10 01 2025
Landmark barristers feature in The Lawyer’s top 20 cases of 2025
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Public: Barney has a broad public law practice and is on the EHRC’s panel of counsel. His recent work includes acting in a challenge to the DWP’s use of AI, an appeal concerning the UK’s obligations under the Withdrawal Agreement, and an intervention before the Supreme Court concerning local authorities’ homelessness duties (acting for the NGO, Crisis). Barney regularly advises on matters concerning human rights, information and data protection, education, protest, and post-Brexit EU law.
Environmental: Barney has a strong environmental practice. His recent instructions include challenges about badger culling, an intensive poultry unit near the River Wye, and Defra’s policy on “fast growing chickens”. Barney has particular experience of acting in inquiries that concern proposals for energy-related development, such as a waste incinerator near the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. Barney is a contributor to Garner’s Environmental Law and a UKELA working group convenor.
Public procurement, subsidy control and commercial: Barney has significant experience of procurement and subsidy control issues. He is currently instructed by the Gambling Commission (led by Sarah Hannaford KC) in various challenges to its award of the national lottery licence. Barney is also currently acting in several subsidy control challenges, and a trade dispute concerning the UK’s obligations under WTO law and the TCA.
Planning and infrastructure: Barney has acted in cases about the lawfulness of the Home Secretary’s use of a former RAF airfield to accommodate asylum seekers, whether NHS trusts are entitled to section 106 contributions to fund health services, and whether local authorities in Wales can decide not to adopt an LDP following examination. Barney recently appeared before the High Court (unled) and Court of Appeal (led) in a successful challenge to an authority’s grant of permission for restaurant development.
Qualifications and other experience: Barney graduated from Cambridge with a degree in History and Politics (First Class) and was awarded Gray’s Inn’s top scholarships to undertake the GDL (Distinction) and Bar Course (Outstanding). Barney has an LLM from the UPenn (Distinction) and was awarded/offered a Thouron Fellowship and Fulbright Award. Before joining Landmark, Barney worked as a JA to Lord Justice Bean on cases concerning media, equality, information, commercial, and EU law. Before that, Barney worked in competition and state aid policy, and as a political adviser to an MP.
Barney has a broad public law practice and is on the EHRC’s panel of counsel. He has been instructed in matters concerning human rights, local government, education, information and data protection, social security, immigration and post-Brexit EU law. He regularly advises on public law matters that engage other areas of law, such as protest rights, public procurement and subsidy control.
Barney’s recent/work includes:
Barney was supervised by Julia Smyth during pupillage and gained experience of post-Brexit litigation (including advising on the Withdrawal Agreement and Northern Ireland Protocol) and human rights challenges (including an Article 8 challenge to various abortion laws). Before joining Landmark, Barney carried out research at the Public Law Project.
Barney has considerable experience in public procurement, competition and state aid matters.
Barney’s recent work includes:
During pupillage, Barney worked on a range of contentious and non-contentious matters. These included:
Before joining Landmark, Barney won the Rosie Choueka Essay Prize (a competition run by the Procurement Lawyers’ Association) and took MBA courses on fiscal policy and subsidy control at Wharton. He also worked in competition, consumer and state aid policy for a national charity and helped coordinate its “super-complaint” to the Competition and Markets Authority.
Barney practises across all aspects of environmental law, and regularly appears in the High Court and at public inquiries. Barney is a co-convenor of a UKELA working group and a contributor to Garner’s Environmental Law.
Barney’s recent/current court work includes:
Barney’s recent/current inquiry work includes:
Barney practises across all aspects of planning law. He regularly appears in the High Court and at public inquiries.
Barney’s recent court work includes:
Barney’s recent and current inquiry work includes:
Barney has experience of public procurement, subsidy control and commercial law matters.
Public procurement: Barney has experience of advising and acting for authorities and economic operators in relation to procurement decisions. He acted for the Gambling Commission (led by Sarah Hannaford KC) in IGT’s unsuccessful challenge to the Commission’s award of the national lottery licence (described by Coulson LJ as “the most important procurement case of this century”): see IGT v Gambling Commission [2023] EWHC 1420, [2023] EWHC 1961 and [2023] EWHC 2226 (TCC). Barney is currently instructed in TNLC’s challenge to the licence: see New Lottery Co Ltd v Gambling Commission [2024] 6 WLUK 742.
Subsidy control, trade and commercial JR: Barney has experience of advising and acting in challenges to decisions (e.g. central governing funding decisions) that raise subsidy control issues. He is currently instructed in a trade dispute concerning the UK’s obligations under WTO law and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, and a commercial JR of a regulator’s guidance.
Barney is a member of the Procurement Lawyers’ Association and a winner of the Association’s Rosie Choueka Essay Prize. Before joining Landmark, Barney studied economic and fiscal policy at Wharton and worked in competition, consumer and state aid policy for a national charity.
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