Iain Steele

Iain has developed a wide-ranging public law practice, building upon his substantial academic involvement in this area. He advises and acts in areas including local government, education, prisoners’ rights, public procurement, social security and community care, commercial judicial review and environmental law.

• R (McClure and another) v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis
  Acting for the claimants in a judicial review of police ‘kettling’ and use of force at the Climate Camp held during the G20 protests in London (led by Michael Fordham QC).
  
• Ahmed and others v Her Majesty’s Treasury [2010] UKSC 2, [2010] 2 WLR 378
  Acted for JUSTICE in its intervention in the first appeals to be heard by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, successfully arguing that two Orders in Council which provided for the freezing of alleged terrorists’ assets should be quashed (led by Michael Fordham QC).
  
• Lowenthal & O’Shea v United Kingdom
  Acting for the applicants in their application to the European Court of Human Rights concerning the compatibility with Article 5 ECHR of ‘kettling’ by the police at the May Day 2001 protests (led by Michael Fordham QC).
  
• R (One Search Direct) v City of York Council [2010] EWHC 590 (Admin)
  Acted for the claimant in a test case on the powers of local authorities to charge for access to property information (led by Michael Fordham QC).
  
• R (Welsh Water Limited) v Ofwat [2009] EWHC 3493 (Admin)
  Acted for Welsh Water in its judicial review of Ofwat’s decision to appoint another company to be the water and sewerage undertaker at a particular site (led by Lord Pannick QC).
  
• Al-Jedda v United Kingdom
  Acting for Liberty and JUSTICE in their intervention before the European Court of Human Rights on this important case concerning the interplay between the ECHR and other international law obligations.
  
• R (Morrison) v Independent Police Complaints Commission [2009] EWHC 2589 (Admin)
  Acted for the IPCC in a judicial review claim raising issues concerning the investigative duty under Article 3 ECHR (led by Beverley Lang QC). Currently on appeal to the Court of Appeal.
  
• R (SRM Global Master Fund LP and others) v HM Treasury [2009] EWCA Civ 788
  Acted for one of the former Northern Rock shareholders in the high-profile action against the Government under the Human Rights Act 1998 following the nationalisation of Northern Rock (led by Michael Beloff QC).
  

• Van Colle v Chief Constable of the Hertfordshire Police [2008] UKHL 50, [2009] 1 AC 225 (leading case on the scope of the positive obligation to protect life under Article 2 ECHR)
• YL v Birmingham City Council and others [2007] UKHL 27, [2008] 1 AC 95 (leading case on the definition of “public authority” under the Human Rights Act 1998)
• R (Faithfull) v Ipswich Crown Court [2007] EWHC 2763 (Admin), [2008] 1 WLR 1636 (judicial review of the Crown Court’s failure to make a compensation order in favour of the victim of crime)
  

Iain has broad experience of commercial litigation, including areas such as civil fraud, financial services and entertainment law. He regularly advises and acts in disputes involving negligence, breach of contract and restitutionary remedies in a wide range of commercial settings.

• Caparo Industries plc and Caparo Vehicle Techologies Ltd v Gordon Murray Design Limited
  Acted (with Robert Anderson QC) in a Chancery Division action concerning disputes arising out of a car design project.
• Dextra Solutions Ltd v Nsquared Creations Ltd and another
  Successfully represented the claimant in a number of claims arising from a mobile phone distribution agreement.
• CBR (Wakefield) Limited and others v Puccino's Limited
  Appeared (with Robert Anderson QC) in a very substantial High Court action arising out of a large-scale construction and franchising project, which raised issues including estoppel, waiver, variation of contractual terms, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and conspiracy (settled during six-week trial).
• Mothercare UK Ltd v McMullen
  Obtained a High Court injunction against a suspected shoplifter to prevent trespass and breach of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
• Lombard North Central plc v Powell
  Successfully represented Lombard in multi-track claims for large sums due under a number of lease agreements.

Iain’s practice encompasses all areas of employment law, including unfair and wrongful dismissal, unlawful deductions from wages and contractual matters. He regularly advises and represents both claimants and respondents in employment tribunal proceedings.

Iain has a particular interest in discrimination law and regularly appears in cases involving sex, race, age, disability, sexual orientation and religious discrimination. He acted with Lord Lester of Herne Hill QC for the Equality and Human Rights Commission in its intervention in the Court of Appeal in Bainbridge v Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council and Surtees v Middlesbrough Borough Council [2008] EWCA Civ 885, [2009] ICR 133, one of the most significant equal pay cases for several years.

• Richards v Nationwide Building Society
  Successfully defended a claim for age discrimination following an unsuccessful job application.
• Nassar v Notz Stucki and another
  Represented the respondents in a high-profile four day trial on claims of unfair dismissal and sexual harassment valued at over £500,000.
• Sharpe v Britvic
  Successfully argued at a Pre Hearing Review that various claims of unfair dismissal and disability discrimination should be struck out.
• Greenhow v Travelodge
  Represented the respondent in a four day trial, successfully defending claims of unfair dismissal, disability discrimination and sexual harassment.
• Hopkins v Legal & General
  Represented the respondent in successfully defending a wrongful dismissal claim brought by an employee who was dismissed for working as a children's magician while on paid sick leave.
• North v Servite Houses
  Represented the claimant in this three-day claim for unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal and age discrimination.
•  Halligan v Wolverhampton City Council
  Acted for the claimant in this case which raised interesting and novel questions as to whether a care worker engaged by a registered provider of an adult placement scheme under the Adult Placement Scheme (England) Regulations 2004 is an employee of the provider.

Professional disciplinary proceedings:

• Iain advises and acts for parties in disciplinary proceedings in a variety of tribunals. His recent experience in this field includes:
• Iain acted (with Gerard Clarke) for a Sikh police inspector in high-profile disciplinary proceedings under the Police (Conduct) Regulations 2004, which included three lengthy hearings involving extensive legal argument and evidence.
• Iain has represented teachers accused of misconduct in proceedings before the General Teaching Council.

Iain is a qualified Free Representation Unit (“FRU”) Representative for employment cases.

Iain has appeared and advised in a number of sports cases covering a range of contractual and regulatory sporting disputes, and has also advised on the exploitation of media rights to sporting events.

• BBC Worldwide v UK Athletics
  Acted for UK Athletics in a dispute concerning the international broadcast rights to athletics events held in the UK (led by Adam Lewis QC).
• Advising The Football League on issues concerning club ownership and The League’s Fit and Proper Person test, in the wake of Silvio Briatore’s ban from Formula One by the FIA and questions as to the ownership of Notts County and Leeds United.
• Advising The Football Association on a personal injury claim brought by a retired player.

Other legal experience:

Member of Lawyers for LIBERTY, ALBA, HRLA, ELBA and ELA. 

As a student, Iain gained considerable experience of mooting. He won two competitions at Cambridge and represented the University in the English Speaking Union national competition, reaching the semi-finals. During his year at Bar School, he was a finalist in the Inner Temple Lawson Mooting Competition. Iain has also judged moots.

After leaving university, Iain worked for a year as a Research Assistant in the Public Law Team at the Law Commission. He wrote a Discussion Paper on “Monetary Remedies in Public Law”, which was published by the Commission in 2004. It has since been cited by Lord Bingham in the House of Lords in Watkins v Home Office [2006] UKHL 17, [2006] 2 AC 395. Iain’s work in this field has provided the foundations for an ongoing Law Commission project.

While at Bar School, Iain was a part-time tutor at King’s College, London, where he taught Public Law to undergraduates.

Scholarships and Prizes:

Iain’s academic scholarships and prizes include:

• Eldon Law Scholarship (University of Oxford, 2005; awarded to the most promising Oxford graduate intending to practise at the Bar)
• Overall grade of Outstanding and Worshipful Company of Arbitrators Prize for Civil Law and EC Competition Law (Inns of Court School of Law, 2005)
• Prize for BVC Results (Inner Temple, 2005)
• Princess Royal Scholarship (Inner Temple, 2004)
• College Prize (Magdalen College, Oxford, 2003)
• Arts and Humanities Research Board Award for Postgraduate Study (2002)
• Lucas-Smith Memorial Prize (Queens’ College, Cambridge, 2002)
• Foundation Scholarship (Queens’ College, Cambridge, 2001)
• Squire Law Scholarship (University of Cambridge, 2000)
• College Exhibition (Queens’ College, Cambridge, 2000)

Publications:

Iain is the co-author of the chapter on equal pay in the Tolley’s Discrimination in Employment Handbook (published in February 2008) and of the chapters on the Human Rights Act 1998 and principles of interpretation in the new edition of Lester, Pannick and Herberg: Human Rights Law and Practice (published in April 2009).

Iain has published work in a wide range of academic journals.  Previous and forthcoming articles include:

• 'Sex discrimination and the material factor defence under the Equal Pay Act 1970 and the Equality Act 2010’ [2010] ILJ (forthcoming)
• 'Judicial Review of the Crown Court and Section 29(3) of the Supreme Court Act 1981' [2008] JR 180
• ‘Negligence Liability for Failing to Prevent Crime – the Human Rights Dimension’ [2008] CLJ 239
• ‘Judicial Independence: Privy Council Divided’ (2008) 124 LQR 185
• ‘Beyond Equal Pay?’ [2008] ILJ 119
• ‘Substantive Legitimate Expectations: Striking the Right Balance?’ (2005) 121 LQR 300
• ‘Tracing the Single Source: Choice of Comparators in Equal Pay Claims’ [2005] ILJ 338
• ‘Public Law Liability – a Common Law Solution?’ [2005] CLJ 543
• ‘Public Law Liability – the Human Rights Act and Beyond’ [2005] CLJ 8
• ‘Note on R (National Association of Health Stores) v Department of Health’ [2005] JR 232
• ‘Judging judicial inquiries’ [2004] PL 738