Brick Court Chambers

Barrister specialising in commercial, competition, energy and public law.

Notable commercial law cases have included: Prismall v. Google (representative proceedings for misuse of private information); Micula v. Romania (Supreme Court appeal on enforcement of ICSID awards); Apple v. Qualcomm (global IP licensing/FRAND dispute); Secretary of State for Transport v. Paragon (Commercial Court proceedings to recover the cost of replacing all V5 vehicle registration documents); Cherney v. Deripaska (a claim said to be for over $3 billion and cited by The Lawyer among the ‘top cases of 2012’); Sir Keith Mills v. Coutts & Co (Chancery Division claim alleging mis-selling of investments); and Terna v. Binkamil (enforcement proceedings under the Arbitration Act 1996). From his postgraduate studies, he has particular interests in restitution and the conflict of laws.

In the field of competition law, Gerard’s experience includes: Evans v. Barclays (Court of Appeal on collective proceedings orders); proposed collective proceedings before the CAT for foreign exchange and power cables cartels; the Meta/GIPHY merger investigation and associated proceedings;  iiyama v. Samsung (High Court follow-on action arising out of the Cathode Ray Tube cartel); appearing before the Supreme Court in SCOP v. CMA (on the scope of the CMA’s merger jurisdiction); BMI Healthcare v. CC (challenging the unfair procedure adopted in the then-pending Private Healthcare market investigation); the Pay TV appeals against Ofcom (both before the Competition Appeal Tribunal and the Court of Appeal); the Construction Recruitment Forum penalty appeals brought by Hays plc and others; Virgin Media v. BSkyB (a High Court action concerning the pricing of television channels); and Chester City Council v. Arriva (a Chapter 2 claim relating to public transport). He is a contributing author of Competition Litigation: UK Practice and Procedure (OUP).

As to public law, Gerard taught constitutional law at Magdalen College, Oxford for 5 years. Court experience of note includes: acting pro bono for the parents of Charlie Gard in the appeals as far as the European Court of Human Rights challenging the decision to restrict medical treatment for their child; R (Good Law Project) v. Electoral Commission (judicial review proceedings on the application of expenditure rules at the 2016 EU referendum); R (Wheeler) v. Prime Minister (challenging the Government’s opt-in to the European Arrest Warrant scheme); R (BASTA) v. Birmingham Airport (a judicial review concerning taxi licensing); and R (Higher Burrow) v. DEFRA (concerning the policy for controlling tuberculosis in cattle).

Gerard has particular familiarity with commercial judicial review and cases arising in the energy sector. He has acted for Scottish Power in the CMA’s review of the RIIO-T2 and RIIO-ED1 price controls, for the Utility Regulator of Northern Ireland in the GD17 licence modification appeal by Firmus Energy, and separately for National Grid and for UK Power Networks in judicial review proceedings arising out of decisions of Ofgem.

Called 2005, Lincoln’s Inn (Hardwicke and Denning Scholarships); pupillage Brick Court Chambers 2005-06; part-time lecturer in Constitutional Law at Magdalen College, Oxford 2005-10.

French, Spanish.

COMBAR, LCLCBA.

Westminster School; Magdalen College, Oxford (MA Jurisprudence First Class; BCL with Distinction).