Recent criminal and fraud cases include representing:
• Railtrack plc and its former Chief Executive, in the prosecution arising from the Hatfield rail crash (with Clare Montgomery QC).
• Cliff Stanford, the internet entrepreneur charged with blackmailing Shirley Porter (with Tim Owen QC).
• Katharine Gun, the former GCHQ employee charged with Official Secrets Act disclosure in the run-up to the Iraq war (with Ben Emmerson QC and Philippe Sands QC).
• William Dunlop in the first application to retry an acquitted person (for murder) under the new law relating to double jeopardy (with Tim Owen QC).
• GlaxoSmithKline (with Clare Montgomery QC), in a criminal investigation into paediatric clinical trials of anti-depressants.
Previously a derivatives trader, 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 currently does a mixture of leading and junior work.
Currently involved (with Tim Owen QC) in litigation concerning a corruption investigation in Premiership football.
He has a diverse human rights and public law practice: ranging from judicial reviews to cases in Strasbourg.
Recent human rights cases include:
• A and others v Home Secretary [2005] 2 AC 68 (with Rabinder Singh QC and David Pannick QC) in the ‘Belmarsh’ appeal to the House of Lords on the detention without trial of suspected terrorists.
• MB and others v Home Secretary [2007] 3 WLR 681 (with David Pannick QC) House of Lords ruling on the legality of ‘control orders’.
• MT(Algeria) v Home Secretary [2008] 2 WLR 159 (with Dinah Rose QC) on the use of closed evidence and special advocates in cases involving “diplomatic assurances”.
• Ramzy v Netherlands [2007] (with Rabinder Singh QC) in Strasbourg on return to torture in national security cases.
He has been instructed in a total of 15 House of Lords, Privy Council and Strasbourg appeals, including many death-row cases.
Currently acting for a journalist who is resisting production of material to the police in connection with a terrorist investigation.
He has varied appellate experience; regularly appearing in the Administrative and Divisional Courts, Court of Appeal, Privy Council and the House of Lords.
Recent public law work includes:
• R(Gentle) v Prime Minister [2008] UKHL 20 (with Rabinder Singh QC and Michael Fordham QC): House of Lords appeal relating to the legality of the Iraq war and the duty to hold a public inquiry.
Advising the Law Society on the constitutional implications of new money laundering regulations (with Rabinder Singh QC).
• Judicial reviews of various decisions not to prosecute, including those involving the right to life.
Current cases include:
• R(LH) v Staffordshire Chief Constable: judicial review of retention of a child’s DNA on the national database.
• representing a former member the Armed Forces who is subject to an injunction prohibiting any disclosures relating to his former employment.
He is a member of the Bar Human Rights Committee and the Foreign Office pro bono lawyers’ panel.
He is a regular speaker at Criminal Law and Human Rights conferences and is a contributing author to a number of leading books on fraud, human rights and criminal justice.
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