Maya Lester KC KC > Brick Court Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile
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Maya Lester KC KC
Work Department
Brick Court Chambers
Position
Maya Lester KC is recommended as a leading silk by the legal directories in six practice areas: Administrative & Public Law, Competition & European Law, Civil Liberties & Human Rights, Public International Law and Sanctions. She is ranked in the ‘Chambers 100 UK Bar’ list of the top 100 barristers, and in Who’s Who as one of the world’s leading competition and trade and customs lawyers. Her cases include Wightman (the ECJ case on the revocability of Brexit), acting for JP Morgan in the LIBOR investigation, and for the MOL Group in its European Arrest Warrant EU litigation & international arbitrations. She is a member of the Bars of England & Ireland.
Maya has a particular expertise in the law relating to economic sanctions. As the directories put it, she is “Queen of the Sanctions Bar without a doubt” and “owns the world of sanctions”. She founded and co-writes europeansanctions.com, the leading resource on sanctions & export control, with around 12,000 followers worldwide. She represents and advises hundreds of companies and individuals before the European and English courts (including on the UK Sanctions Act, the EU Blocking Regulation, sanctions clauses and investigations) and has acted in most of the leading cases, including Youseff, Synesis, Kadi, VTB, Tay Za, Central Bank of Iran, NITC and IRISL.
Maya’s leading cases include Synesis v FCDO (the first Sanctions Act appeal), Kadi(II) v Council & Commission (the leading case on the relationship between UN Security Council resolution s & EU law), R (Bancoult) v Secretary of State (the Chagos Islands judicial reviews in the UK and ECHR), Enron v EWS (the first very follow-on competition damages trial in the UK, and several subsequent follow-on damages actions including National Grid), R v Goldshield (prosecuting cartels as conspiracy to defraud), Walker v Innospec (equality in civil partners’ pensions) the Shambo judicial review (on bovine TB), and the Rahmatullah litigation. She has appeared in numerous judicial reviews of regulatory decisions (eg Cityhook, UniChem), competition appeals (including on LIBOR, Pay TV, horseracing, dairy, and construction recruitment), directors’ disqualification cases, ICSID & UNCITRAL arbitrations and appears several times a year in the European Court of Justice.
Maya was a founder of the Human Rights Lawyers Association and undertakes regular pro bono and public interest work. There is a strong US and international element to her practice; she spent three years as a Visiting Scholar & Master of Studies in Law at Yale and Columbia Law Schools. She is a regular speaker for the American Society for International Law, C5, RUSI, Chatham House, Justice, Public Law Project, Hart, ALBA, the ABA Antitrust Spring Meeting, BIICL, International Bar Association, Bar European Group and World ECR.
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Sanctions
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Maya Lester KC – Brick Court Chambers ‘Maya’s reputation is second to none. She commands respect from peers, judges and administrative decision-makers in the UK and EU. She is also a highly innovative and strategic lawyer. On her feet, she is calm but commanding.’
Brick Court Chambers is ‘top tier in relation to sanctions,’ with its members acting for designated individuals, UK government ministries and companies facing sanctions challenges. Maya Lester KC exemplifies this breadth of practice, having appeared for the Foreign Office in Phillips v FCDO, in which a British citizen designated on the grounds of being a pro-Russia propagandist in the Ukrainian War challenged his listing on free speech grounds; she also appeared for Nizar Al-Assaad before the ECJ in his bid to be removed from the Syrian sanctions list. Lester regularly leads Malcolm Birdling, who appeared for the appellant in Shvidler v FCDO, a challenge to the designation of a British-American citizen (who, while, having a track record of business in Russia was never a Russian citizen) whose assets were frozen under the post-Brexit Russia sanctions. Fergus Randolph KC is frequently called upon by companies and regulators looking to navigate the Russian sanctions regime. Commercial disputes where sanctions have prevented the payment of monies owed or halted projects form part of Paul Wright‘s practice, which also includes advising law firms on the limitations sanctions place on their ability to advise certain clients.
London Bar > Public international law
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 3Maya Lester KC –Brick Court Chambers ‘Maya’s commitment to issues is impressive. She is obviously a master of her subject areas, but she will also think around the case or issue at hand – whether legal or practical issues – to work through all possible options. Her advocacy is always well thought through and compelling.’
London Bar > Administrative law and human rights
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 3Maya Lester KC –Brick Court Chambers ‘Her advocacy is well-balanced, always well-thought-through, and compelling.’
London Bar > Competition
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 2Maya Lester KC –Brick Court Chambers ‘Maya is a first rate barrister. She combines a razor sharp intellect with a measured style of advocacy but can also apply forensic force when needed. She is also a wonderfully collegiate person and a real team player.’
London Bar > European Union relations
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Maya Lester KC – Brick Court Chambers ‘Maya knows EU law and the European courts inside and out. She is knowledgable, client-focussed and brutally effective.’
A ‘pre-eminent set for EU law’, Brick Court Chambers has a well established reputation for its ability to handle the most significant and high profile cases dealing with EU law and relations. In WS v Bulgaria, Marie Demetriou KC represented the UNHCR before the CJEU in a case that raised complex issues of construction of EU asylum legislation, with the judgment handed down in early 2024 having important implications for the rights of women refugees who have suffered sex-based violence. Maya Lester KC, a ‘go-to barrister for complex EU legal issues’, is acting for the claimant in XTX Markets Technologies Ltd v Legal & General Investment Management Ltd; the first case to raise the interaction between the UK Equality Act, human rights, and EU restrictions on the provision of financial products to Russians. Daniel Jowell KC managed to secure a last minute settlement for Visa on the eve of its trial with Euronet, with the latter claiming a breach of Article 101 of the EU Treaty in respect of Visa’s rules relating to the ability to charge at ATMs in Poland, the Czech Republic and Greece.