Alan Maclean QC

Following a double First in PPE from University College, Oxford, a Kennedy Memorial Scholarship to Harvard University and a Distinction in the Diploma of Law, Alan Maclean was called to the Bar, First in his year, in 1993.  He took Silk, at his first attempt, in 2009.  

Alan Maclean QC's practice extends to many areas of Commercial Litigation/Arbitration (including banking, civil fraud, energy and natural resources, conflicts of laws, insurance and reinsurance) and Public law.   He is first and foremost an advocate. He is equally at home in fact-heavy first instance trials, in the Commercial Court or the Chancery Division, demanding in terms of preparation, requiring mastery of complex facts, tactical planning and handling and cross-examination of witnesses, as he is tackling the very different forensic challenge of arguing points of law in the Court of Appeal or the Administrative Court. He has appeared as sole advocate in the ECJ, the House of Lords, the Court of Appeal, all divisions of the High Court and many other courts and tribunals. He has also been admitted to the Bar of the British Virgin Islands and since taking Silk has appeared in the High Court in Belfast.   

The scope of Alan Maclean QC's practice is illustrated by the fact that in the last 12 months he has appeared in, amongst others, the following important cases: i) as Counsel to the Pollard Review into the BBC Newsnight/Jimmy Savile affair; ii) for the ‘Salford Defendants' in Chancery Division proceedings brought by Mr Boris Berezovsky concerning the estate of Badri Patarkatsishvili;  iii) for the Defendants in a LCIA arbitration concerning a major Eastern European spirits manufacturer; iv) for Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd in a Patents Court case, where Alan argued issues of public international law arising from the European Patents Convention ([2012] EWHC 2153 (Pat)) and v) for the applicants in an alleged carousel fraud case on a strike out application raising issues of ex turpi causa and involving consideration of the difficult House of Lords decision in Stone & Rolls (see Bilta (UK) Ltd v Nazir [2013] 1 All ER 375; appeal pending).   

Other important cases in Silk include: i) acting for the Royal Brompton hospital in its judicial review challenge to a health service consultation on paediatric cardiac services:  R (Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust) v Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts [2011] EWHC (Admin) 2986; [2012] EWCA Civ 472 (CA); ii) for the successful claimants in a Chancery Division action under s. 18 of the Competition Act 1998 where after trial the Court found the Defendant, Heathrow Airport Limited, to have abused its dominant position in relation to airport parking: Purple Parking Ltd v Heathrow Airport Ltd [2011] EWHC 987 (Ch); [2011] UKCLR 492; and  iii) acting for a major French engineering company in a claim under s. 68 Arbitration Act 1996 challenging an arbitral award concerned with LPG carrier vessels on the ground that it was alleged to have been obtained by fraud: ([2011] EWHC 3383 (Comm)). 

Other examples of Commercial work in Silk include: advising on the taking of security for funding advanced to Russian commodity producers via assignments of contractual rights; a performance bond case involving novel legal issues arising from the UN, EU and UK sanctions regime against the regime in Libya; appearing in arbitration and related Commercial Court proceedings on behalf of a leading Russian businessman in a dispute concerning interests in Sibir Energy plc; acting for Lufthansa in judicial review and Commercial Court proceedings concerned with a put option relating to British Midland Plc; acting for international steel traders in a letter of credit arbitration and appearing in an arbitration between Swiss and Canadian energy companies concerning Colombian mining interests.  

On the public law side, Alan Maclean QC has acted for the Government in many high profile cases. He was chosen to act for the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, and Alastair Campbell, among others, in the Hutton Inquiry.   When he took Silk, he had been a member of the Attorney General's Panel for 10 years, having been promoted to the ‘A' Panel in 2006.  He has acted for No 10 Downing Street, HM Treasury (including in relation to the Parliamentary Ombudsman's investigation of the regulation of Equitable Life), the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Justice and (most recently) the Department for Education.  He has been a member of the Attorney-General's Panel of Counsel for Freedom of Information litigation since its inception, and has appeared in several high profile cases in this field for various parts of the Government.  

Since taking Silk, Alan Maclean QC has continued to advise HM Revenue & Customs in a number of tax cases raising issues of statutory construction and public law principle, most recently concerned with the taxation treatment of ‘image rights' payments to leading sportsmen.