News

We are delighted to announce that Orlando Pownall QC has succeeded David Waters QC as Head of Chambers. Having led chambers for seven successful years, David has stepped down from the position although he will continue to maintain his busy practice. We thank him for his very substantial contribution over the years.

David writes, "It has been a great privilege to be Head of Chambers at 2 Hare Court during a period when we have been fortunate enough to achieve a great deal. With Orlando's standing and reputation, I know that our success will continue."

The report of Bloody Sunday Inquiry, due for publication this year and in which Sir Allan Green QC and Ian Leist were instructed by Treasury Solicitors on behalf of the Minister of Defence to appear for a group of soldiers, is postponed until 2010.

Chambers is pleased to welcome Alex Tampakopolous and Sarah Turnock as members upon successful completion of pupillage.

Ian Leist represents Kevin Gardner in Manchester where he is sentenced to an indefinte Hospital Order for an offence under the Terrorist Act 2000 following proceedings lasting 2 years during which the case became the leading authority on section 58(1) and section 58(3) of the Terrorism Act.2000 . Ian Leist and Emily Dummett represented Gardner in the House of Lords, reported in RvG 2009 UKHL 13, who overturned the previous leading case of R v K. Gardner, who was an undiagnosed and unmedicated schizophrenic serving a sentence of imprisonment , had converted to Islam during his sentence and had proceeded to collate terrorist material from resources within the prison. The case decided that it was unnecessary for the Crown to prove as a matter of law a terrorist purpose under section 58 either as part of the offence or in order to disprove a defence of reasonable excuse under section 58(3).

Sailesh Mehta was a keynote speaker at the launch by the Law Society of its Diversity and Inclusion Charter, which is the legal profession’s flagship diversity initiative. Sailesh is the originator of the Charter, and started work on it when he was President of the Society of Asian Lawyers. It is a public commitment by legal service providers to develop and implement best practice on equality, diversity and inclusion. Sailesh will continue to be involved with the founding signatories to ensure delivery of the Charter’s stated aims.

Further information can be found at: http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/productsandservices/inclusioncharter.page

Zubair Ahmad, instructed by Middleweeks solicitors, was part of the team of counsel which acted successfully for AF in the House of Lords. In a groundbreaking ruling, an unprecedented panel of nine Law Lords unanimously held that imposing a control order on terrorist suspects, without informing them of the basis of that suspicion, was unfair. In doing so, they reversed a decision of the Court of Appeal and departed from an earlier decision of their own. The Law Lords ruled that, unless a suspect was given "sufficient information about the allegations against him to enable him to give effective instructions to the special advocate", Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights – the fundamental right to a fair trial – would be breached. Lord Hope said, "If the rule of law is to mean anything, it is in cases such as these that the court must stand by principle. It must insist that the person affected be told the case against him." The case has significant implications for the future use of Terrorist Control Orders and secret evidence in court proceedings.

UPDATE: September 2009 Zubair Ahmad’s client, AF, subject to a control order since May 2006 because of alleged links to Islamic terrorists, has had that order revoked by the Home Secretary so as to avoid having to disclose secret evidence as a result of the ruling of the House of Lords.