David Hughes > 30 Park Place > Cardiff, > Barrister Profile

David Hughes

02920 398421 clerks@30parkplace.co.uk

Position

David joined chambers in 2007, prior to which he had been in full-time practice at the Gibraltar Bar. He has a broad common law, commercial and public law practice.

Commercial and contractual litigation probably makes up the largest single element of David’s practice. He appears and advises in building disputes, disputes arising out the sale of businesses (including the sale of intellectual property rights), unfair prejudice proceedings, partnership disputes, denied boarding claims, commercial lease disputes and commercial disputes in the sporting context. He is a committee member of the Wales Commercial Law Association.

David appears for and advises claimants in actions against the Police, and for both claimants and defendants in commercial disputes and professional negligence and personal injury claims.

He has a strong interest in information and intellectual property law. He is a member of the Welsh Assembly’s panel of counsel for intellectual property matters, and advises on issues relating to privacy and data protection as well as more conventional intellectual property matters.

David has an active defamation practice, one of the few barristers based outside London to regularly practice in this field. His experience includes defamation cases involving social media and in the local government context, and he has advised defendants in a number of cases involving Gibraltar government ministers. David authored the joint response of Public Law Wales and the Wales Commercial Law Association to the Government’s consultation on the draft Defamation Bill, and has regularly given talks on defamation.

David’s public law practice involves advising public bodies and potential claimants and appearing on behalf of both claimants and defendants in judicial review actions. He also appears in cases involving mental health issues. In this, he builds on his experience in Gibraltar, where he was involved in many of the most important Constitutional cases and where he continues to be active in public law. David appears in planning and village green inquiries and appeals.

David has a keen interest in housing law, in particular in social housing. Much of his public law work in Gibraltar relates to social housing, and he is experienced in Wales in using public law arguments to resist possession claims in social housing cases. He has also given a lecture on the Housing (Wales) Act.

He has given evidence to both the Welsh Assembly’s Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee’s inquiry into the establishment of a separate Welsh jurisdiction, and also to the Welsh Government’s consultation on the same subject. He is a committee member of Public Law Wales.

David’s employment law practice involves appearing for both Claimants and Respondents in the Employment Tribunal. He also acts in employment-related cases in the ordinary civil courts, for example in confidential-information or restraint of trade cases. David is an elected member of Liberty’s national policy council.

David speaks fluent Spanish as well as excellent French and good Italian.

Career

Call: 1997

• Tenant at 30 Park Place – June 2007 – present.
• Also a tenant at 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square, London, and a consultant at Phillips Barristers & Solicitors, Gibraltar.
• Associate at Phillips Barristers & Solicitors  – September 1997 – August 1999 and September 2000 – July 2007
• Pupillage – September 1999 – September 2000

Languages

Spanish (fluent), French, Italian

Memberships

• Liberty (elected to the national policy council)
• Police Action Lawyers Group
• Administrative Law Bar Association
• Planning and Environmental Bar Association
• Commonwealth Lawyers Association
• British Spanish Law Association (committee member)
• Public Law Wales (committee member)
• Wales Commercial Law Association (committee member)
• Society of Conservative Lawyers.

Education

• Inns of Court School of Law – BVC 1996-97
• University of Glamorgan – CPE 1995-96
• University of Wolverhampton – B.A. (hons) Modern Languages (French & Spanish) including Erasmus exchanges at the Universidad de Granada, Spain and the Université de Mons-Hainault, Belgium – 1991-95.

Leisure

Rollerskiing, exercise (especially running and mountain-biking), trying to play guitar and keyboards, Spain and Gibraltar-related topics, reading, current affairs, listening to flamenco and watching biathlon.