Qualifications

LL.B. (with French language) (first class), University of Glasgow

B.C.L., Lincoln College, Oxford

M.Sc. (philosophy), University of Edinburgh

LL.M., Yale Law School

Dip.L.P., University of Glasgow

Special interests

Company and commercial

Media, defamation and privacy

Planning and Environmental

Public law, including judicial review and human rights

Biography

Stephen has a broad practice focusing on judicial review and cases raising issues of public international law before international and domestic courts. He has appeared as sole counsel at all levels, including the Privy Council.


Stephen is a standing junior counsel to the Scottish Government. He is also on the Attorney-General’s UK-wide public international law panel of counsel.


Stephen also maintains an active practice as a barrister, from Essex Court Chambers.

Before coming to the bar (as Lord Reid scholar), Stephen was judicial assistant to Lord Kerr in the Supreme Court, where he worked on several significant public law, human rights, and equality cases, as well as teaching public international law and constitutional law. He has law degrees from Glasgow, Oxford, and Yale (as a Fulbright scholar), and has published on international law and human rights law in leading journals.

Cases

Gem Management Ltd v Firefox Ltd [2022] UKPC 17

Ahmed-Sheikh v Law Society of Scotland 2020 SLT 1

Wightman v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2019] 1 CMLR 29

Sundolitt v Addison [2017] CSIH 15