
Eddie has a broad practice in all areas of public, media, criminal, commercial and international law. He is recommended by Legal 500 as a leading junior in ten areas: (1) administrative and public law; (2) civil fraud; (3) civil liberties and human rights; (4) data protection; (5) defamation and privacy; (6) environmental law; (7) media and entertainment; (8) proceeds of crime and asset forfeiture; (9) public international law; (10) sport.
Eddie is a member of the Attorney General’s C Panel for Junior Counsel to the Crown and the Attorney-General’s Public International Law Panel.
Eddie has a wide public law and human rights practice. In 2020 he was named by Legal 500 as Junior of the Year for Civil Liberties and Human Rights. He has acted in a number of high profile Human Rights Act claims and judicial reviews including:
Eddie has a significant practice in public and private international law. He represented Croatia in proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) under the Genocide Convention (Croatia v Serbia). He is currently representing the Republic of Somalia in an international maritime boundary dispute before the ICJ (Somalia v Kenya) and is representing the Co-Operative Republic of Guyana in proceedings before the ICJ concerning the validity of an 1899 arbitral award (Guyana v Venezuela). He also has broad experience of international arbitration and recently served as the assistant to an ICSID arbitral tribunal.
Eddie has acted in a number of complex international group claims. These include:
Eddie has extensive experience of bringing claims and third party interventions before the European Court of Human Rights. His cases include:
Eddie practises in all aspects of media and information law, with particular expertise in defamation, privacy, data protection, breach of confidence and reporting restrictions. In 2017 Spears magazine identified him as one of two “Rising Star” lawyers in the field of reputation management. Eddie acted for the appellant in the Supreme Court in OPO (James Rhodes) v MLA (appeal against injunction prohibiting publication of a performing artist’s autobiography) and represented the Media Lawyers Association in the Supreme Court in Lachaux v Lachaux (landmark appeal concerning the serious harm threshold in s. 1 of the Defamation Act 2013).
He has represented approximately 50 individuals in claims arising out of Operations Weeting, Pinetree and Golding (unlawful voicemail interception) and Operation Elveden (payment of corrupt public officials). He is currently representing the former Crown servant, Christopher Steele, in libel proceedings concerning the publication of a confidential intelligence memorandum. Between 2013-17, Eddie provided regular pre-publication advice to The Times, Sunday Times, Observer, the Guardian and BBC News.
Eddie has a broad criminal and regulatory practice with a particular focus on proceeds of crime, fraud and money laundering offences and cases with an international or corporate dimension. He has been instructed for the defence in international fraud and corruption prosecutions and advised a large investment bank on LIBOR fixing investigations. He has extensive experience of representing respondents to property freezing orders, unexplained wealth orders and civil recovery applications under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. He has advised and trained teams at global law firms on money laundering compliance and has produced AML risk assessments and policies for a range of regulated entities.
Eddie is a contributing author to Human Rights and Criminal Justice (3rd Ed, Sweet & Maxwell); Smith, Bodnar and Owen on Asset Recovery, Criminal Confiscation and Civil Recovery (OUP, 2nd Ed); Montgomery and Ormerod on Fraud: Criminal Law and Procedure; and Livingstone, Owen and Macdonald on Prison Law (OUP, 5th Ed); and the GIR Guide to Global Investigations.
Eddie has acted as a clerk to the Basketball Arbitral Tribunal on more than 20 cases and as an ad hoc clerk at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in more than 40 cases including:
In 2011/2012 Eddie spent a year as judicial assistant to Lord Clarke at the United Kingdom Supreme Court. Prior to this, Eddie spent nine months as a judicial assistant to Lady Justice Arden at the Court of Appeal.
Eddie is a former Lecturer in Administrative Law and European Human Rights Law at Oxford University and has taught on surveillance and fair trial issues on the postgraduate BCL course. Before joining Matrix, he spent several months working as a Stagiaire at the European Court of Human Rights. He is also a former trial observer for the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association.
Eddie holds a first class undergraduate law degree from Trinity Hall, Cambridge University. He undertook the Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law where he was graded ‘Outstanding’ and received the Everard Ver Heyden Foundation Prize for finishing in the top 5 in his year. Eddie later read for the Bachelor of Civil Law at Brasenose College, Oxford University, specialising in criminal justice, unjust enrichment and comparative public law. He received Distinctions in all subjects and won the Ralph Chiles CBE Prize for comparative human rights law. Eddie was awarded a Sunley Scholarship, Eastham Scholarship, Hardwicke Award and Buchanan Prize by Lincoln’s Inn.
Eddie is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy in accordance with his legal obligation under UK law and the law of the European Union. In order to provide legal services to his clients, including advice and representation services, Eddie needs to collect and hold personal data. This includes his client’s personal data and the personal data of others who feature in the matter upon which he is instructed. To view Eddie’s privacy notice in full, please see here.
Edward is regulated by the Bar Standards Board and accepts instruction under Standard Contractual Terms. To find out more information on the way we work at Matrix, including our fee transparency statement, please see our see our service standards.
Legal 500 notes that he is a “Very bright and incredibly hardworking junior. He comes up with innovative ideas and is a very good drafter” (Civil Liberties and Human Rights including Actions against the Police)
“A stellar practitioner with a brain the size of a planet. ” (Legal 500, Public International Law)
“Impressive – his written work is exceptional. ” (Legal 500, Administrative and Public Law Including Local Government)
“An up-and-coming junior who is very bright, hardworking and very much in demand.” (Legal 500, Data Protection)
“His work is precise and to the point. ” (Legal 500, Defamation and Privacy)
“Absolutely brilliant, an up-and-coming star with a first-class legal brain.” (Legal 500, Environment)
“An outstanding advocate with top academic talent and drafting skills.” (Legal 500, Media and Entertainment including Art and Cultural Property)
“Incredibly bright with an engaging court manner” (Legal 500, Proceeds of Crime Act and Asset Forfeiture)
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