Ajay practises across all the main areas of Chambers' work. Domestically he has appeared as an advocate at trial in the Commercial Court, on appeal in the Court of Appeal, and in a variety of other forums including the Upper Tribunal, Administrative Court and FCA Regulatory Decisions Committee. He is also called to the BVI bar and has appeared as an advocate in the Commercial Division of the BVI High Court.

Ajay has worked as a Specialist Adviser to the Treasury Select Committee (2016-17) and a secondee to the Enforcement Division of the Financial Conduct Authority (in 2015-16).

Ajay is recognised by Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners as a leading junior. Recent directory quotes include:

  • "Ajay is exceptionally bright, user-friendly and great to work with." - Chambers UK, 2025
  • "Ajay provides an incisive analytical approach with a client friendly manner, and adapts his advocacy to the occasion, creating a good impression with panel members." - Legal 500, 2025
  • "Ajay is exceptionally bright and on top of that, is a pleasure to work with. He shows the thoughtfulness of a barrister well beyond his call and is responsive to a fault."- Legal 500, 2024
  • "He is incredibly clever, really commercial and user-friendly."- Chambers UK, 2024
  • "Ajay Ratan is responsive, hard-working and user-friendly. He has an interest and knowledge of regulatory enforcement and is a strong strategic thinker too."- Chambers UK, 2023
  • "Ajay is highly intelligent and hard working. He gets to grips with the case quickly and offers clear and pragmatic advice. A great team player. "- Legal 500, 2022

Before coming to the Bar, Ajay graduated top of his class every year in Cambridge (undergraduate) and Oxford (postgraduate) and then taught the law of trusts at University College London. Ajay is a published writer on the law of unjust enrichment and has spoken at conferences in London, Melbourne and All Souls College, Oxford.

Experience

Shortlist

Commercial

Ajay accepts instructions in all areas of commercial litigation and has particular experience of high-value multi-jurisdictional cases. Current major instructions include substantial disputes (both onshore and offshore) in which the sums claimed are in excess of US$1 billion. Ajay also has considerable experience in specialist areas including trusts and restitution of unjust enrichment, having appeared (for example) as an advocate at trial and in the Court of Appeal in a Commercial Court claim to restitution of sums in excess of £200 million.

Cases

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Financial Services & Banking

Ajay is ranked as a leading junior in financial services. He has acted for and against the regulators in a number of the leading financial services enforcement cases in recent times, as is evidenced by the Parliamentary and national press attention that these cases have often received. For example, he successfully acted for one of the former senior managers of HBOS (the FCA and PRA decided to take no action after a six-year investigation) and is currently acting for the FCA in the ongoing proceedings concerning Carillion plc. He frequently appears as an advocate in front of the FCA’s Regulatory Decisions Committee and has been instructed in numerous regulatory judicial reviews.

In 2015-16, Ajay was seconded to the Enforcement Division of the Financial Conduct Authority for seven months. He advised on a wide range of investigative and sanctioning powers and enforcement policy issues.

Ajay has also worked as a Specialist Adviser to the Treasury Select Committee in a team led by Andrew Green QC. The team's report on Maxwellisation was published in November 2016 and is available here. here.

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Public & Regulatory

Ajay has wide experience of public law and judicial review challenges acting for both claimants and defendants.  He is a member of the Attorney General's C Panel of Junior Counsel (and in this role has worked as junior to Sir James Eadie KC, the 'Treasury Devil'). 

Cases

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Civil Liberties & Human Rights

Ajay accepts instructions in all areas of civil liberties and human rights litigation. 

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Employment

Ajay accepts instructions in all areas of employment litigation. 

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Professional Discipline

Ajay accepts instructions in all areas of professional discipline. Ajay has advised various healthcare regulators on points concerning their statutory frameworks and procedural rules. 

Achievements

Education

BA (Hons) Law (Cantab., Starred First, top of year)

Prizes & Scholarships

  • Peter Taylor Scholarship (Inner Temple, 2014)
  • Vinerian Scholarship for best overall performance on BCL (Oxford University, 2013)
  • John Morris Prize for the Conflict of Laws (Oxford University, 2013)
  • Peter Birks Prize for the Law of Unjust Enrichment (Oxford University, 2013)
  • Michael and Judith Beloff Scholarship (Trinity College, Oxford, 2013)
  • Slaughter and May Prize for top first in the year (Cambridge University, 2012)
  • Clifford Chance David Gottlieb Prize for top first in the year (Cambridge University, 2011)  
  • Sweet and Maxwell Prize for top first in the year (Cambridge University, 2010)
  • George Long Prize for Jurisprudence (Cambridge University, 2011)
  • ECS Wade Prize for Constitutional Law (Cambridge University, 2010)
  • Glanville Williams Prize for Criminal Law (Cambridge University, 2010)
  • George Long Prize for Civil Law (Cambridge University, 2010)

Publications

  • 'The Unity of Pre-Receipt and Post-Receipt Detriment'  in  Andrew Dyson,  James  Goudkamp and Frederick Wilmot-Smith (eds), Defences in Unjust  Enrichment (Hart  Publishing,  December 2015)

Other relevant experience

Treasury Select Committee 

Ajay has worked as a Specialist Adviser to the Treasury Select Committee to produce a report on Maxwellisation in public inquiries and investigations as part of a team led by Andrew Green QC . 

Pro Bono Legal Work

Ajay works with the Free Representation Unit and has undertaken seven cases ranging across social security and employment law. He has represented claimants in social security entitlement appeals and defendants in claims to the repayment of allegedly overpaid benefits.

News

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