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Alex Bailin QC

Called 1995Silk 2010

Introduction · Expertise · CV & Downloads

Email alexbailin@matrixlaw.co.uk
Practice Team PracticeStaff_TeamT@matrixlaw.co.uk

Alex is recommended by the legal directories in five areas: (1) criminal fraud (2) crime (3) human rights (4) public and administrative law and (5) public international law.

• “brilliant” (Legal 500, Human Rights)
• “incredibly literate in human rights law”; “vastly experienced” (Chambers & Partners, Human Rights)
• “a good intellectual lawyer” (Legal 500, Fraud: Crime)
• “his background as a derivatives trader in the City gives him additional expertise in the fraud-related cases” (Chambers & Partners, Fraud: Criminal)
• “incredibly bright, imaginative and determined”; “excels in specialist criminal and public law work” (Chambers & Partners, Crime)
• “excellent judgement”; “a very strategic thinker" (Chambers & Partners, Admin. & Public Law)
• “a real intellectual approach to a case but able to boil it down into key simple points” (Chambers & Partners, Admin. & Public Law)

Significant criminal and fraud cases include:
• R v Railtrack plc and its former Chief Executive (corporate manslaughter prosecution, Hatfield rail crash)
• R v Stanford (businessman charged with blackmailing Shirley Porter, unlawful email interception)
• R v Katharine Gun (GCHQ employee - Official Secrets Act disclosures relating to the Iraq war)
• R v Dunlop (first application to retry an acquitted person (for murder) under new double jeopardy laws)
• GlaxoSmithKline (criminal investigation into paediatric clinical trials of anti-depressants)
• R(Redknapp) v City of London Police [2009] 1 WLR 2091 (corruption investigation in Premiership football)

Previously a derivatives trader and a mathematician, Alex is instructed in a wide variety of commercial and business crime cases; from corporate manslaughter and frauds of all kinds to financial services and other regulatory offences. His clients include chief executives, multinational corporations and foreign governments. He regularly provides advice during the investigatory or pre-litigation stages of a case to a wide range of bodies and persons: senior business executives, City firms, regulators, prosecuting authorities, professional bodies, foreign governments, journalists and media organisations. His work often involves international law issues. He is on the Serious Fraud Office Queen's Counsel List.

He is a contributing author to a number of leading books on fraud and criminal justice and a regular writer and speaker. He writes the Companies Act offences chapter in Montgomery and Ormerod, Fraud: Criminal Law & Procedure and the Official Secrets Act chapter in Blackstone’s Criminal Practice. He is also a contributing author to Emmerson and Ashworth, Human Rights & Criminal Justice.

His international criminal work includes advising on issues relating to state immunity and its interaction with the jurisdiction of various international criminal courts; issues relating to the use of force and allegations of torture and genocide and other violations of fundamental human rights; issues relating to individual violations of international criminal laws.

Important media cases include:
• MoD v Griffin [2008] EWHC 1542 (confidentiality injunction and prior publication)
• R(Malik) v Manchester Crown Court [2008] EMLR 19 (terrorism production order, confidentiality of journalistic sources, self-incrimination, special advocates)
• R v D [2006] 1 WLR 1998 (reporting restrictions, application to quash an acquittal)

His media work often involves the interaction between fair trial rights, privacy, confidentiality and freedom of speech. He has advised high-profile figures, journalists and media organisations on production orders, witness summonses, reporting restrictions, contempt of court and other criminal offences.

He has a diverse human rights and public law practice: ranging from judicial reviews to cases in Strasbourg. He has been instructed in a total of 20 cases in the Supreme Court, House of Lords, Privy Council and European Court of Human Rights, including many death-row appeals. He often works at the interface between criminal and public law.

Recent human rights cases include:
• Gillan & Quinton v UK [2010] European Court of Human Rights (legality of anti-terrorist police powers)
• A and others v UK (2009) EHRR 29 European Court of Human Rights (Grand Chamber) decision in “Belmarsh case”
• E v Home Secretary [2008] 1 AC 499 (House of Lords ruling on the legality of “control orders”)
• MT(Algeria) v Home Secretary [2008] QB 533 (use of closed evidence in “diplomatic assurances” cases)
• Pipersburgh & Robateau v R [2008] UKPC 11 (death row appeal: dock identification, constitutionality of death by hanging)
• A and others v Home Secretary [2005] 2 AC 68 (House of Lords appeal in “Belmarsh case” - detention without trial of suspected terrorists)
• Judicial review of the retention of a child’s DNA on the national database.

Recent public law work includes:
• HM Treasury v Ahmed and others (Nos. 1 & 2) [2010] 2 WLR 378 (UK Supreme Court, legality of UN anti-terrorist asset-freezing laws)
• Advising the Chief Justice of Gibraltar: considered in [2009] UKPC 43
• R(Gentle) v Prime Minister [2008] 1 AC 1356 (House of Lords appeal - legality of Iraq war and duty to hold a public inquiry)
• Advising the Law Society on the constitutional implications of new money laundering regulations.
• Judicial reviews of decisions to prosecute and not to prosecute.

Current work includes:
• A complex insider dealing investigation.
• Judicial reviews of search warrants in current criminal investigations.
• Corruption investigations (UK and overseas).
• Judicial review of a decision not to prosecute.
• Advisory work relating to issues of international criminal law.
• Intervening in a UK Supreme Court case.
• Judicial review of a public inquiry into corruption.

He is a regular speaker at legal conferences and is a contributing author to a number of leading books on fraud, human rights and criminal justice. He has published a number of articles in the legal and national press. He has appeared on BBC News, Radio 4 Today Programme and Newsnight on legal issues. He is a member of the Bar Human Rights Committee and the Foreign Office pro bono lawyers’ panel.

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