One Essex Court

Ben’s practice covers complex and high-value commercial, competition and public law litigation. He is frequently instructed in High Court and CAT proceedings, both as sole counsel and as part of a team. He currently appears in many of the largest cases going through the English courts.

Current and recent major instructions include:

Motorola v CMA – (led by Josh Holmes KC and Sarah Abram KC) defending the CMA in high value judicial review proceedings relating to the Airwave mobile telecommunications network. Allianz Global Investors v Barclays Bank – (led by Marie Demetriou KC and Colin West KC) a very large scale competition damages claim arising out of a foreign exchange market cartel. Various Claimants v Mastercard – (led by Tim Otty KC, Sonia Tolaney KC and Matthew Cook KC) defending over £1bn of claims brought by merchants against Mastercard in respect of interchange fees. Crane Bank v DFCU Bank – (led by Lord Pannick KC and Hannah Brown KC) acting for the Claimants in high value litigation arising out of the resolution of a Ugandan commercial bank. Other recent cases include Dye & Durham v CMA  [2023] CAT 46, the first reported case to consider spin-offs in the context of merger remedies; Dougan v HMRC [2022] UKFTT 140 (TC), a successful appeal against discovery assessments for income tax (unled); Countrywide v Moeller [2021] EWHC 805 (Comm), a successful summary judgment application arising out of breach of a share purchase agreement (led by Ed Cumming KC), and Havant Biogas v OFGEM [2021] EWHC 84 (Admin) a successful claim in high value judicial review proceedings against OFGEM.

Before coming to the Bar, Ben worked in the cabinet of Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston at the European Court of Justice, and wrote about economics and finance for The Economist. Ben has undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics from the University of Oxford and studied law as a Lord Bowen, Lord Mansfield and J.P. Warner scholar of Lincoln’s Inn.

French (good knowledge)

St John’s College, Oxford (BA PPE, MPhil Economics); City, University of London (GDL, BPTC)