Owain Thomas KC > 1 Crown Office Row A1 > London, England > Barrister Profile
1 Crown Office Row Offices
1 Crown Office Row
TEMPLE, LONDON
EC4Y 7HH
England
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Owain Thomas KC
Position
Owain Thomas KC has a broad practice with an emphasis on the areas of medical law, professional discipline, public law (in particular relating to healthcare) and taxation.
He has wide experience acting for both Claimants and Defendants (NHS and MoD) in clinical negligence, particularly high value claims resulting from birth injury or other catastrophic injuries. He has experience of a wide variety public law challenges against Mental Health Trusts in the Administrative Court and emergency injunctions and best interests cases in the Family Division. He regularly appears for public authorities (hospitals, mental health Trusts and prisons) in complex inquests.
Owain has considerable experience in all areas of professional regulation and regularly appears on behalf of doctors, dentists and other professionals before the GMC, GDC etc.
He has appeared in hundreds of indirect tax cases in the domestic courts (in the Tribunal, the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court) and the European Court of Justice. His experience includes advisory work as well as advocacy in all areas of indirect taxation. He appears for HMRC and taxpayers.
He also has particular experience in the field of customs duties, goods classification, anti-dumping duty and landfill tax.
He undertakes a wide range of public law challenges particularly in the field of healthcare, criminal injuries and tax litigation.
Career
Call: 1995; KC: 2016; Inner Temple.
Junior Counsel to the Crown (C Panel) 2001 – 03; B Panel 2003 to 2008; A Panel 2008 to date. Publications: Chapter 14 clinical negligence in ‘Professional Neligence and Liability.’ (Looseleaf LLP 2000); Contributor to ‘An Introduction to Human Rights and the Common Law’ (Ed Havers and English)(Hart Publishing 2000); Contributor to Burnett-Hall on Environmental Law (2nd Edition). Lectures: ‘The Impact of the ECHR on the Common Law’; ‘Expert Evidence in Surveyors’ and Solicitors’ Negligence’: ‘The Impact of the New Civil Rules on Interlocutory Proceedings’; ‘The Human Rights Act and the Right to Physical Integrity’; The Human Rights Act and the Financial Services Industry’; presents BPP Professional Skills Human Rights Course.
Languages
French, Welsh.
Memberships
Professional Negligence Bar Association; Personal Injury Bar Association; Administrative Law Bar Association.
Education
Penyrheol Comprehensive School; Gorseinon College; University College, Oxford (BA Hons; BCL 1st).
Leisure
Theatre, opera, music, tennis.
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Tax: VAT and excise
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 2Owain Thomas KC – 1 Crown Office Row ‘Owain is an incisive and direct silk.’
1 Crown Office Row handles the entire spectrum of tax litigation and its members are instructed on behalf of both taxpayers and HMRC. Indirect tax experts Owain Thomas KC and Sarabjit Singh KC jointly lead the team, which has significant experience handling cases at all levels, from first-tier tribunals to the Supreme Court, as well as the Court of Justice of the European Union. Thomas KC successfully represented HMRC in a Court of Appeal case against Build-A-Bear Workshop concerning whether imported bear accessories were classified as accessories for dolls or for toys in relation to related EU tariffs. The set is also home to Natasha Barnes, who has represented clients before the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, and the Administrative Court, and Isabel McArdle, who has substantial expertise in matters regarding VAT, customs and excise. Edward Waldegrave joined the team from Pump Court Chambers in March 2023, and he is experienced in high-stakes cases.
London Bar > Professional disciplinary and regulatory law
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 4Owain Thomas KC – 1 Crown Office Row ‘He has a very meticulous eye and grasps the key issues very quickly.‘
London Bar > Clinical negligence
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 4Owain Thomas KC –1 Crown Office Row ‘An extraordinary ability to absorb a huge amount of complex clinical detail and then deploy that in a cross-examination. I saw no weakness in that tour de force, or generally in his advocacy.’