authorities to ensure their rights are upheld and their interests protected. A large number of our members are appointed to the Attorney General’s ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘PIL’ Panel of Counsel, from which they represent clients including Secretaries of State and central government agencies in challenges to their decisions (click here to see panel members).
We offer broad experience in judicial review challenges before not only the Administrative Court but also other specialist courts and tribunals such as the Competition Appeal Tribunal and the Information Tribunal. Our members appear in domestic and international courts, at every level of the court and tribunal system.
Monckton is committed to publicly funded work as well as that which is privately paid, and many members work pro bono on public interest litigation. We are regularly instructed in urgent matters including claims requiring applications for interim relief.
