Qualifications

LL.B. (with French language) (first class), University of Glasgow

B.C.L., Lincoln College, Oxford

M.Sc. (philosophy), University of Edinburgh

LL.M., Yale Law School

Dip.L.P., University of Glasgow

Special interests

Company and commercial

Media, defamation and privacy

Planning and Environmental

Public law, including judicial review and human rights

Tax, trusts, succession and pensions

Biography

Stephen is regularly instructed in complex public law cases. He has been instructed as sole counsel at all levels, including the Privy Council and European Court of Human Rights.

He has particularly extensive experience in international law, and has been appointed both as Standing Junior Counsel to the Scottish Government and to the UK Attorney-General’s Public International Law Panel of Counsel.

Stephen is also recognized as a leading junior in tax disputes, having appeared in major cases such as News Corp v HMRC in the Supreme Court.

Before coming to the bar (as Lord Reid scholar), Stephen was a judicial assistant in the Supreme Court. He studied law at Glasgow, Oxford, and Yale (as a Fulbright scholar), is a visiting lecturer in international investment arbitration at King’s College London, and also practises from Essex Court Chambers in London.

 

Cases

Shehabi v Bahrain (Court of Appeal of England and Wales)

Conquer v United Kingdom (European Court of Human Rights)

Gem Management v Firefox [2022] 2 BCLC 291 (Privy Council)

Wightman v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2019] QB 199 (Full Court of the ECJ)