Alex practises in public, planning and environmental law. He has a particular interest in public interest litigation.
Alex is a public, planning and environmental law practitioner.
Environmental law: Alex is ranked in the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners for environmental law. He has been instructed on cases concerning climate change, pollution, environmental protests, pesticide regulation, protected habitats, invasive species, and animal rights. His clients include NGOs and campaigners such as Animal Equality, Campaign for National Parks, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, ClientEarth, Compassion in World Farming, the Environmental Law Foundation, Extinction Rebellion activists, Fossil Free London, the Good Law Project, Friends of the Earth, Rights: Community: Action, the RSPB, Transport Action Network, WWF-UK, and Urban Squirrels.
Public law: Alex’s public law practice is broad and includes discrimination, human rights, education, community care and immigration matters. His clients include individuals (such as vulnerable children, destitute asylum seekers, migrants, homeless persons, and persons with disabilities), and public bodies such as state schools.
Planning law: Alex’s clients include individuals, community groups, local authorities, consultants and developers. He has previously been ranked as one of Planning Magazine’s top-rated junior barristers under 35.
Alex accepts direct access and pro bono instructions where appropriate. He is a legal reviewer for the charity Freedom From Torture and has done a lot of work for the Environmental Law Foundation.
Alex has a doctorate in public international law from Cambridge, as well as law degrees from Oxford and LSE. During his doctorate he researched the legality of military intervention in civil wars. His previous work experience includes teaching economics, working in a secure prison, and working at the Law Commission on its driverless cars project. In his spare time he enjoys films, video games, and Scandinavian heavy metal music. He also enjoys picking up heavy objects and putting them back down again.
• PhD in public international law, University of Cambridge. Supervised by Professor Christine Gray. Thesis title: The legal limits of intervention by invitation of government in civil wars. Funded by a full scholarship and maintenance grant.
• LLM in public international law, London School of Economics. 1st in year.
• BA in jurisprudence, University of Oxford. New College Scholar.
• Alex attended local state comprehensive schools in the Midlands. He was the first in his family to attend sixth form and the first to go to university.
• Alex is an alumnus of the Hague Academy of International Law, a centre for advanced international legal studies based in the Peace Palace at the Hague, Netherlands. He was the only British scholar to obtain a place on the 2014 Hague Academy public international law programme.
Scholarships• WM Tapp Studentship in Law, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Full tuition and living costs paid for a 3-year PhD.
• Lord Denning Scholarship (major Inns of Court BPTC award), Lincoln’s Inn.
• Hardwicke Entrance Award, Lincoln’s Inn.
• New College Scholar, New College, Oxford. For distinction in law exams.
Awards
• Opinion writing subject prize, University of Law. Received for the highest mark in the opinion writing exam.
• Best Journal Entry prize, Legal Cheek. Received for an essay on sovereign immunity from domestic criminal prosecution. Presented at the ‘Legal Cheek Awards’.
• Shortlisted for the Harry Porter Prize (top 3 entries), Cambridge Footlights. The Footlights’ annual prize for an original comedy play script.
• Georg Schwarzenberger Prize in Public International Law, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London. Received for the highest overall achievement in public international law across the University of London law schools in a given year.
• First Prize, New Statesman/Beatrice Webb Memorial Trust Essay Competition. For an essay on post-war economic policy. £1,000 award presented in Parliament. Essay published in the New Statesman magazine.
• Lawyers’ Alumni Prize, LSE. Received for ranking 1st out of 251 graduate law students.
• Blackstone Prize, LSE. Received for best overall LLM results in public international law subjects.
• LSE/African Prisons Project Human Rights Moot prize, LSE. Received full funding for an internship in Uganda, for winning the Human Rights Moot.
Publications
• Promoting Climate Justice through International Law- A Matter for the ICJ?, BICCL’s Rising Sea Levels webinar series.
• The A Word: Academic Appeals in Public Law Challenges, Judicial Review.
• ‘Dinner Party Conversation’, European Journal of International Law.
• ‘Slaying the Giants’, New Statesman essay prize winner.
• ‘What would happen if the Queen went on a crime spree?’, Legal Cheek prize winner.