‘He combines a ferocious intellect with commercial pragmatism’ and ‘he commands the respect of judges’
Paul Bowen QC practises across the spectrum of public and administrative law, often with significant human rights, EU or other international law elements. He has particular expertise in crime and regulatory cases with a public law flavour. His recent experience includes cases involving the privilege against self-incrimination in tax and fraud investigations, international transfer of prisoners, the legality of the death penalty, the government’s counter-extremism policy, cross-border taxation enforcement, privacy and data protection in relation to the harvesting of online profiles, the regulation of the telecoms industry and investigations in the renewable energy sector, among others.
Paul Bowen QC practises across the spectrum of public and administrative law, often with significant human rights, EU or other international law elements. He has particular expertise in crime and regulatory cases with a public law flavour. His recent experience includes cases involving the privilege against self-incrimination in tax and fraud investigations, international transfer of prisoners, the legality of the death penalty, the government’s counter-extremism policy, cross-border taxation enforcement, privacy and data protection in relation to the harvesting of online profiles, the regulation of the telecoms industry and investigations in the renewable energy sector, among others.
Paul is consistently recommended in both Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners as a leading silk in Public and Administrative Law and Civil Liberties and Human Rights, among others. While Paul maintains his long-standing public law and human rights practice acting for vulnerable and marginalised individuals, he increasingly handles public law claims in the commercial and financial services spheres. He acts for claimants, defendants and interveners whether individuals, private companies, governments, public authorities, regulators, charities and other NGOs in a wide variety of Courts and Tribunals in the UK, Europe and abroad including the Cayman Islands, Jersey, Cyprus, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Paul has been instructed in many of the most significant public law and human rights challenges in the higher courts, appearing on over twenty occasions in the Supreme Court, House of Lords, Privy Council and European Court of Human Rights and with more than a hundred and thirty reported cases to his name. Paul also appears before specialist tribunals, inquiries and inquests (usually before a jury) in cases where much is at stake and which are often document-heavy and require skills of cross-examination of witnesses, including of experts, as well as team-working, delegation and client care. In 2015 he was appointed to the ‘A’ Panel of Counsel to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and in 2017 became an Honorary Professor at the University of Sussex School of Law and Politics. In 2018 he was appointed a Recorder, a part-time judge of the Crown Court. Paul is currently Chairing a public inquiry for the Welsh Government.
Paul has mastered the art of paperless practice and is particularly interested in opportunities for electronic working in his areas of practice, both in the UK and across the globe.
Current and recent cases include:
Berge Larsen (1) Volaw Trust (2) v. Office of the Comptroller of Taxes (Privy Council, Jersey) legality of Disclosure Notices in foreign tax proceedings and application of the privilege against self-incrimination under Article 6
P v. Metropolitan Police (EHRC intervening) (Supreme Court), acting for EHRC as intervener on appeal concerning disability equality claims following dismissal of a disabled police officer
R (Butt) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department (Court of Appeal), judicial review of government’s counter-extremism ‘Prevent’ strategy as it applies to Universities and the collection, storage and use of private information by the Extremism Analysis Unit
R (The Childrens’ Society) v. Ministry of Justice (Administrative Court) judicial review of refusal to bring unaccompanied or separated migrant children within ‘scope’ of legal aid in respect of non-asylum legal aid matters
Thompson v Cayman Islands Health Services Authority (Court of Appeal, Cayman Islands) human rights implications of a statutory exclusion from claims in clinical negligence brought against a national health service
Datalink v. Office v. Utility, Regulation and Competition Office (OfReg) (Grand Court, Cayman Islands), acting for OfReg in telecoms judicial review
Douglas and Ramoon v. Governor of the Cayman Islands (Grand Court, Cayman Islands), acting for the Governor in judicial review proceedings concerning the transfer of two prisoners to the UK
BDO, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PWC v. Governor of the Cayman Islands (Grand Court, Cayman Islands) acting for Governor in judicial review claims by accountancy firms concerning the legality of CI$5 million of trading fees
Administrative, Public and Human Rights law
Paul is a judicial review expert, particularly in cases with a human rights dimension, and is recommended as a leading silk in Chambers & Partners 2016 in both Public and Administrative law and Human Rights and Civil Liberties. He practises across a range of subject areas notably criminal justice, regulatory, data protection, discrimination, EU law, freedom of information, healthcare, community care and education, immigration, inquests, legal aid, mental health, prisons, police law, public procurement and social security.
Recent cases include:
Criminal Justice/ Regulatory
Paul has a specialist interest in public law, civil actions and HRA challenges involving criminal justice agencies and other investigating authorities (arrests, questioning, the taking and retention of intimate samples, the execution of search warrants), prosecuting authorities (decisions to prosecute and not to prosecute), inferior courts and tribunals (issue of search warrants, orders for third party disclosure and the like) and detaining institutions (prisons, immigration detention, psychiatric hospitals). He appears in criminal appeals raising fundamental constitutional issues, in particular Privy Council appeals in death row cases. He also appears in other civil actions arising out of the actions of criminal justice, investigatory and detaining authorities. He is recommended as a leading silk in Police Law: Mainly Claimant in Chambers & Partners.
Relevant cases include:
Judicial review actions against the police and other investigating authorities
Judicial review actions against prosecuting authorities
Judicial review actions against Courts and Magistrates’ Courts
Judicial review involving prisoners
Civil actions arising out of deaths in custody & other deaths at hands of State agents
Criminal Appeals
Corporate Governance & Policy
Paul advises individuals and local authorities and other public bodies (including the Parole Board) and NGOs in relation to issues concerning corporate governance and the development of policy. For three years he was a member of the Advisory Board of the Children’s Commissioner and regularly advises and appears on behalf of local authorities and other public bodies, including the Parole Board, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Care Quality Commission and Official Solicitor. He has particular expertise in the application of the public sector equality duties, now under s 149 Equality Act 2010. He has also has experience in the law of public procurement, having successfully challenged the Legal Services Commission’s tendering exercise in relation to its failure to comply with public procurement law in R (Public Interest Lawyers) v Legal Services Commission [2010]. He is regularly asked to advise in relation to the development of policy, notably in relation to the protection of vulnerable adults and children.
Equality and Discrimination
Discrimination issues arise in many of Paul’s cases, in particular disability discrimination, whether as free-standing discrimination claims or in conjunction with claims for judicial review invoking the public sector equality duties under (now) s 149 Equality Act 2010. Chambers & Partners 2014: "On discrimination work he is the person to go to at a senior level"; Legal 500 2013 noted Paul’s ‘unparalleled expertise in the representation of people with disabilities’.
Freedom of Information and Data Protection
Paul advises and represents individuals and public bodies in relation to all aspects of freedom of information and data protection law. He also has experience in relation the restraining of disclosure and press reporting of confidential and private information, in particular cases raising issues of confidential medical information. Relevant cases include:
Paul also has considerable experience as a Special Advocate in disputes concerning the disclosure of sensitive and secret material, in particular in the context of Closed Material procedures in a range of different courts and tribunals including Control Order (now TPIMs) proceedings in the High Court, SIAC, judicial review and employment and discrimination proceedings.
Public Inquiries & Inquests
Paul is instructed in inquests arising out of deaths in custody and other deaths engaging State responsibility under Article 2 including police shootings, self-inflicted deaths in prison and other detaining institutions. He has a particular expertise in the rights of the deceased and their families arising under Article 2 and has spoken regularly on this subject at high profile conferences.
Immigration law
Paul has acted for persons detained under immigration detention powers in judicial reviews and civil actions relating to the lawfulness of their detention and conditions of detention. He also has experience of SIAC proceedings having acted as a Special Advocate in such cases until his resignation in 2012. Relevant cases include:
Mental Health law
Paul represents detained patients in the Administrative Court and Upper Tribunal in mental health related judicial reviews concerning detention, release and treatment, along with related appeals. He has been described in Chambers & Partners as "a master of his field when it comes to mental health matters that raise human rights issues". He is the author of the Blackstone’s Guide to the Mental Health Act 2007, published in January 2008 (OUP).
Paul has been in many of the leading cases concerning the rights of psychiatric patients in the last 20 years. The following is a selection of the more important cases:
European Court of Human Rights
Domestic cases: Supreme Court or House of Lords
Court of Appeal
Healthcare, Community Care and Education
Paul represents individuals and public authorities in advice work and judicial review claims concerning the provision of health, community care and education services including decisions relating to the assessment and provision of services; direct payments; the development and application of eligibility criteria; charging; and the closure of care homes, among others. Paul is listed as a leading silk in Community Care in Chambers & Partners 2013, 2014 and 2015 with a “highly regarded practice, most notably in relation to cases concerning disabled adults and children” (Chambers & Partners 2014). “He’s very bright, very energetic and committed to dealing with disability and community care cases on a personal level. He genuinely cares about clients and empathises with their predicament, rather than seeing cases as an intellectual or legal problem to be solved” (Chambers & Partners 2014).
EU Law plays a significant part in many of Paul’s public law cases, for example:
Paul is recommended as a leading silk (Band 1) in Court of Protection work in Chambers & Partners 2016, which notes that “he is highly regarded for his knowledge of human rights issues and their impact on the Court of Protection” and "He acts in some of the most important mental capacity cases and he is a true star." Paul appears mainly in health and welfare cases invoking the jurisdiction of the Court of Protection and the High Court involving disputed issues of care and residence, the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment and deprivations of liberty, representing vulnerable adults and children (usually through the Official Solicitor), local authorities, health authorities and other interested parties. He is the author of 'Blackstone’s Guide to the Mental Health Act 2007’ (OUP, 2008), which considers in detail the health and welfare jurisdiction of the Court of Protection under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the amendments of the 2007 Act which introduced the ‘deprivation of liberty safeguards’. He was involved in key cases in the development of this area of law including R v Bournewood Community Mental Health NHS Trust ex p L, (House of Lords) and HL v United Kingdom (ECtHR) and has been in a number of more recent important cases, including:
Paul acts in proceedings in which national security issues arise. He was formerly a Special Advocate (from 2007 to 2012), acting in the interests of terrorism suspects and other individuals in proceedings where national security is used to justify restrictions on disclosure and the use of Closed material. He also accepts instructions on behalf of such individuals as Open advocate. He has appeared in Control Order proceedings under the PTA 2005 (now TPIMs under the TPIMA 2011), Special Immigration Appeal Commission (SIAC) proceedings, cases before Employment Tribunals and judicial review proceedings in the Administrative Court and has relevant experience in Criminal Courts. Concluded cases include:
'Blackstone’s Guide to the Mental Health Act 2007’ (OUP, 2008). In his foreword Lord Justice Munby writes “Those who use the book ... will benefit enormously from [Paul Bowen’s] detailed knowledge and illuminating analysis of an area of law which is as technically complex as it is socially important”.
Former solicitor, Clifford Chance, 1991-1993
Previous Chambers: Doughty Street Chambers, 2000-2014; Cloisters (Chambers of Laura Cox QC (now J), 1999-2000
University: Exeter, 1986-'89 (LLB 2.1; EU law, 1st)
Appointments: Recorder of the Crown Court (2018); Queen’s Counsel (2012); Equality and Human Rights Commission ’A’ Panel (2015); Called to the Bar of St. Vincent & the Grenadines (2012); Legal Services Commission Special Controls Review Panel (2011-2013); Advisory Panel to the Children’s Commissioner (2011-2013); former Special Advocate (2007-2012).
Membership of associations: ALBA; HRLA; Liberty
Awards:
2009 - Winner ‘Advocate of the Year’ at the Law Society Excellence Awards.
2007 - Short-listed as ‘Barrister of the Year’ at the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards, held by the Legal Aid Practitioners’ Group.
Since 2005 Paul has been consistently recommended in Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500 as a leading barrister in Administrative and Public law and Human Rights and Civil Liberties. In Chambers & Partners 2016 he is named as a leading silk in these two areas and two more: Court of Protection and Community Care.
Chambers and Partners 2019
Chambers and Partners 2018
Chambers and Partners 2017
Chambers and Partners 2016
Legal 500 2018-19
Legal 500 2017
Legal 500 2016
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