Piers transferred to the Bar in 2000, after over 20 years’ experience as a solicitor, in the City, at the European Commission Human Rights and as Director of the British Institute of International & Comparative Law. He has a detailed knowledge of all aspects of the European Convention on Human Rights, together with other European treaty based law, and their operation in domestic, EU and international law. He has dealt in particular with cases concerning the application of the ECHR to commercial, investigatory and tax matters and the interaction of international and domestic proceedings, often in several jurisdictions at once and particularly involving urgency and interim relief.
This unusual transnational practice has involved cases concerning 36 European countries apart from the UK (Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine) plus Australia, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Channel Islands, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, the Turcs and Caicos and extensively in the USA.
Key features of these cases have been:
protection of property and confidentiality, particularly in commercial and tax matters, data protection, especially with INTERPOL, jurisdictional disputes, both as to forum and enforcement, and the prevention of unwarranted evidence gathering and extradition.Piers is the UK delegate to the Permanent Delegation of the CCBE to the European Court of Human Rights and chairs the Delegation.
Solicitor 1979-2000; barrister 2000 – articled clerk 1977 – 79; assistant solicitor, Stephenson Harwood, London 1979-80; secretariat of the European Commission of Human Rights, Strasbourg 1981-88; director, British Institute of International and Comparative Law 1989-99; solicitor JP Gardner 1989-2000; called to the Bar 2000.
English, French and German.
Bryanston School; Brasenose College, Oxford (1976 BA, 1981 MA); College of Law.