Brick Court Chambers

James Flynn KC is a leading competition law litigator at the London Bar. His wide experience at the Bar builds on his years of practice at a magic circle law firm in London and Brussels together with his work as a Legal Secretary at the European Court of Justice. Current high profile cases in London include acting for the Road Haulage Association in the proposed collective proceedings against the truck cartel and for GSK in its appeal against the UK’s first pharmaceutical patent reverse settlement proceedings (currently the subject of a reference to the European Court of Justice). He has considerable expertise concerning the interface between Competition and Intellectual Property law, particularly on the licensing of standard essential patents and FRAND terms (acting for Qualcomm, IP Com and Samsung) as well as ‘pay for delay.’  Significant CAT appeals in recent years include acting for Sky in the long-running Pay TV litigation; for BMI in relation to the Private Healthcare Market Investigation; for Aer Lingus in its dispute over Ryanair’s protracted hostile shareholding; and for Asda in the successful appeals against the OFT’s Tobacco decision. His considerable experience of competition damages cases embraces follow-on (public examples include envelopes, synthetic rubber and CRT and LCD screens) and standalone actions in the High Court and CAT, including acting for Inntrepreneur in Courage v Crehan, the first standalone damages case to go to full trial in the United Kingdom, and for Cardiff Bus in the first follow-on damages action to come to trial and to lead to a damages award. He also appeared in the leading cases on the interaction between criminal law and competition law.  Recent appearances in competition cases in Luxembourg include cartel appeals and the interchange fees litigation.  He is acting pro bono for ClientEarth in an important appeal in Luxembourg concerning the right for NGOs to request a review of decisions of EU bodies in the environmental sphere.  Notable previous EU cases include the leading authority on legal privilege in competition proceedings (Akzo Nobel) and the landmark Microsoft appeal.  He has experience of arbitrations, as counsel and as arbitrator (including recently in Queen’s Park Rangers v EFL in respect of the application of the Championship rules on Financial Fair Play).

His broader EU practice covers the areas of state aid, public procurement, IP, telecommunications and broadcasting, direct and indirect taxation, free movement and professional and financial services regulation.