Charlotte McLean

Call: 2025

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    Education

    BA (Oxford); GDL (BPP); PG Dip (King’s College London)

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    Introduction

    Charlotte joined Chambers as a tenant in October 2025 following successful completion of her pupillage. She accepts instructions across Chambers’ core areas of practice, including competition law, consumer and regulatory law, data protection and information law, and public law.

    Prior to coming to the Bar, Charlotte trained as a Solicitor at Slaughter and May. She then worked at Duncan Lewis, focusing on strategic public law litigation. Before commencing pupillage, she worked at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) as a Référendaire for 22 months, where she assisted Tribunal panels with the conduct and resolution of competition cases.

    She holds a First-Class degree in Classics from the University of Oxford, where she achieved the third highest grade in her year overall for Classics, and the highest grade in Ancient History modules across three Honours Schools. She also holds a diploma in EU Competition Law from Kings College London, achieving the highest grade in her cohort.

    • News
    • Competition law

      Charlotte welcomes instructions across the range of Chambers’ competition work. She currently acts for The Consumers’ Association, commonly known as Which?, in opt-out collective proceedings against US-based wireless telecoms company Qualcomm Incorporated (led by Philip Moser KC, Rob Williams KC, Michael Armitage and Ciar McAndrew) (Case 1382/7/7/21 Consumers Association v Qualcomm).

      During her 22 months at the CAT, Charlotte worked closely with CAT staff and panel members on cases at all stages, from initial filing through to judgment. She gained in-depth insight into the procedure of the Tribunal, and developed experience of the UK competition enforcement regime by working on a range of cases, including:

      • Collective proceedings, both pre- and post-certification e.g. Case 1403/7/7/21 Kent v Apple and 1433/7/7/22 Gormsen v Meta Platforms.
      • Complex, multi-party claims for damages e.g. the Second Wave Trucks proceedings.
      • Merger reviews e.g. Case 1586/4/12/23 Dye & Durham v CMA.
      • Subsidy control reviews e.g. Case 1577/12/13/23 The Durham Company v Durham County Council.
      • Regulatory appeals e.g. Cases 1525 and 1524/1/12/22 Flynn Pharma v CMA.

      During pupillage Charlotte assisted on a range of competition matters, including:

      • Case 1381/7/7/21 Le Patourel v BT Group plc:  standalone collective proceedings claim brought on behalf of consumers of residential landline services (for the defendant).
      • Case 1644/7/7/24 Stephan v Amazon Inc. & Others: standalone collective proceedings claim brought on behalf of professional retailers (for the defendants).
      • Cases 1581/5/7/23 and 1597/5/7/23: Utilita Energy Ltd & Ors v PayPoint plc & Ors: standalone claim alleging abuse of a dominant position in the energy sector (for the defendants).
      • Cabo Concepts Ltd & Anor v MGA Entertainment Ltd & Anor: standalone claim in the High Court alleging abuse of dominance and unlawful agreements in the toy sector (for the claimants).
      • 1697/5/7/24 Yew Freight Trading Limited v Puro Ventures Limited: standalone claim alleging unlawful agreements (for the claimant).
      • In the matter of Thames Water Utilities Holdings Limited and in the matter of the Companies Act 2006: restructuring proceedings during which a competition law objection was raised to the proposed restructuring plan.
      • Assisting with one of the first appeals against a Commission decision made under the Digital Markets Act.
      • Advising on potential collective proceedings, including providing advice to funders.
      • A sports-related competition dispute in the High Court.
      • A merger review challenge in the CAT.
      • Advising a regulator on a competition law issue.

      She also gained experience of merger review filings (both under the Enterprise Act 2002 and the EUMR) and competition and consumer law investigations during her time at Slaughter and May. She completed .over a third of her training contract in the competition team, including a secondment to the Brussels office where her work focused on EU competition law matters.

    • Commercial and consumer regulation

      Charlotte accepts instructions in commercial and consumer regulation and has a particular interest in the developing consumer regulatory regime in the UK.

      During pupillage Charlotte assisted on a range of regulatory matters, including:

      • Advising a regulator regarding a consumer law investigation.
      • Advising a regulator on a novel form of regulatory appeal.
      • Advising a private client regarding a local government regulation matter.
    • Procurement

      Charlotte accepts instructions in all areas of procurement.

      She was involved with a range of procurement matters during pupillage, for claimants and defendants, from the initial Advice through to the litigation stage, including:

      • Advising a defendant at the pre-action stage of a procurement dispute.
      • Advising several defendants subject to procurement challenges.
      • Optima v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: a challenge in the Court of Appeal to a decision of the authority to exclude a bidder from a procurement.
    • Public law

      Charlotte is developing a broad public law practice with a particular interest in cases concerning EU law and immigration law.

      Prior to coming to the Bar, Charlotte worked in a leading public law team as a Solicitor, working on strategic public law challenges, including the high-profile challenge to the Government’s “Rwanda” scheme (AAA and Others v Secretary of State for the Home Department). She also represented two core participants in the Brook House Inquiry, the first inquiry into immigration detention in the UK.

      Alongside her legal studies, she volunteered for two years at a local law centre, where she assisted claimants with a number of public law challenges to immigration decisions.

      Charlotte was involved in a number of public law matters as a pupil, including:

      • A judicial review raising issues relating to the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement and human rights.
      • Advising on the scope of Citizens’ Rights under the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement.
      • An ARAP-related appeal before the Administrative Court.
      • An appeal against an exclusion decision before SIAC.
      • Assisting a client at the pre-action stage of a novel human rights claim.
      • Advising a government department on the public law risks posed by a proposed policy.
      • Advising a claimant in a housing-law matter.
      • Advising a client on a civil liberties claim.
    • Information law and data protection

      Charlotte welcomes instructions in information and data protection law. She is currently instructed on a FOIA related matter as sole counsel.

      As a pupil, she assisted in a matter concerning the application of the Environmental Information Regulations.

    • Additional information
      Professional experience
      • Pupillage, Monckton Chambers (October 2024 – September 2025)
      • Référendaire, Competition Appeal Tribunal (December 2022 – September 2024)
      • Solicitor (public law), Duncan Lewis (October 2021 – November 2022)
      • Trainee Solicitor, Slaughter and May (September 2019 – August 2021)
      Education
      • PGDip in EU Competition Law, Kings College London (2023 – 2024) (Distinction, ranked first in year)
      • Legal Practice Course, BPP (2018-2019) (Distinction, ranked first in year)
      • Graduate Diploma in Law, BPP (2017-2018) (Distinction)
      • Literae Humaniores (Classics), University of Oxford (2012 – 2016) (First, ranked first in year for Ancient History modules across three Honours Schools, and third in year for Classics)
      Scholarships, awards and prizes
      • Sir John and Sophie Laws Scholarship, Bar European Group (2025)
      • LPC Award, Slaughter and May (2019)
      • Arnold Ancient History Prize, University of Oxford (2016)
      • Principal’s Prize, Somerville College, University of Oxford (2016)
      • Mary Somerville Prize, Somerville College, University of Oxford (2016)
      • Barraclough Academic Scholarship, Somerville College, University of Oxford (2015)
      • Margaret Irene Seymour Academic Scholarship, Somerville College, University of Oxford (2013, 2014)
      • Margaret Irene Seymour Music Scholarship, Somerville College, University of Oxford (2013, 2014, 2015)
      Memberships
      • Administrative Law Bar Association
      • A-Law
      • Bar European Group
      • Competition Law Association
      • European Competition Lawyers’ Association
      • Human Rights Lawyers Association
      • Young Public Lawyers’ Group
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