Paul has experience of a wide range of public law matters. He has sat as legal assessor to the Barnet school exclusions Independent Appeal Panel and was junior counsel in the Luton Town Football Club director disqualification proceedings. Paul is also a Free Representation Unit Social Security representative and regularly appears in the Social Entitlement Chamber of the First Tier Tribunal.

As a pupil, Paul assisted on a number of public law matters, including judicial review applications both for Claimants and Defendants and in appeals in relation to the statutory homelessness provisions.

Prior to pupillage, Paul worked as a stagiaire at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. He has also advised members of the public on behalf of Liberty on various human rights and discrimination issues

Representative cases

• MGN v United Kingdom (2011) 53 EHRR 5 (as stagiaire at the ECtHR): on (1) the balance between Naomi Campbell’s right to respect for her private life under Article 8 and the Mirror’s freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention and the principle of subsidiarity and (2) the effect of ‘no win no fee’ agreements on the Mirror’s Article 10 rights.
• Da Silva v United Kingdom (as stagiaire at the ECtHR) (pending): on whether the lack of prosecution and/or disciplinary measures against individual officers involved in the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Underground station following the 7/7 London bombings amounted to a violation of the investigative duty under Article 2, the right to life.
• Dowsett v Secretary of State for Justice (as pupil to Adam Heppinstall) (pending): on whether a policy which allows male prisoners to be searched by female prison guards except on religious or cultural grounds but which only permits female prisoners to be searched by female guards amounts to sex and/or religious discrimination, a breach of the Secretary of State’s equality duties under the Equality Act 2010 and/or a breach of a prisoner’s human rights under Articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention.
• R(English Speaking Board) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] EWHC 1788 (Admin) (as pupil to Adam Heppinstall): on the lawfulness of an amendment to the Immigration Rules concerning accreditation requirements in relation to courses, institutions and examinations of English as a second language.
• R(Cusack) v London Borough of Harrow [2011] EWHC 460 (QB) (as pupil Noel Dilworth) – on the interpretation of local authority powers under the Highways Act 1980 in accordance with s.3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 and Article 1 of the First Protocol to the ECHR and in light of the presumption that legislation does not intend to deprive of property rights.
• Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills v Tomlins and others (2011, Companies Court): proceedings brought to disqualify the previous directors of Luton Town Football Club from acting as company directors.

As well as assisting his pupil supervisors and other members of chambers on various EU procurement, state aid and EU pharmaceutical regulatory matters, Paul spent a month during pupillage at McDermott, Will & Emery/Stanbrook LLP in Brussels. Paul is currently instructed as junior to Philip Bentley QC in an EU Commission anti-dumping investigation. Other recent matters have included:

• advising on the interplay between public procurement in a member state, the customs union created by the EU-Turkish Association Agreement and Regulation 1/95 and the free movement of goods;
• whether a local authority grant to an internationally renowned arts organisation constituted unlawful state aid;
• the suspension of pharmaceutical manufacture and distribution licenses under EU Regulations and Directives on the supply onto the market of counterfeit medicines; and
• whether a joint venture shareholder agreement preventing one of the parties to it entering into a joint venture with any other party was anti-competitive contrary to Article 101 TFEU.

Representative cases

• EU anti-dumping proceedings concerning Vinyl Acetate originating in the USA (Provisional duty decision: Commission Regulation (EU) No 821/2011 OJ L209/24).

During pupillage, Paul gained considerable experience of various commercial law matters, including agency, inducing breach of contract, various issues under the Sale of Goods Act 1979, Sale and Supply of Goods Act 1994, the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1974 and the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. He has also appeared in the High Court in insolvency matters. As a solicitor’s agent, Paul appeared in cases involving:

• breach of contract and guarantee agreements;
• misrepresentation
• non est factum
• promissory estoppel
• joint ventures in relation to property development and
• choice of law issues.

Paul also has experience of consumer credit litigation including:

• the validity of default and termination notices
• payment protection insurance mis-selling
• applications for time orders
• regulated mortgage agreement enforcement, and 
• ss.77-78 enforceability issues.

During pupillage, Paul gained experience of various property matters including boundary disputes, the passing of the right to rectification of a deed, disrepair, local authority housing allocation disputes, business tenancy matters and freehold covenants.

Paul has particular expertise in the inter-relation of property law with public law and was recently been instructed on a trial relating to the application and scope of the recent Supreme Court cases of Manchester CC v Pinnock [2011] UKSC 6 and Powell v Houslow LBC [2011] UKSC 8 on the right to respect for the home in possession proceedings brought by local authorities and housing associations. As a pupil, he assisted Malcolm Sheehan in advising on the compatibility of terminating a lease granted in favour of a Mosque with Article 9 ECHR.

As a solicitor’s agent, Paul gained extensive experience of proceedings for possession of mortgaged and/or tenanted property as well as possession claims against trespassers, applications for orders for sale under TLATA 1996 and CPR 73.10, applications for charging orders, various service charges matters as well as issues as to beneficial interests of cohabitees.

As a pupil, Paul assisted his supervisors in the Fetal Anti-Convulsant litigation, the Nuclear Test Veterans litigation and in a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive against an electricity company for a death at work. He also gained experience relating to allegedly exploding vans and failing car breaking systems and in drafting and advising in relation to health and safety at work and occupiers liability claims.

Representative cases

• Fetal Anti-Convulsant Litigation (as pupil to Geraint Webb): a group action brought by persons born with various congenital disabilities allegedly as a result of a defect in an anti-epilepsy drug
• Nuclear Test Veterans Litigation (as pupil to Adam Heppinstall) (on appeal to the Supreme Court): group action brought by veterans of nuclear tests carried out in the Pacific Ocean during the 1950

During pupillage, Paul has gained experience of various employment matters relating to TUPE transfers, restrictive covenants, unfair dismissal and discrimination on grounds of race and disability. He is familiar with the Equality Act 2010, including local authorities’ equality duties and the removal of compulsory retirement ages. Paul has responded to many employment queries posed by members of the public to Liberty.

Representative cases

• Dowsett v Secretary of State for Justice (as pupil to Adam Heppinstall) (pending): on whether a policy which allows male prisoners to be searched by female prison guards except on religious or cultural grounds but which only permits female prisoners to be searched by female guards amounts to sex and/or religious discrimination, a breach of the Secretary of State’s equality duties under the Equality Act 2010 and/or a breach of a prisoner’s human rights under Articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention.

• MGN v United Kingdom (2011) 53 EHRR 5 (as stagiaire at the ECtHR): on (1) the balance between Naomi Campbell’s right to respect for her private life under Article 8 and the Mirror’s freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention and the principle of subsidiarity and (2) the effect of ‘no win no fee’ agreements on the Mirror’s Article 10 rights.
• R(English Speaking Board) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] EWHC 1788 (Admin) (as pupil to Adam Heppinstall): on the lawfulness of an amendment to the Immigration Rules concerning accreditation requirements in relation to courses, institutions and examinations of English as a second language.
• R(Cusack) v London Borough of Harrow [2011] EWHC 460 (QB) (as pupil Noel Dilworth) – on the interpretation of local authority powers under the Highways Act 1980 in accordance with s.3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 and Article 1 of the First Protocol to the ECHR and in light of the presumption that legislation does not intend to deprive of property rights. Da Silva v United Kingdom (as stagière at the ECtHR) (pending): on whether the lack of prosecution and/or disciplinary measures against individual officers involved in the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Underground station following the 7/7 London bombings amounted to a violation of the investigative duty under Article 2, the right to life.
• EU anti-dumping proceedings concerning Vinyl Acetate originating in the USA (Provisional duty decision: Commission Regulation (EU) No 821/2011 OJ L209/24).
• Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills v Tomlins and ors (2011, Companies Court): proceedings brought to disqualify the previous directors of Luton Town Football Club from acting as company directors.
• Dowsett v Secretary of State for Justice (as pupil to Adam Heppinstall) (pending): on whether a policy which allows male prisoners to be searched by female prison guards except on religious or cultural grounds but which only permits female prisoners to be searched by female guards amounts to sex and/or religious discrimination, a breach of the Secretary of State’s equality duties under the Equality Act 2010 and/or a breach of a prisoner’s human rights under Articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention.