Alan specialises in competition, procurement, public/administrative and EU law. The legal directories rank him as a leading junior in competition, EU and telecoms law.
Alan has particular experience in dealing with complex regulatory disputes involving combinations of public and EU law and economic issues. He has acted both for and against all the main UK competition and sectoral regulators and the European Commission in cases concerning competition law infringements, regulatory investigations and consumer protection.
He is also playing a leading role in the development of the UK’s competition law private damages regime under the changes introduced by the Consumer Rights Act 2015. He recently led the defence team in the Gibson v Pride Mobility case, resisting the first ever application in the UK for a collective proceedings order to permit an ‘opt-out’ class action for recovering consumer losses alleged to have arisen from a competition law infringement.
Alan is also regularly instructed in procurement law proceedings (both for claimants and for contracting authorities/utilities). His experience includes claims arising under the Utilities Contracts, Defence Contracts, and Concessions, Regulations.
He has a particular interest in State aid law, and is the author of the State aid chapter of Bellamy & Child European Union Law of Competition and the ‘compatibility of aid’ chapter in European Union Law of State Aid.
Alan also has extensive experience in Administrative Court proceedings involving EU law issues, including compatibility with EU directives, equal treatment, proportionality and notification under the Technical Standards Directive. He is regularly instructed to appear on behalf of the UK Government in proceedings in the EU Court of Justice.
Research assistant Law Commission of England and Wales 2000-01; called 2003; completed pupillage 2004; judicial assistant to Law Lords, House of Lords 2004-05; tutor in Public Law King’s College, London 2004-05. Alan read Law at Christ’s College, Cambridge, graduating with first class honours. He was awarded the University’s Clive Parry Prize for Public International Law, the De Hart Prize for Public Law (re-awarded twice) and was a scholar of his college. He was subsequently awarded a Thouron scholarship to study at the University of Pennsylvania (where be obtained an LL.M. degree in 2002) and a Middle Temple Queen Mother scholarship for his year at Bar School. He subsequently interned with an organisation in India that was conducting DFID-funded research on the enactment and enforcement of competition law in developing countries. For the judicial year 2004-05, Alan was Judicial Assistant to the then Senior Law Lord, Lord Bingham. More recently, Alan was awarded a Pegasus scholarship which enabled him to spend an extended period working on competition and regulatory disputes at leading New Zealand law firm Chapman Tripp. He is a strong believer in the need for the Bar to be modern, meritocratic, user-friendly and diverse, while staying true to its ethics and values, and he seeks to further that belief through his membership of the Bar Standards Board’s Education and Training Committee. Publications of note: co-author of the State aid chapter of Bellamy & Child (2008 edition).
Constitutional and Administrative Law Bar Association (ALBA); Lawyers for Animal Welfare (ALAW); Bar European Group (BEG); JUSTICE; Human Rights Lawyers Association (HRLA); UK Environmental Law Association (UKELA). Competition Law Association.
Reigate Grammar School; University of Cambridge (2000 BA Hons Law First Class; Clive Parry Prize for International Law; De Hart Prize for Public Law); University of Pennsylvania (2002 LLM; Thouron Scholar).
Outside work, Alan’s interests include independent travel and learning to play the violin. He is a governor of a London primary school and a trustee of a think-tank and an animal welfare charity.