Lord Bellamy KC has resumed practice at Monckton Chambers with effect from 8^th July 2024, following the end of his term as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Ministry of Justice. He will be specializing in competition and regulatory matters, with a particular focus on arbitration and mediation.

Lord Bellamy was a member of Monckton Chambers for many years until he became a judge of the European Court of First Instance (CFI), now the EU General Court, in 1992. From 1999 to 2007 he was the first President of the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). After retiring from the CAT he joined Linklaters LLP, and was the Chairman of Linklaters Global Competition Practice from 2011 to 2020. He then re-joined Monckton Chambers until 2022, when he was appointed as the Minister responsible for justice affairs in the House of Lords.

Lord Bellamy is considered to be one of the most experienced competition lawyers in Europe. He co-authored the early editions of Bellamy & Child, European Union Law of Competition, now in its eighth edition.

The members of Monckton Chambers congratulate pupil barristers Alastair Holder Ross and Reuben Andrews on being invited to join Chambers following successful completion of pupillage, during which they have experienced a wide range of Chambers practice areas. All are delighted they have accepted. 

Alastair and Reuben will join Chambers as tenants in October 2024.

Monckton Chambers is delighted to announce that at the Lawyer Awards 2024 we were awarded the prestigious “Chambers of the Year”.

Congratulations to all who were shortlisted for awards and won in their categories. The full list of winners can be seen here.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has announced its list of preferred Counsel, appointed to support the Commission’s equality and human rights work through strategic public interest litigation in the UK and European courts, including the European Court of Human Rights.

The Commission often intervenes, in both domestic and European courts, in cases of public importance concerning human rights breaches and breaches of the Equality Act 2010.

Eric Metcalfe has been appointed to the A panel and Jenn Lawrence has been appointed to the C panel.

The Commission stated that the appointments were made “following an open and transparent competition”.

For the full list of panel members, see here.

The Legal Cheek Awards 2024 took place on the evening of Thursday 16 May 2024.

Monckton Chambers is delighted to announce that we won the Best Chambers for Quality of Work award.

The full list of winners can be accessed here.

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.