Jeremy McBride has prepared an opinion on Georgia’s new Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence, adopted on 14 May, for the Expert Council on NGO law, a body of the Conference of International non-governmental organisations of the Council of Europe. The opinion examines all the provisions in the Law and their implications especially for organisations of the civil society. It considers inter alia that:

• the purported retrospective inclusion of income received before the legislation would enter into force is clearly arbitrary in that those entities affected could not escape the obligation to register even if thereafter the income received from foreign sources became less significant;
• there are many provisions that impose requirements to disclose personal data that have no conceivable link with the supposed objectives of the law regarding transparency of funding from foreign powers;
• the provisions aim at establishing a monitoring mechanism which would be very extensive in its scope, affecting all civil society organisations, and be unnecessarily intrusive in its range and frequency;
• the intended provisions for the imposition of penalties are manifestly excessive for a regulatory measure.

The opinion further states that this legislation would necessarily lead to the stigmatisation of the entities concerned by making the assertion that they are pursuing the interest of a foreign power simply because of the source of some of their income. It concludes that “There is, therefore, no justification for this law that would be consistent with European and international standards.”

The Legal 500 and Legal Business Disputes Yearbook 2024 has been published and Monckton Chambers’ members feature in three of the eight cases of the year.

Featured Cases:

Justin LePatourel v BT

For Justin LePatourel: Ronit Kreisberger KC, Jack Williams, and Michael Armitage instructed by Sarah Houghton (Mishcon de Reya)

For BT: Daniel Beard KC, Daisy Mackersie and Natalie Nguyen instructed by Patrick Boylan and Satyen Dhana (Simmons & Simmons)

Mastercard proceedings

On Merchant Interchange Umbrella proceedings

For the class representative in Merricks:  Anneliese Blackwood and Jack Williams instructed by Willkie Farr & Gallagher

For some Umbrella proceedings claimants: Philip Moser KC,  Ronit Kreisberger KC, Philip Woolfe KC and Antonia Fitzpatrick instructed by Stephenson Harwood, Mark Brealey KC instructed by Mishcon de Reya and Ben Lask KC instructed by Pinsent Masons

Gutmann v Govia Thameslink Railway, Govia Ltd, The Go-Ahead Group, Keolis Ltd, MTR South Western, Stagecoach South Western, London & South Eastern Railway, and Secretary of State for Transport

For Justin Gutmann: Philip Moser KC, Stefan Kuppen and Alexandra Littlewood instructed by Charles Lyndon

For London & South Eastern Railway and Govia Thameslink Railway: Paul Harris KC, Anneliese Blackwood, Michael Armitage and Clíodhna Kelleher instructed by Mark Sansom and Nicholas Frey (Freshfields)

For First MTR: Tim Ward KC, James Bourke and Hugh Whelan instructed by Slaughter and May

For the interveners: Anneli Howard KC, Brendan McGurk KC and Khatija Hafesji

To view the yearbook, please click here.

Monckton Chambers is pleased to announce that Tim Ward KC and Philip Moser KC have been re-elected as joint Heads of Chambers for a further term of four years from April 2024.

First appointed in 2016, read here.

Members of Chambers are delighted to announce that Jen Coyne has joined Monckton Chambers as of today, 27 March 2024.

Jen’s practice includes Procurement & Public law, Employment law (both commercial/business protection and statutory), and, increasingly, disputes involving an international element. As well as fitting into larger teams, she is experienced in leading litigation and appearing as sole counsel in the Court of Appeal, High Court, EAT and the Tribunals. Jen is also appointed to the Attorney General’s C Panel of Counsel.

Jen is recommended in the leading directories, in which clients have described her as:

• “An absolutely excellent barrister” – Chambers & Partners.
• “An invaluable source of support in complex employment litigation matters, particularly involving whistle-blowing and data protection issues” – Chambers & Partners.
• “She is very thorough with her preparation, very collaborative and very bright. Her command of complex or large brief is extremely good, particularly given her relative lack of seniority. Her advocacy is also excellent, and it is always clear that she is well prepared – very much in demand” – Legal 500.
• “Jen achieves great results in tricky and novel cases. She is very thoroughly prepared and is calm and consistent. The results spoke for themselves in a judgment which exceeded our expectations” – Chambers & Partners.
• “Jen is very agile and easy to work with. Her submissions are top quality. Underestimate her at your peril” – Chambers & Partners.
• “Highly intelligent with sound judgement. Very thorough and well-structured work” – Legal 500.
• “Great to work with. Excellent attention to the detail. Extremely bright. Pragmatic and sensible”; “Hugely bright” – Legal 500.

Philip Moser KC and Tim Ward KC, Joint Heads of Chambers, welcomes Jen to Chambers: ” We are delighted that Jen Coyne has joined Monckton Chambers. Jen will not only bring her procurement and public law expertise to Monckton, which is extremely welcome, she will also strengthen our commercial offering across the board.”

Jen says, “It is a privilege to make Monckton Chambers my new professional home. I’ve greatly enjoyed working with Members to date, in the National Lottery litigation. I look forward to continuing to do so within Chambers, assisting clients to fight their most important, complex cases, and further developing my practice in line with Chambers’ many strengths”.

To view Jen’s’ full profile, please click here.

The members and staff of Monckton Chambers warmly congratulate Brendan McGurk, Philip Woolfe and Ewan West on ‘taking silk’ today.

Members will be sworn-in along with other new KCs, at the official King’s Counsel Appointments Ceremony at Westminster.

Brendan is a leading junior with a wealth of experience in Commercial, Public law and Regulatory disputes. He is recommended in Legal Directories in the fields of Administrative & Public, Public Procurement, Tax, Life Sciences regulatory, Competition, EU and Animal Law. “His capacity to understand and get to grips with complex issues is really very impressive.”

Philip is an EU law specialist with a particular focus on Competition Law and Telecommunications. He also has experience in Public Procurement, Commercial Litigation and Indirect Tax. He is a recommended for Competition/European Law and Telecommunications Law in Chambers and Partners, which has described him as “an absolutely fantastic junior who is extremely bright and knowledgeable about telecoms” and as having “a great work ethic and is very hands-on.” He was shortlisted by Chambers and Partners for Competition Junior of the Year in 2023.

Ewan has a wide-ranging and well-established practice spanning all of Chambers’ main areas of activity, including public procurement, competition, commercial, tax and duties, EU law and EU relations law, regulatory law (especially telecommunications and utilities), information rights, administrative and public law and sports law. He is recommended in Legal Directories in the fields of Public Procurement and Administrative Law. “He has got a really good strategic brain and his written work is first class.”

The full list of KC appointments, announced on the 19 January, can be viewed on the KCA website.

The Lawyer has highlighted 10 disputes set to be heard in both the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in 2024. Monckton Chambers’ Brendan McGurk is instructed in the following case:

The Humane League (Appellants) v the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) (Respondents)

Brendan is instructed on behalf of the Appellant by Advocates for Animals’ director Edie Bowles.

Subscribers to The Lawyer can read the full article here.

Every year, The Lawyer Hot 100 recognises a diverse mix of legal professionals who have been the standout lawyers in the UK over the previous twelve months. This year, Monckton Chambers has one member amongst the 11 “Hot 100” barristers listed – Daniel Beard KC.

Daniel Beard KC is described as follows:

With clients including Apple, Microsoft, and Sony demanding his attention, Monckton Chambers’ Daniel Beard KC is among the most in-demand silks at the Inns of Court. Whether it’s dealing with a growing volume of class actions, or challenging competition authority decisions, Beard is reshaping the boundaries of competition law both at home and abroad. Along with his regular appearances in the Competition Appeal Tribunal, he is widely regarded as a leading figure in the EU Court of Justice and General Court in Luxembourg.

An intellectual heavyweight, Beard is a passionate advocate who can present the most complex matters in neat, persuasive arguments that satisfy the demands of both clients and courts. The tech giants will face increased regulatory scrutiny from around the globe in 2024. For these clients, securing Beard as barrister is equivalent to gold-plating any required defence, potentially protecting billions in revenue.

Subscribers to The Lawyer can read the full article and details of the hundred here.

Members of Chambers are delighted to announce that Luke Kelly has joined Monckton Chambers as of today, Monday 22^nd January 2024.

Luke has 13 years of experience practising at the Bar in South Africa. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in July 2022.

Luke has experience and expertise in the fields of competition law, public law, and general commercial law. He has appeared in a number of prominent cases in courts and tribunals in South Africa and Namibia.

He is the lead author and editor of Principles of Competition Law in South Africa (Oxford University Press), and co-author and editor of Class Action Litigation in South Africa (Juta).

Philip Moser KC, Joint Head of Chambers, welcomes Luke to Chambers, “Members of Monckton Chambers are delighted to welcome Luke Kelly, a leading competition lawyer and principal author of the leading text on competition law in South Africa. Luke will reinforce and enhance the burgeoning Monckton competition practice, augmenting the existing litigation team. Friendly and approachable as well as erudite, we know he will be popular with clients.”

Luke says, “I am very excited to have joined Monckton Chambers. Its members are involved in a remarkable array of interesting and high-profile work domestically and abroad. I have been humbled by the warm welcome that I have received from members, and I look forward to learning from them, and working hard to contribute to the set’s outstanding reputation.” 

 To view Luke’s full profile, please click here.