Paul Skinner

Contact Paul: paulskinner@matrixlaw.co.uk | +44 (0)20 7404 3447

Contact Paul's Practice Team (Team X): TeamX@matrixlaw.co.uk

Paul has a cross-disciplinary practice principally in the fields of public and human rights law, equality law, commercial law and employment law. He also practises in allied areas including international law, competition and regulation, EU, tax and environmental law.

Paul is regularly instructed in high-profile and complex cases, including a number featuring in The Lawyer’s annual list of Top 20 Cases. He has appeared unled on numerous occasions before the Court of Appeal and also has a busy practice as part of counsel teams.

Paul is a member of the Attorney General’s B panel of counsel.

Human Rights and Public Law Involving Individuals

Paul frequently acts for individuals, NGOs and public authorities in judicial reviews and statutory appeals against the state. He has particular expertise in:

• Community care
• Discrimination and equality
• Education
• Immigration, immigration detention, asylum and nationality
• Information, data protection, privacy and freedom of expression
• Healthcare
• Human rights
• National security and terrorism
• Prison law
• Public international law
• Social security and welfare benefits

Paul is ranked in the legal directories as a leading junior in administrative and public law and immigration law.

Some of Paul’s recent and significant cases in these areas include:

• R (Keira Bell) v Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust [2021] EWCA Civ 1363, [2022] 1 All ER 416 – Whether children with gender dysphoria can consent to puberty blocking treatment (leading Aidan Wills)
• R (Lord) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care [2022] EWHC 2004 (Admin) – Judicial review of the pandemic-related requirement to only serve alcohol with a table meal
• Department for Transport v Information Commissioner [2021] UKUT 327 (AAC); [2022] 1 WLR 3403 – Appeal in relation to approach to be taken to civil servant’s evidence of the chilling effect that the release of information would have under the Freedom of Information Act
• R (Vincent) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2020] EWHC 1976 (Admin) – Whether the conversion of Support for Mortgage Interest into a loan repayable on sale of a recipient’s home is unlawfully discriminatory against disabled people who are forced to remain in unsuitable accommodation
• PF v Disclosure and Barring Service [2020] UKUT 256 (AAC) – Test case on the scope of the Tribunal’s jurisdiction in error of fact cases, led by Ben Jaffey KC)
• ED (claiming as “AA”) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2020] UKUT 352 (AAC) – Whether the Secretary of State’s power to reclaim overpaid benefits extends to the case of someone who has acquired their right to benefit by pretending to be someone that does not in fact exist (led by Zoe Leventhal KC)
• Demirtaş and others v Turkey (2019) 69 EHRR 27 (ECtHR Grand Chamber, sole counsel) – Representing Article 19 and Human Rights Watch in their successful intervention in this seminal case relating to the removal of Turkish MPs’ Parliamentary immunity and their arrest and detention for politically motivated reasons.
• R (Ryle) v Secretary of State for Justice [2019] EWHC 3031 (Admin) – Judicial review of prisoner’s re-categorisation (sole counsel)
• R (Parkin) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2019] EWHC 2356 (Admin) – Judicial review on discrimination grounds of the minimum income floor at which self-employed people are deemed to earn for the purpose of calculating their Universal Credit entitlement
• R (FDA) v Minister for the Cabinet Office [2018] EWHC 2746 (Admin) – Judicial review by civil service trade unions of pay guidance on basis of failure to consult
• R (Buxton) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2018] EWHC 2196 (Admin); [2019] PTSR 502 – Judicial review on grounds of indirect discrimination of cap on Access to Work scheme
• R (B) v Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education [2018] EWHC 1971 (Admin); [2019] PTSR 769 – Successfully acted for the OIA in the lead case on decisions relating to the eligibility of complaints and the appropriate standard of review
• R(Gina Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the EU [2017] UKSC 5; [2018] AC 61 – Represented the ‘Expat Interveners’ in the successful challenge to the Government’s proposed notification of the UK’s intention to leave the EU without statutory authority (led by Patrick Green KC)
• R (MA (Pakistan)) v Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) [2016] EWCA Civ 705; [2016] 1 WLR 5093 – Judicial review on the appropriate approach to considering whether it is reasonable to expect a child to leave the UK under s.117B(6) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (sole counsel)
• El-Dinnaoui v Westminster City Council [2013] EWCA Civ 231; [2013] HLR 23 – Statutory homelessness appeal in respect of whether a decision to provide high-rise accommodation to someone with vertigo was irrational (sole counsel)

Commercial Public Law

Paul’s public law practice in areas affecting business spans:

• Broadcasting regulation
• Competition
• Consumer protection regulation (including product safety, medicines and consumer credit)
• Data protection
• Environmental regulation
• Financial services regulation
• International trade regulation (anti-dumping, the EU four freedoms)
• Public procurement
• State aid

Examples of Paul’s recent work in these areas include:

• R (Heathrow Airport and others) v HM Treasury [2021] EWCA Civ 783 – Judicial review of whether the government’s consultation on and decision removing the VAT Retail Export Scheme was unlawful and in breach of WTO Rules (led by Eleni Mitrophanous KC)
• Department for Transport v Information Commissioner [2021] UKUT 327 (AAC); [2022] 1 WLR 3403 – Appeal concerning definition of personal data and the approach to be taken to civil servant’s evidence of the chilling effect that the release of information would have under the Freedom of Information Act
• Churchill Gowns Ltd v Ede & Ravenscroft Ltd [2020] CAT 22 – Challenge in the Competition Appeal Tribunal to the Defendant’s arrangements with universities for the provision of academic dress to students at graduation ceremonies on grounds they restrict competition and constitute an abuse of dominant position (led by Christopher Brown and Fergus Randolf KC)
• FCA competition investigation into asset management firms (led by Rhodri Thompson KC)
• Advice on judicial review on human rights and competition grounds to the introduction of new conditions by the Phone-paid Services Authority
• Advice on vires of Environment Agency to enter and damage commercial property under the Water Resources Act 1991
• EU Commission Investigation into the dumping of Vinyl Acetate (European Commission – successfully represented a manufacturer of vinyl acetate in the USA in European Commission investigation into its alleged dumping of the plastic on to the EU market (led by Philip Bentley KC)
• Payday lending investigations: Represented a ‘payday lender’ in respect of the FSA, Competition Commission and FCA’s respective investigations into the market for high-cost short-term credit
• Advice in relation to the vires of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme
• Advice to a University on the acquisition of various broadcasting licenses

Commercial Litigation

Paul has considerable experience of a wide variety of commercial disputes. As well as the full range of commercial contractual and tortious disputes (including conspiracy and other economic torts), Paul has particular expertise in banking, EU law related and multi-party commercial disputes, as well as conflicts of laws issues and directors’ duties and other commercial employment issues.

Paul is currently writing the practitioners’ text on Abuse of Process for Oxford University Press and is a contributor to the leading loose-leaf text on consumer credit, Goode, Consumer Credit: Law and Practice. He has published in the Journal of International Banking and Financial Law.

Paul has experience of obtaining freezing orders and other injunctions at short notice to recover, secure and trace at-risk assets and to unwind fraudulent transactions.

Recent and notable cases include:

• • Benyatov v Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd [2023] EWCA Civ 140; [2023] ICR 534 (currently pending before the Supreme Court) – Long-running, multi-million pound claim for breach of implied contractual indemnity and duty of care for pure economic losses arising out of the Claimant’s conviction in Romania while working there on privatisations of state utilities (led by Paul Goulding KC)
  • Advised Office of Rail and Road on the interpretation of the Network Code and the Timetable Planning Rules.
  • Acted in complex asset tracing claim, including to reverse gift of property to defraud creditors under section 423 of the Insolvency Act 1981, associated freezing order applications
  • Advice on group claim for breach of contract by consumers against water industry in respect of non-compliance with obligations in respect of sewage treatment
  • Burrell v Helical (Bramshott Place) Ltd [2017] ECC 3 – Leading claim in respect of the meaning of “credit” in the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and whether exit fees in leases of properties in retirement villages were unfair terms
  • The Bomu-Bonny Oil Pipeline Litigation (High Court, TCC): Part of the counsel team for the Defendant in this group litigation relating to oil spills in the Niger Delta, involving a variety of private international law issues
  • The PIP Breast Implant Litigation (High Court, QB): Instructed to defend contractual claims against a clinic in respect of breast implants used which were of unsatisfactory quality.
  • Waterland v Bank of Scotland plc (High Court, Chancery Division – sole counsel) Breach of contract claim for wrongful conversion of various secured lending facilities from Sterling into Swiss Francs (settled at mediation)
  • Injunctive proceedings in support of an arbitration relating to the breakdown of a dental practice partnership
  • Interest Rate Hedging Products: Advice to a major retail bank in respect of a number of missold interest rate hedging products and in particular the extent of recoverable losses and applicable principles of causation
  • Advice on claim for breach of copyright by song-writer in respect of well-known number 1 hit

International Law

Paul has a significant practice in matters with a public and private international law element. He has undertaken a number of cases before the European Court of Human Rights and his domestic cases frequently involve questions of jurisdiction, choice of law and the interpretation of international law.

Recent and notable cases include:

• Benyatov v Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd [2023] EWCA Civ 140; [2023] ICR 534 – Long-running, multi-million pound claim for breach of implied contractual indemnity and duty of care for pure economic losses arising out of the Claimant’s conviction in Romania while working there on privatisations of state utilities (led by Paul Goulding KC)
• R (Heathrow Airport and others) v HM Treasury [2021] EWCA Civ 783 – Whether the British government’s consultation on and decision removing the VAT Retail Export Scheme was in breach of WTO Rules, and whether that issue was justiciable in English courts (led by Eleni Mitrophanous KC)
• Bravo v Amerisur plc [2020] EWHC 203 (QB) – Representing hundreds of individuals in proceedings concerning extensive environmental damage caused by oil spills in Colombia and in their application for a Group Litigation Order
• Demirtaş and others v Turkey (2019) 69 EHRR 27 (ECtHR Grand Chamber, sole counsel) – Representing Article 19 and Human Rights Watch in their successful intervention in this important case relating to the removal of Turkish MPs’ Parliamentary immunity and their arrest and detention for politically motivated reasons.
• Bodo Community v Shell Petroleum Development Co of Nigeria – Representing Shell in claim by 15,000 claimants in proceedings concerning extensive pollution in Rivers State, Nigeria
• Bytyqi v Republic of Serbia (ECtHR) – Advised the family of three American-Kosovan Albanians killed by Serbian police in proposed claim to the European Court of Human Rights for breach of the investigative duty under Article 2 ECHR

Employment and Discrimination

Paul is ranked as a leading employment law junior by Legal 500 and practices across the full range of employment law matters in both the High Court and Tribunal. He is also regularly instructed in public law discrimination challenges and judicial reviews by trade unions and frequently advises public sector pension schemes in relation to discrimination and forfeiture issues.

Recent and notable cases include:

• Benyatov v Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd [2023] EWCA Civ 140; [2023] ICR 534 (currently pending before the Supreme Court) – Long-running, multi-million pound claim for breach of implied contractual indemnity and duty of care for pure economic losses arising out of the Claimant’s conviction in Romania while working there on privatisations of state utilities (led by Paul Goulding KC)
• Ebury Partners UK Ltd v Acton Davis [2023] EAT 40; [2023] IRLR 486 – Successfully defended this constructive unfair dismissal claim on behalf of fintech investment firm and FX trader and then successfully appealed the ET’s reconsideration decision wrongly overturning the original judgment.
• Hopkins v Secretary of State for Justice [2019] – Successfully defended high-profile whistleblowing claim by analyst whose research indicated that the Sex Offender Treatment Programme in prisons may increase the likelihood of reoffending
• R (Vincent) v SSWP [2020] EWHC 1976 (Admin) – whether the conversion of Support for Mortgage Interest into a loan repayable on sale of a recipient’s home is unlawfully discriminatory against disabled people who are forced to remain in unsuitable accommodation
• R (Parkin) v SSWP [2019] EWHC 2356 (Admin) – Judicial review on discrimination grounds of the minimum income floor at which self-employed people are deemed to earn for the purpose of calculating their Universal Credit entitlement
• R (FDA, PCSU and Prospect) v Minister for the Cabinet Office [2018] EWHC 2746 (Admin) – judicial review by civil service trade unions of pay remit guidance

Appointments

Deputy Judge of the Upper Tribunal (2020)

Attorney General’s Panel of Counsel (B Panel) (2021)

Education and Prior Experience

Paul had a first career as a professional musician. He holds a first class music degree and licentiate diploma from the Royal Academy of Music, London, and was Woodwind finalist in BBC Young Musician of the Year.

Paul subsequently studied for an accelerated 2-year law degree at Cambridge and undertook the Bar Vocational Course at BPP Law School.

In 2011/12, Paul spent a year as Judicial Assistant to Lord Dyson and Lord Walker at the UK Supreme Court. Prior to this he worked at the European Court of Human Rights.

Paul was a lecturer in law at the Open University from 2010-2012.

Publications

Abuse of Process (forthcoming, Oxford University Press)

‘Caveat creditor: difficulties in unfair relationship claims’ (2016) 30 Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law 555

‘Retrospective Invalidation of Administrative Decisions – The Reverse Second Actor’ (2014) 130 Law Quarterly Review 382

‘Freedom of expression, subsidiarity and “no win no fee” agreements’ [2011] EHRLR 329

‘Trigger Happy’ (2010) 154(42) SJ 16

Memberships

ALBA

ELA

Freebar

South Eastern Circuit

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