Nationality British Occupation Barrister, | Name Hugh Tomlinson Role Barrister | |
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Books The Law of Human Rights, Fair Trial Rights, Privacy and Freedom, The Law of Personal Privacy, Police Actions | ||
Literary Festival 2013: Austerity on Trial
Hugh Richard Edward Tomlinson QC (born January 1954 in Leeds) is an English barrister, a prominent English translator of the philosopher Gilles Deleuze and a founding member of Matrix Chambers. He is a noted specialist in media and information law including defamation, confidence, privacy and data protection. He played a central role in the campaign for the full disclosure of UK MP's parliamentary expenses and in the News of the World phone-hacking revelations. He is known for his privacy work for celebrities who include Lily Allen, David and Victoria Beckham, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Ryan Giggs, as well as others such as retired banker (and ex-knight) Fred Goodwin and Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales.
Contents
- Literary Festival 2013 Austerity on Trial
- Early life
- Legal career
- Blogging
- Publications
- Translations of Gilles Deleuze
- References
In 2013, Tomlinson represented organised crime boss David Hunt in a failed libel case against The Sunday Times who published an expose on Hunt's criminal activities which were aided by corrupt police officers and spanned over two decades.
Early life
Tomlinson was born and grew up in a working-class area of Woodhouse in Leeds, West Yorkshire. After winning a place at Leeds Grammar School he went on to Balliol College, Oxford where he earned the top first in the University in PPE. After Oxford he continued his philosophical studies at the University of Sussex and in 1977 went to the University of Paris VIII, at the time notorious for its radical philosophy department. Tomlinson met the philosopher Gilles Deleuze there and went on to translate eight of his books.
Legal career
In 1984 he joined New Court Chambers and according to Carman’s biographer, Dominic Carman, Tomlinson "made a deep impression" on George Carman who was then head of chambers. Carman regarded him as his star performer, insisting that he become his junior in the two Branson defamation cases - the British Airways "dirty tricks" campaign against Virgin Atlantic, and the case involving an alleged attempt to bribe Richard Branson by the head of the lottery company GTECH S.p.A..
His practice has ranged from substantial Chancery Division cases such as that relating to Marlborough Fine Art and the Francis Bacon Estate to representing the DPP in the Criminal Court of Appeal in the first application on the changed law on double jeopardy. He is the co-author of the leading textbook on civil actions against the police and is well known for his work in the area.
In 2007 Tomlinson successfully represented Lord Baker a former Environment Secretary in a Freedom of Information request against John Prescott, the then Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions. The Information Tribunal ruled that civil servants' advice to ministers on major planning decisions should be disclosed to anyone who asks for it once the decision is taken.
He represented Prince Charles in preventing the publication of the Prince’s Hong Kong travel diaries and claimed that any arguments that the journals should be published in the public interest were "far-fetched".
Tomlinson was the leading barrister in the campaign to force the public release of information relating to MPs expenses.
Tomlinson is known as a "super injunction" specialist protecting celebrities from the disclosure of "private" information but in accordance with the bar’s taxi rank principle he works on both sides of this legal divide. In the case where England football captain John Terry went to court to protect details of a relationship with Vanessa Perroncel, (the ex-girlfriend of his England team-mate Wayne Bridge) Tomlinson represented Associated Newspapers (not Terry, as is often wrongly reported). He also represented Jeremy Clarkson’s ex-wife Alex Hall where Clarkson was seeking (but subsequently dropped) efforts to prevent Hall from claiming that they had had an affair during his subsequent marriage. In Ntuli v Donald he again acted for the Defendant, Ntuli, a former partner of "Take That’s" Howard Donald, who had obtained a "super-injunction" to prevent her revealing details of their relationship (and preventing the reporting of the existence of the injunction itself). This was the first appeal against a "super-injunction". It was removed by the Court of Appeal who allowed the proceedings to be reported and Donald and Ntuli to be named. Tomlinson successfully represented the publisher Harper Collins when the BBC sought to prevent a publication revealing the identity of Top Gear’s secret racing-driver, The Stig.
Tomlinson represented Robert Murat in the defamation action against numerous British newspapers. Murat, an Anglo Portuguese local seeking to help was falsely accused by the British press of being involved in the disappearance of the three-year-old Madeleine McCann. Tomlinson also represented Chris Jefferies, the retired Bristol school teacher and landlord of murder victim Joanna Yeates, over the lurid and malicious press coverage of Jefferies during the case. In both cases substantial damages were received.
In the News of the world phone-hacking scandal Tomlinson acted for Sienna Miller whose case led to the final admission by the New of the World that more than one journalist was involved in the hacking. Tomlinson’s other phone-hacking clients include Jude Law, Ulrika Jonsson, Ashley Cole, Ryan Giggs, Pete Doherty, Leslie Ash, Lee Chapman, Chris Bryant MP, Simon Hughes MP, Brian Paddick, Tessa Jowell MP, John Prescott and Neil and Glenys Kinnock. He also acted in the phone hacking judicial review of the Metropolitan police.
Blogging
Tomlinson is an active blogger. He represented Nightjack the police blogger whom The Times sought (successfully) to name and expose. He is a founding editor of the United Kingdom Supreme Court blog and runs the influential blog Inforrm. Inforrm is at the centre of the debate on press freedom and regulation and Tomlinson has often blogged his proposals for media and press reform. He is a founder member of the Hacked Off Committee, the group that campaigned for a public inquiry into the phone hacking scandal.
Tomlinson is joint author of the leading practitioner text on the law of human rights.