Duncan Fairgrieve KC > 1 Crown Office Row A1 > London, England > Barrister Profile

Duncan Fairgrieve KC

020 7797 7500 duncan.fairgrieve@1cor.com View profile View profile

Position

Associate Tenant. Duncan Fairgrieve KC (Hon) has a wide-ranging practice in public law, EU law, human rights and commercial law. He has appeared in all major jurisdictions in England and Wales, including the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

Career

Avocat à la Cour, Paris bar (2002); Barrister (Inner Temple) 2008.

Duncan was instructed as counsel in a series of landmark Supreme Court cases on the negligence liability of public authorities : Michael v South Wales Police [2015] UKSC 2 and Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire [2018] UKSC 4 (led by Nicholas Bowen KC), and CN & GN v Poole BC [2019] UKSC 25 (led by Lizanne Gumbel QC). He is currently instructed on another significant case before the Supreme Court concerning the tort of negligence, to be heard during 2020. He is co-author with Dan Squires KC of the leading practitioner text on this topic, Negligence Liability of Public Authorities (2nd edition, OUP, 2019) He has also been instructed in significant cases on human rights issues, such as Cheshire West and Chester Council v P [2014] UKSC 19 (Supreme Court case on Article 5 ECHR) and A v Essex CC [2010] UKSC 33 (Supreme Court case on the meaning of Article 2 Protocol 1 right of access to effective education under the ECHR).

Duncan has particular expertise in product liability litigation and mass torts, and has been involved in many of the iconic products cases in England and France (including in the pharmaceutical and medical device sector, chemicals, yachts, automobiles, and tobacco). He is co-author with Prof. Richard Goldberg of the leading practitioner text on this topic, Product Liability (Oxford University Press, 3^rd Edition, 2020).

Duncan’s practice has a significant international and cross-border element. He regularly provides expert evidence on English, French and Comparative Law issues in domestic and foreign proceedings, including before the English Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, before courts in Europe, the United States and Canada, as well as many other jurisdictions. He is also often instructed in offshore litigation, with particular expertise regarding offshore contract and commercial law, including the jurisdiction of Jersey, Channel Islands, where he taught Jersey and comparative contract law for many years at the Institute of law, Saint Helier. He is currently leading a project in Jersey to draft a Restatement of the Jersey law of contract.

Languages

French.

Memberships

Director, Product Liability Forum, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, and Maître de Conférences, SciencesPo, Paris.