Tom Morris > Chambers of David Holland KC and Jenny Wigley KC > London, England > Barrister Profile

Tom Morris

020 7430 1221 tmorris@landmarkchambers.co.uk View profile View profile

Position

In January 2023 he was sole counsel for the successful respondent in the landmark Supreme Court appeal in Jepsen v Rakusen, having appeared unled for the successful appellant in the Court of Appeal. In recognition of the success of his practice, he is the most junior of the six barristers shortlisted to be ‘Junior of the Year’ across the whole of the Bar of England and Wales in the 2023 Legal 500 UK Bar Awards.

Tom is instructed as sole counsel for the respondents to two upcoming appeals to the Court of Appeal: one on the scope of the freezing order jurisdiction, the other on the applicability of the Limitation Act to interest on judgment debts. He is instructed as junior counsel to Timothy Morshead KC by the appellants to the Supreme Court in Darwall v Dartmoor National Parks Authority, a landmark appeal concerning public rights to camp in the national park. Since the start of the year, he has appeared as sole counsel for the successful respondents in two High Court appeals, has been instructed as sole counsel by the appellants in three further High Court appeals, and has appeared as sole counsel in three appeals in the property chamber of the Upper Tribunal. In the last twelve months, he has been instructed in a fraud trial in the High Court and in numerous multitrack trials and interim applications in the county court involving complex disputes of fact and law – particularly injunction and freezing order applications, boundary disputes, landlord consent disputes and other landlord and tenant disputes.

Although Tom is a specialist in property litigation, his practice ranges widely and encompasses costs, development and highway disputes, commercial disputes and insolvency. He has appeared in test cases on a range of issues which, on several occasions, have changed or clarified the law. For example, as sole counsel, Tom has:

• persuaded the Court of Appeal and then the Supreme Court that the practice in the First-tier Tribunal (affirmed by two Upper Tribunal decisions) of making Rent Repayment Orders against superior landlords was based on an incorrect interpretation of the Housing and Planning Act 2016.
• persuaded a High Court Judge in the commercial court that section 24(2) of the Limitation Act 1980 limits the recovery of Judgments Act interest to six years’ worth (a point apparently thought ‘hopeless’ by the Senior Costs Judge and now on appeal to the Court of Appeal).
• successfully obtained a freezing order in the Chancery Division in support of a potential costs order, involving a departure from the previous law (now on appeal to the Court of Appeal).
• appeared in the first appeal to the Upper Tribunal on the meaning of “house” within Part 3 of the Housing Act 2004 (an appeal to the Court of Appeal settled shortly before it was due to be heard).
• resisted a High Court appeal against a successful application to set aside a bankruptcy petition based on the (novel) argument that an arguably unreasonable refusal by a landlord to consent to the assignment of a commercial lease gave rise to a cross-claim in damages capable of being set off against the relevant arrears of rent.
• successfully resisted an appeal against a Deputy Master’s decision to order security for costs.

Led by Justin Bates, Tom also appeared for the successful landlord in the appeal and cross appeal to the Court of Appeal concerning execution of documents by corporate landlords, which clarified the law relating to the signing of section 8 notices and deposit protection certificates. Tom (also led by Justin Bates) is also appearing in an upcoming appeal to the Court of Appeal to reconsider whether courts can order parties to participate in alternative dispute resolution.

As a costs litigator, Tom has acted for many years on behalf of the paying party in the 100-day detailed assessment of a bill of costs in the sum of over £60 million (partly led by Ben Williams KC) before the Senior Costs Judge. Tom’s client’s considerable success (on an indemnity basis assessment in which, for example, profit costs were reduced by almost 40%) was recognised in the court making a ‘different order’ on the costs of the detailed assessment. A dispute over interest culminated in a hearing before Mrs Justice Dias in the Commercial Court in which Tom’s interpretation of section 24(2) of the Limitation Act 1980 prevailed. Tom is also regularly instructed by HM Government, on behalf of the Lord Chancellor, in appeals relating to the law of litigation funding. He has been appointed to the C panel as a result.

Memberships

Appointed to the Attorney General’s C Panel of Junior Counsel

Education

Personal

Awards

• Shortlisted for the Legal 500 UK Bar Awards 2023 ‘Junior of the Year’
• Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: Intermediate Exhibition (for performance in Part II exams)
• Middle Temple: Certificate of Merit (for performance in BPTC exams)
• Middle Temple: Harmsworth Entrance Award
• University of Law: Prize for coming top of year in opinion-writing exam