We provide a wide range of advocacy and advisory services in the UK and internationally. We pride ourselves on our approachable and friendly outlook and our ability to build strong relationships with clients. Our barristers have received over 40 individual rankings covering 15 practice areas across the legal directories, including in Civil Fraud, Commercial Litigation, Insolvency and Travel amongst others. We are supported by a highly experienced, friendly and responsive practice management team, headed by James Donovan.
Thomas Roe KC has a vigorous and wide-ranging practice encompassing commercial and chancery commercial litigation, arbitration, civil fraud, insolvency, property law, constitutional and administrative law, and public international law.
The Legal 500 calls him ‘incredibly astute, quick thinking and impressively calm under fire’, while Chambers & Partners calls him ‘clever and reliable’, ‘tenacious’ and ‘delightful to work with’.
Tom appears regularly in the High Court—where he is a highly experienced trial lawyer—and in the Court of Appeal. He has appeared several times before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and dozens of times before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. He has also appeared often before courts overseas, including the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal of The Bahamas, the Senior Judges’ Court of the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia and, on very many occasions, the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean.
He has represented clients in some of the most complex cases to have come before courts and tribunals. Cases reported in 2023 in which he appeared include, in the area of commercial law, Attorney General v Trinsalvage Enterprises Ltd [2023] 1 W.L.R. 4045, which divided the Privy Council concerning unjust enrichment, and Pakistan International Airline Corp v Times Travel (UK) Ltd [2023] A.C. 101, which divided the Supreme Court on the law of economic duress. In the area of constitutional and administrative law, they include Suraj v Attorney General [2023] A.C. 337, where Lord Sales and Lord Hamblen resolved a controversy in the courts of Trinidad and Tobago about proportionality analysis in fundamental rights cases, Maharaj v Cabinet of Trinidad and Tobago [2023] 1 W.L.R. 2870, which divided the Privy Council on the true meaning of controversial electoral reforms, and R (Selevicius) v Home Secretary [2023] 1 W.L.R. 1304, about the EU Settlement Scheme.
Cases Tom has argued have been reported in (among others) the Law Reports, the Weekly Law Reports, Lloyd’s Law Reports, Butterworths Company Law Cases, the Wills and Trusts Law Reports, the International Trusts and Estates Law Reports, the Industrial Relations Law Reports, the Environmental Law Reports, and the Law Reports of the Commonwealth.
Much of Tom’s work is international. Regular clients have included, in addition to many businesses and individuals in England & Wales and overseas, the British Government and several overseas governments.
He has for many years been a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Current and recent arbitration experience includes both commercial arbitration under the ICC Arbitration Rules, the LCIA Arbitration Rules and the LMAA Terms, and investment treaty arbitration under the UNCITRAL Rules.
Commercial & Chancery Commercial Litigation
Tom has huge experience across a wide range of contentious and advisory work in the field of commercial and chancery commercial litigation, including many corporate disputes.
Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago v Trinsalvage Enterprises Ltd [2023] 1 W.L.R. 4045
Acting for the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in this unjust enrichment case that divided the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The issue was whether a provider of work to the Government that had not followed proper contracting procedures, so that the purported contract was void by statute, nonetheless had a claim for the market price of the work in unjust enrichment.
Pakistan International Airline Corp v Times Travel (UK) Ltd [2023] A.C. 101
Leading counsel for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business Banking, intervening in this case before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom that is now the leading authority on the scope of the defence of duress in contract law.
Lux Locations Ltd v Yida Zhang [2023] UKPC 3, [2021] 2 LRC 620
Successful appeal to the Privy Council reversing decisions in the Court of Appeal and High Court of the Eastern Caribbean that had wrongly allowed a party to a substantial commercial dispute to escape from a settlement agreement. The case is also important as the leading authority on the proper approach to an application to enter a default judgment where the claim is for a remedy other than a sum of money.
Stubbins Marketing Ltd v Rayner Essex (High Court, 2023)
Acted for the Claimants in this claim (which settled on confidential terms) concerning the duties of accountants and solicitors in connection with a management buyout.
Re a procurement contract (2023)
Advising a government as to its rights in connection with alleged breaches of contract under a US $150m military procurement contract.
Re damages under a cross-undertaking (2023)
Advising as to the quantum of damages recoverable on a claim to enforce a cross-undertaking given in support of a wrongly-granted injunction against pharmaceutical sales in a major overseas market.
Successfully resisting an application for security for costs on the unusual ground of the merits of the claim as demonstrable on a summary basis in this ongoing dispute arising from a contract to evaluate the efficacy of a new drug.
Apollo Ventures Co Ltd v Manchanda [2021] EWHC 3210 (Comm)
Acted for defendants to claims alleging breach of duties as directors of a Thai company, and successfully obtained a stay of proceedings on forum non conveniens grounds in the light of change of circumstances, notwithstanding submission to the jurisdiction several years earlier.
Advised a Cypriot coal trading company as to its rights and remedies in a dispute under a 10 million MT coal contract.
Stubbins Marketing Ltd v Stubbins Food Partnerships Ltd [2020] EWHC 1266 (Ch)
Successfully represented the claimant company in this long and complex trial against its former directors arising from a management buyout, in which the issues included whether informed consent had been secured from the shareholders or a relevant group of shareholders.
Advised the directors of a Cypriot holding company of a retail conglomerate as to their obligations in the light of a worldwide freezing order served on a contractual counterparty.
Advised the state water company of an overseas territory as to the lawfulness of its proposed work-arounds in relation to public procurement rules.
Advised construction risk insurance brokers on a substantial dispute with managing agents concerning entitlements to write insurance in the French market.
Lederer v Allsop LLP and others [2018] EWHC 1425 (Ch)
Acted for the successful applicant in this application—believed to be the first of its kind—for disclosure of the names of the underlying lenders of a loan arranged by an online peer-to-peer lending company, on the basis that on the proper construction of the contractual documents they, not the peer-to-peer company, were the applicant’s true contractual counterparties.
Ramsook v Crossley [2018] Lloyd’s Rep. I.R. 471
Acted as amicus curiae before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in this appeal concerning the extent of motor insurers’ authority.
Legends Live Ltd v Harrison, [2017] I.R.L.R. 59
Acted in this dispute concerning a restraint of trade clause in the entertainment industry.
Tom has experience of domestic and international arbitration under many regimes. He has been a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators for over a decade. Some commercial arbitral cases on which he has recently worked as counsel and which may be mentioned include the following:
Representing a coal trading company in a multi-million-dollar LMAA arbitration (ongoing).
Representing a government in an UNCITRAL investment treaty arbitration in the energy sector (ongoing)
Advised as to a potential US $2bn LCIA arbitral claim arising from a sale of assets in the Russian energy sector (2023).
Acted for the claimant in a US $9m ICC arbitration arising from coal trading contracts in the CIS (2022).
Represented a state-owned oil company in a multi-million-dollar ICC arbitration about expropriation of shares (2020).
Defended a government in a multi-million-dollar LCIA arbitration arising from alleged breaches of duty in connection with its citizenship-by-investment programme (2019).
Tom is an experienced litigator and adviser in personal and corporate insolvency, and has appeared in many reported cases in the field.
EIC (in liquidation) v Flowers (2023)
Advising and drafting written submissions in this appeal to the Court of Appeal of Gibraltar in insolvency proceedings arising from the collapse of an insurer.
Re X Ltd (2023)
Successfully resisting insolvency proceedings arising from multi-million-pound loan agreements in the UK commercial property sector.
Re Y Ltd (2022)
Advising as to use of insolvency process in connection with disputed fees for legal advice.
Jones v Sky Wheels Group Ltd [2020] B.P.I.R. 851
Acted for the successful director in this corporate dispute concerning an alleged bankruptcy debt arising from the operation of the directors’ loan accounts, where the underlying issue was an allegation of unfairly prejudicial conduct.
Re Paramount Powders (UK) Ltd [2020] 2 B.C.L.C. 1
Appeared in this leading case in the Court of Appeal on the scope and limits of the court’s powers to wind a company up on the ‘just and equitable’ ground.
Badyal v Badyal [2019] EWHC 467 (Ch)
Acted in this dispute concerning the winding up of a partnership with substantial assets in India, and the impact of orders of the High Court in Delhi on the English proceedings.
Aidiniantz v SHIS Ltd [2018] 1 B.C.L.C. 188
Acted in this appeal to the Court of Appeal concerning the proper approach to an allegation that a director apparently causing a company to bring a claim had in fact ceased to hold office.
Sharma v Sharma [2014] B.C.C. 73
Acted in this leading case in the Court of Appeal on the circumstances in which the court may infer assent by the shareholders of a company to conduct that would otherwise constitute a breach of a director’s duties.
Re HLC Environmental Projects Ltd [2014] B.C.C. 337
Acted in this case in the Companies Court, often cited since, about the extent of directors’ duties to have regard to the interests of creditors when solvency becomes doubtful.
Tom has experience across a wide range of contentious and advisory work in the field of civil fraud litigation.
X v Persons Unknown (High Court, 2022)
Established England & Wales jurisdiction and obtained proprietary freezing orders and Bankers Trust disclosure orders against several European banks used as depositaries for the fruits of a sophisticated and extraordinarily successful advance fee fraud against a wealthy individual.
Dass v Marchand [2021] 1 W.L.R. 1788
Appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in this case concerning fraudulent misrepresentations in connection with the procuring of valuable property transfers in Trinidad and Tobago.
X v Y Ltd (High Court 2021)
Acted in this High Court trial arising from allegations of undue influence and forgery to procure dividend waivers and other allegedly disadvantageous dispositions.
Advised the government of an overseas jurisdiction as to its civil claims against former government ministers for their involvement in allegedly corrupt transactions.
Blockchain Optimization SA v LFE Market Ltd [2020] EWHC 2027 (Comm)
Acted in these proceedings seeking the setting aside on non-disclosure grounds of a freezing injunction granted in context of an alleged cryptocurrency fraud.
Estate of Ibru v Brown (High Court 2020)
Acted for the estate of a UHNW individual, successfully recovering judgment at trial for the recovery of what were claimed to have been substantial gifts made shortly before his untimely death.
Cassell v The Queen [2017] 1 W.L.R. 2738
Acted for the appellant in this successful appeal to the Privy Council against conviction for a complex property fraud in Montserrat.
Tom has experience across a wide range of contentious and advisory work in the field of property litigation.
X v Minister of Crown Lands (2023)
Advising a government in relation to a title dispute concerning coastal land
A v B (2023)
Advising and acting for European property portfolio manager on claims arising in connection with the disposal of a large portfolio of commercial property.
Lake v Attorney General of Anguilla [2022] R.V.R. 355
Acted for property developers against the government in this appeal to the Privy Council concerning the valuation methodology for compulsory acquisition of land for an airport runway extension in Anguilla.
Rowland v Blades [2022] W.T.L.R. 269
Acted in this appeal concerning the proper approach to accounting under ss 12-15 of the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trusts Act 1995.
Shah v Shah [2020] EWHC 1840 (Ch)
Successfully acted in this long-running dispute between former business associates as to the ownership of property assets in India.
Acted for a developer in this appeal to the Privy Council in this dispute concerning ownership of 2,000 acres of prime development land in the Bahamas.
Shah v Shah [2018] EWHC 2075 (Ch)
Acted for the successful appellant in this appeal based on evidence not deployed in the court below, concerning true ownership of property in India.
Arawak Homes Ltd v Attorney General of the Bahamas [2016] 1 W.L.R. 5214
Acted for a large property developer against the government in this challenge to its assessment of compensation for the compulsory purchase of land.
Hall v Maritek Bahamas Ltd [2015] UKPC 23
Acted in this dispute before the Privy Council concerning whether or not a binding contract for the sale of land had been concluded.
Tom has long experience of most aspects of administrative law and human rights, and particular experience of advising on and arguing issues concerning constitutional law (and the interaction of constitutional and public international law), both in England & Wales and overseas. His practice covers both human rights and commercial and regulatory issues.
Until his appointment as Queen’s Counsel in 2014 he was a member of the Attorney General of England & Wales’s panel of Junior Counsel to the Crown, in which capacity he argued many public law cases for the UK government. He continues to be instructed for the government.
Suraj v Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago [2023] A.C. 337
Acted for the government of Trinidad and Tobago in this important appeal, successfully defending the constitutionality of its legislative responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. This case settles a controversy in the Court of Appeal of Trinidad and Tobago as to the nature and role of proportionality analysis in considering alleged interferences with the human rights protected under the Constitution.
Keighley v Information Commissioner [2023] UKUT 228 (AAC)
Litigation in the Upper Tribunal concerning the scope of the BBC’s exemption from the disclosure regime under the Freedom of Information Act.
Maharaj v Trinidad and Tobago [2023] 1 W.L.R. 2870, (2023) 102 W.I.R. 569
Acting for the Government in this dispute, which split the Judicial Committee 3-2, as to whether an amendment extending councillors’ terms of office applied to extend existing councillors’ terms of office.
R (All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business Banking) v Financial Conduct Authority (ongoing)
Acting for a group of MPs and peers in this High Court judicial review challenging the FCA’s response to the Swift review into its approach to swaps mis-selling.
Attorney General v Rolle [2023] UKPC 13
Acting for the Attorney General in this case concerning the true construction of certain citizenship provisions of the Constitution of The Bahamas.
R (Selevicius) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] 1 W.L.R. 1304
Acted for the Home Secretary in this case concerning removal from the United Kingdom on public interest grounds.
R (SPM) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWCA Civ 764, [2022] 4 W.L.R. 92
Acted for the Home Secretary in the High Court and the Court of Appeal in this successful defence of the arrangements for the detention of women under immigration powers against allegations that they were discriminatory and infringed the common law right of access to justice.
Smith v Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago [2022] UKPC 28
Acted for the Attorney General in this appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council concerning apparent bias. The case is notable for the Judicial Committee’s rejection of the High Court of Australia’s test for apparent bias in Ebner v Official Trustee in Bankruptcy [2000] HCA 63, 205 C.L.R. 337.
Advised and drafted proceedings for a group mounting a constitutional challenge to the mandatory Covid-19 vaccination laws of a Commonwealth country.
Public Service Commission v Richards [2022] UKPC 1
Acted for the government of Trinidad and Tobago, successfully defending a claim of unfairness contrary to the common law in the operation of disciplinary procedures in the prison service.
Advised and drafted pleadings in an overseas jurisdiction’s largest claim for malicious prosecution, the case arising from allegedly politicised decisions to bring and continue with baseless corruption charges (2022).
Re the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland (2021)
Advised and drafted proceedings on behalf of a consortium of Northern Ireland haulage businesses challenging the restrictions on freight traffic across the Irish Sea created by the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland.
Successfully defended the Home Secretary against a claim that the arrangements for overnight lock-ins at an immigration removal centre contravened religious rights under ECHR article 9 or were discriminatory.
Minister of Energy and Energy Affairs v Maharaj [2020] UKPC 13
Acted for the government of Trinidad and Tobago in this appeal in judicial review proceedings concerning the extent of the Minister’s power to suspend or revoke licences granted under the Petroleum Act.
Patel v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] 1 W.L.R. 228
Acted for the claimant before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in this case concerning the nature and limits of the ‘Zambrano’ principle in immigration law.
R (Keighley) v BBC [2019] EWHC 3331 (Admin)
Acted for the claimant in this judicial review challenge to the BBC’s arrangements for monitoring its compliance with its duty of due impartiality.
Maharaj v Petroleum Co of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd [2019] UKPC 21
Acted for the state petroleum company in this appeal concerning the relationship between freedom of information and the confidentiality of arbitral proceedings.
R (Scunthorpe United Football Club Ltd) v Greater Lincolnshire LEP Ltd [2018] EWHC 3351 (Admin)
Represented Scunthorpe United FC in this judicial review challenge to allocation of funding for public works.
R. (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2018] A.C. 61
Acted for an intervener in this well-known case in the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom concerning whether the government needed legislative authority before triggering the UK’s exit from the EU.
Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago v Dumas [2017] 1 W.L.R. 1978
Acted for the government of Trinidad and Tobago in this case concerning the circumstances in which a person has standing to make a complaint of a breach of a non-human-rights provision of the Constitution.
Dawson-Damer v Grampian Trust Company Ltd (2017) 20 I.T.E.L.R. 722
Acted for the government of the Bahamas in this dispute in the Supreme Court of the Bahamas about the compatibility of the Bahamas’ very strict rules on confidentiality in discretionary trusts with fair trial rights.
Fishermen and Friends of the Sea v Minister of Planning, Housing and the Environment [2017] UKPC 37
Acted for the government of Trinidad and Tobago in this appeal about the nature and extent of the ‘polluter pays’ principle in environmental law.
R (Idira) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] 1 W.L.R. 1694
Successfully defended the Home Secretary’s policy of using prisons for the immigration detention of time-served foreign national offenders against challenge for alleged inconsistency with ECHR rights.
Hunte v Trinidad and Tobago 40 B.H.R.C. 633
Persuaded an expanded panel of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council to depart (by a majority) from its own earlier decision as to its powers in death penalty cases where it was not seised of a claim for constitutional relief.
Tom has many years’ experience in public international law. In 2011 he wrote, with Professor Matthew Happold, Settlement of Investment Disputes under the Energy Charter Treaty (Cambridge University Press), which remains a leading work on that subject. He has often been called upon to advise governments as to their obligations in international law.
Representing a government in an UNCITRAL investment treaty arbitration in the energy sector (ongoing)
Advising the UK government about the compatibility of several provisions of intended legislation with UK treaty commitments (2020-21)
Advising a department in the Northern Ireland Executive about the proper construction of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland (2021).
Advising an overseas government about the compatibility of a major reform of drugs policy with international treaty commitments, and about its practical options (2020-22).
Advising an overseas government as to its obligations under the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters in connection with certain financial products being marketed in its territory (2020).
R (Bashir) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] A.C. 484
Acted for the Home Secretary (led by Sir James Eadie QC in the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, but as leading counsel in the Court of Appeal and the High Court) in this case concerning whether the Refugee Convention applies to the UK’s Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus and, if so, with what implications for the rights of persons claiming asylum there.
Advising an African NGO as to its prospects of successfully challenging laws criminalising homosexual acts in the light of the state’s constitutional law and international treaty commitments.
Thomas is able to accept instructions directly from members of the public, companies and other entities through the public access scheme (also known as direct access). Thomas has acted, advised and drafted pleadings and documents for a number of individuals and small and medium sized businesses on a direct access basis. He is happy to accept instructions on a direct basis in appropriate cases. If you wish to instruct Thomas on a direct basis, please speak to the practice managers.
For more information on public access, please see the Bar Council website.
Please contact us either by telephone: +44 (0)20 7415 7800 or email: clerks@3harecourt.com