3 Hare Court

Thomas Roe KC has a vigorous and wide-ranging practice encompassing commercial and chancery commercial litigation, arbitration, civil fraud, insolvency, property law, constitutional and administrative law, and public international law.

The Legal 500 calls him ‘incredibly astute, quick thinking and impressively calm under fire’, while Chambers & Partners calls him ‘clever and reliable’, ‘tenacious’ and ‘delightful to work with’.

Tom appears regularly in the High Court—where he is a highly experienced trial lawyer—and in the Court of Appeal. He has appeared several times before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and dozens of times before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. He has also appeared often before courts overseas, including the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal of The Bahamas, the Senior Judges’ Court of the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia and, on very many occasions, the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean.

He has represented clients in some of the most complex cases to have come before courts and tribunals. Current and recent work has included acting for the owners of the superyacht Alfa Nero in claims arising from the vessel’s seizure (alleged to have been justified by sanctions relating to the invasion of Ukraine), representing a coal-trading company in a high-value Stockholm Chamber of Commerce arbitration concerning (among other things) the impact of sanctions on an energy supply agreement, acting for a group of parliamentarians in their public interest challenge to the Financial Conduct Authority’s response to interest-rate-hedging-product mis-selling, acting for an oil company in its arbitral claim against a State concerning expropriation of an interest in a joint venture, and defending a State against an investment treaty claim arising from its regulation of fuel imports over many years.

Reported cases in which he has appeared include Special Tribunal v Estate Police Association [2024] 1 W.L.R. 4252, concerning the role to be taken by a statutory tribunal whose decision is challenged, Pakistan International Airline Corp v Times Travel (UK) Ltd [2023] A.C. 101, which divided the Supreme Court on the law of economic duress, Attorney General v Trinsalvage Enterprises Ltd [2023] 1 W.L.R. 4045, which divided the Privy Council concerning unjust enrichment, Suraj v Attorney General [2023] A.C. 337, where Lord Sales and Lord Hamblen resolved a controversy in the courts of Trinidad and Tobago about proportionality analysis in fundamental rights cases, Maharaj v Cabinet of Trinidad and Tobago [2023] 1 W.L.R. 2870, which divided the Privy Council on the true meaning of controversial electoral reforms, R (Selevicius) v Home Secretary [2023] 1 W.L.R. 1304, about the EU Settlement Scheme, Stuart v Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago [2023] 4 W.L.R. 21, concerning malice in the tort of malicious prosecution, Lake v Attorney General of Anguilla [2022] R.V.R. 355, relating to compensation in the context of an airport expansion, Dass v Marchand [2021] 1 W.L.R. 1788, a civil fraud claim that reached the Privy Council, Patel v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] 1 W.L.R. 228, a case in the Supreme Court about EU-law rights in immigration, Jones v Sky Wheels [2020] B.P.I.R. 851, a corporate dispute in the aviation sector,  Re Paramount Powders (UK) Ltd [2020] 2 B.C.L.C. 1, where the Court of Appeal addressed the law on winding up on the ‘just and equitable’ ground, R (Bashir) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] A.C. 484, a case before the Supreme Court concerning the applicability of a treaty to an overseas territory, and Ramsook v Crossley [2018] Lloyd’s Rep. I.R. 471, a decision of the Privy Council concerning the scope of the representation clause in an insurance policy.

Cases Tom has argued have been reported in (among others) the Law Reports, the Weekly Law Reports, Lloyd’s Law Reports (Insurance), Lloyd’s Law Reports, Butterworths Company Law Cases, the Wills and Trusts Law Reports, the International Trusts and Estates Law Reports, the Industrial Relations Law Reports, the Environmental Law Reports, and the Law Reports of the Commonwealth.

Much of his work is international. Regular clients have included, in addition to many businesses and individuals in England & Wales and overseas, the British government and several overseas governments.

He has for many years been a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Current and recent arbitration experience includes both commercial arbitration under the ICC Arbitration Rules, the LCIA Arbitration Rules and the LMAA Terms, and investment treaty arbitration under the UNCITRAL Rules.