Sir Michael Wood KCMG KC > Twenty Essex > London, England > Lawyer Profile
Twenty Essex Offices
20 ESSEX STREET
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Sir Michael Wood KCMG KC
Work Department
- English foreign relations law
- International human rights law and the laws of war
- International law on the use of force
- International law of the sea, including maritime delimitation
- Public international law
- UN law
Position
Sir Michael is a member of the United Nations (UN) International Law Commission. He was the principal Legal Adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) between 1999 and 2006. During his 35 years as an FCO lawyer, Michael attended many international conferences, including the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea. He spent three years at the UK Mission to the UN in New York, dealing chiefly with Security Council matters.
Since leaving the FCO in 2006, Sir Michael has acted for many governments in cases before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and inter-state arbitral tribunals. He has written extensively on public international law.
https://www.twentyessex.com/people/michael-wood/
Languages
French, German, Italian, Spanish (all proficient)
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Public international law
(Senior Counsel)Ranked: Tier 1Sir Michael Wood KCMG –Twenty Essex ‘Michael has a deeper knowledge of more fields of public international law than practically anyone at the English Bar. He is also tactically very astute, and knows how international courts and tribunals think and work pretty much more than anyone. He is a first rate advocate and, despite his seniority, a great team player. He is not a KC because he has not troubled to apply, but he is a more senior and better PIL lawyer than almost all the actual KCs in this field.’
Offering ‘perfect service‘ and ‘great breadth and depth‘ Twenty Essex is an ‘outstanding chambers‘ that is ‘first choice for sensitive government matters and public international law‘. The set has an extremely broad selection of silks and juniors from a wide range of backgrounds, including former Legal Advisers to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office such as Sir Michael Wood KCMG and Sir Daniel Bethlehem KC. Sudhanshu Swaroop KC and Penelope Nevill are currently representing the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office in Duarte Agostinho v Portugal & Ors, a claim before the ECHR brought by six Portuguese children against the Portuguese government and 32 other states including the UK over their failure to meet climate change commitments. Philippa Webb is also representing a Filipino former domestic worker in the Saudi Arabian embassy in London in Wong v Basfar, a dispute before the Supreme Court concerning diplomatic immunity to cases of human trafficking and modern slavery.