Landmark Chambers

Leon is well-established as a leading barrister at the UK Bar, practising across public, planning and environmental law.

Leon is ranked across Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 in six areas: Administrative and Public, Education, Planning, Environmental, Local Government and Social Housing law. He is described as “one of the best public lawyers of his generation”, having “a superb ability to present complex technical issues clearly and persuasively”; and that it is “always reassuring to have Leon on your side rather than against you”.

Leon regularly acts in complex cases of a national profile, including in the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights. Recent instructions include challenges involving: the scope of the right to autonomy, environmental issues arising from HS2, ownership transfers of GP surgeries to US-based companies, the EU Settlement Scheme and the COVID vaccination rollout. He has recently been instructed on significant planning cases including on the Silvertown Tunnel, PINS use of planning officers and the ‘bridge to nowhere’ case.

Leon has been nominated for the Planning and Land Use Junior of the Year and Public Services and Charities Junior of the Year in the Legal 500 Awards 2024.

Previous cases include the challenge to Ofqual’s grading system for the 2020 A-level exams, the Alfie Evans litigation, the challenge to the NHS Accountable Care Organisation contract and the challenge to the Yorkshire Ripper’s move from Broadmoor to prison.

Leon is a tutor in Administrative Law at the University of Cambridge. He is co-author of a free guide to special educational needs law, the ‘Noddy Guide to SEN’, and a lead author on the second edition of 'NHS Law and Practice (LAG, forthcoming). He is a contributing author to 'Children's Social Care Law' (LAG, 2018) and 'Adult Social Care Law' (LAG, 2019).

Away from law, he is a Governor of Dr Challoner’s Grammar School.

He is proudly of mixed heritage, with a British father and Malaysian-Chinese mother.

• LLM (Master of Law) – Churchill College, University of Cambridge

• MA (Law) – Churchill College, University of Cambridge

Scholarships

• Wolfson Scholarship (Lincoln’s Inn)

• Sir Thomas More Bursary (Lincoln’s Inn)

• Hardwicke Entrance Award (Lincoln’s Inn)

• Wright Rogers Scholarship (Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge)

• Churchill College Scholarship (Churchill College, University of Cambridge)

• Sir Judge David Stokes Scholarship (Churchill College, University of Cambridge)

Appointments

• Supervisor in Administrative Law, University of Cambridge (2013 -)

• Governor (SEN and Diversity Governor, Chair of the Admissions Committee and Chair of the Personnel Committee), Dr Challoner’s Grammar School (2015 -)

• Co-chair, Young Public Lawyers Group (2019)

Awards

• Certificate of Recognition (Bar Pro Bono Unit, November 2017)

Memberships

Appointed to the Attorney General’s A Panel of Junior Counsel.

Appointed to the Equality and Human Rights Commission Panel of Counsel

• Burma Justice Committee

• Human Rights Lawyers Association

• The Constitutional and Administrative Law Bar Association

• Young Public Lawyers Group