Edward Craven > Matrix Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile

At Matrix Chambers, Antony White KC and Edward Craven are acting in O’Carroll v Meta, a high-profile claim concerning the legality of processing personal data for the purpose of delivering direct marketing on Facebook. In a separate matter, Ian Helme is representing the fintech company in Delo v Wise, a claim over alleged violations of Article 15 of the GDPR, raising issues as to the obligations of financial institutions under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 when subjected to subject access requests.

Matrix Chambers is ‘a very strong public law and human rights set‘. Claimant work forms the key pillar of the practice, and the set reports an increase in mandates relating to government policies. Jessica Simor KC ‘clearly and concisely articulates complex legal arguments, and she is always prepared to challenge the status quo‘. In recent work for the team, Simor KC led Emma Foubister for the claimants in R (Friends of the Earth Ltd and others) v Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, a judicial review challenging the legality of the Government’s Net Zero Strategy; the High Court ruled that the strategy breached the Government’s obligations under the Climate Change Act. Edward Craven  is ‘an exceptional barrister with an incredible mind‘. In a boost to chambers, Nick Armstrong KC, Claire Darwin KC and Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC were all elevated to silk in March 2023.

Members of Matrix Chambers are active across the whole range of public international law including investment treaty claims, state-versus-state disputes as well as cases before the ICJ and are frequently called upon to advise on international legal issues arising in the UK litigation context. The set was bolstered in March 2023 with Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC taking silk. On the junior end, Toby Fisher joined in September 2022 from an in-house role in the New Zealand government – he was instructed to act on behalf of New Zealand to intervene in the ICJ proceedings brought by Ukraine against Russia under the Genocide Convention. In a high-profile ICJ case concerning the status and location of the land boundary between Venezuela and Guyana, Edward Craven represented Guyana in its high-profile ICJ dispute with the government of Venezuela, which claims more than half of Guyana’s territory by rejecting an 1899 arbitral award. Michelle Butler, led by Antony White KC, is instructed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to contest jurisdiction in the claim of Ghanem Al-Masarir, represented by Richard Hermer KC, on the basis of sovereign immunity – the Saudi dissident claims damages in the London courts for the alleged hacking of his mobile phone using Pegasus spyware.

As a ‘standout in terms of dealing with matters that are cutting edge and may require litigating up to the higher courts’, Matrix Chambers includes ‘strong multi-disciplinarians‘ for group litigation in fields such as competition, environmental, employment, media and data protection law. Antony White KC has been involved in many high-profile data protection and privacy cases of recent years, and is currently member of a team of counsel representing Meta in Gormsen v Meta Platforms Inc, a case concerning an allegation that Facebook’s terms and conditions, requiring consent to behaviour tracking for advertisements, was an abuse of a dominant position – the claim was not certified. Led by Richard Hermer KC and Edward Craven  are representing 40,000 Nigerian claimants in claims concerning the liability of the largest oil company in Nigeria and its UK parent company, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, for mass oil pollution in mangrove swamps in the Niger Delta. Craven is working with Kate Boakes in representing tens of thousands of claimants in the Dieselgate emission group litigation against Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and BMW among others.

Matrix Chambers is an ‘excellent‘ multi-disciplinary set and regularly advises banks, financial institutions and other corporate entities as well as individuals on complex criminal charges. Alex Bailin KC and Edward Craven, representing a former employee of the company, and Clare Montgomery KC, for the company, represent defendants in the SFO’s ongoing case regarding Glencore, the company having entered guilty pleas to bribery offences in order to secure access to oil rights in several African countries.