Gavin Millar QC

Overview

Gavin has a wide-ranging practice covering media, public, employment and discrimination law.

Much of his media work is for clients asserting free speech rights. He undertakes defamation, privacy, contempt and reporting restriction cases. He is the co-author of Media Law and Human Rights (2009 Oxford University Press) and sits on the Board of the Centre for Investigative Journalism at City University. He is a Council of Europe and OSCE expert on freedom of expression. In this capacity he regularly speaks and advises on media law at Strasbourg and in the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe.

In November 2008 he represented the journalist, Sally Murrer, whose conversations with an alleged police source had been bugged by Thames Valley Police. The judge directed an acquittal on the basis of interferences with her right to freedom of expression.

In 2009 he advised the DPP on the free speech issues arising in the police investigation into Damien Green MP. He also represented the UK media before the Court of Appeal in R (On the application of Binyam Mohammed) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

In 2010 he represented the Crown in connection with media coverage of criminal proceedings against John Venables. He has been representing the radio journalist John Gaunt in his challenge to an Ofcom finding that he had breached the Broadcasting Code during a live interview in which he called a politician a "Nazi". He recently In September 2011 he successfully defended the Sunday Mirror in privacy proceedings brought by the footballer Rio Ferdinand. This was the first privacy trial in the High Court since Mosley v NGN.

Gavin specialises in discrimination and trade union law, although he covers all aspects of employment law. He often represents public sector workers.

He appeared in the European Court of Justice and the House of Lords in one of the leading cases on the Aquired Rights Directive, North Wales TEC v Astley.

In 2008 he represented the Police Federation of England and Wales in its judicial review challenge to the refusal of the Home Secretary to implement the annual pay award of the Police Arbitration Tribunal.

As well as employment cases, his public law practice covers parliamentary, local government, education and election law. He has appeared at a number of major public inquiries including those into the Clapham Junction rail disaster, the Westminster City Council "homes for votes" scandal and the second Ashworth Special Hospital Inquiry. He was an elected member of a London council between 1985 and 1994, serving on its Housing and Social Services Committees.

In 2011 he defended the former MP, Jim Devine, at his trial on charges of false accounting in relation to his House of Commons allowance claims.

Gavin is recognised as a leading election law specialist. He has appeared in numerous election petition cases. In March 2008 he appeared for the claimant at the Slough Central Ward election trial which exposed the unlawful electoral practice of "roll-stuffing", enabling postal votes to be cast on behalf of non-existent voters.

In 2010 he represented Phil Woolas, accused of making false statements of fact about the personal character or conduct of his opponent, both before the Parliamentary Election Court sitting in the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency and in a subsequent judicial review challenge.

Gavin is consistently ranked in Chambers & Partners & The Legal 500 as a leading silk in the areas of Employment and Defamation & Privacy. Gavin was described as an "incredible cross-examiner" in the defamation/privacy section of Chambers & Partners 2006. He was described as "excellent" in a Legal Week article entitled "The Entertainers" and was listed as one of the The Lawyer's "Hot 100" lawyers for 2007. He was shortlisted for the Law Society's "Barrister of the Year" award in 2008. In 2009 edition of Chambers & Partners he is praised for his "ruthless efficiency, problem-solving skills and uncanny ability to speak common sense".. He is also listed in the defamation section of Legal Experts 2011. The 2010 edition of Legal 500 describes Gavin as "frighteningly bright" and a "fantastic advocate". In the current edition of Chambers & Partners commentators describe him as "Absolutely unflappable and excellent in a crisis," Millar is "a good choice for hard-hitting cases, or anything with serious political connotations." "Use him if you need a really big gun,"

He is Deputy Head of chambers. He was appointed as a Recorder of the Crown Court in 2003. In 2010 he was called to the Bar in Northern Ireland.

Recent cases include:


Media, defamation and privacy

T v British Broadcasting Corporation (QB) [2008] 1 FLR 281
Injunction to prevent interference with privacy rights of vulnerable mother through broadcast of documentary.

Roberts v Gable [2008] QB 502
"Reynolds" privilege in the form of neutral reportage of political disputes.

Mersey Care NHS Trust v Ackroyd (No. 2) (CA) [2008] EMLR 1
Protection of journalistic sources.

In re Trinity Mirror plc and others (CA) [2008] QB 770
Jurisdiction of Crown Court to make reporting restriction orders protecting privacy.

Her Majesty's Attorney General v Seckerson (1) Times Newspapers (2) [2009] EMLR 20
Contempt proceedings against The Times under s.8 Contempt of Court Act 1981 for publishing an article discussing a jury verdict in a criminal case.

Attorney-General's Reference No. 3 of 1999: Application by the BBC to set aside or vary a reporting restriction order [2010] 1 AC 145 Application to the House of Lords on behalf of the BBC to lift an anonymity order protecting the identity of a defendant acquitted of rape imposed following an Attorney General's reference to the Court of Appeal and House of Lords.

Re Child X (Residence and Contact - Rights of media attendance - FPR Rule 10.28(4) [2009] EMLR 26 Guideline case on media rights of access to court hearings involving the children of celebrities.

Independent News and Media Limited and others v A (by his litigation friend the Official Solicitor) [2010] 1 WLR 2262 Test case on the rights of the media to have access to and report proceedings in the Court of Protection.

A v B (Investigatory Powers Tribunal: Jurisdiction) [2010] 2 AC 1 Former member seeking to publish a book about his time in the Security Service (MI5), Jurisdictional issue as to whether he could assert his Art 10 ECHR rights in the courts rather than in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Tribunal.

R (On the application of Binyam Mohammed) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [2010] 3 WLR 554
Represented the UK media, intervening, in the Foreign Secretary's appeal against the decision of the Divisional Court to include in its judgment findings as to the mistreatment of the applicant in US custody in Pakistan in 2002.

R. (on the application of Guardian News and Media Ltd) v City of Westminster Magistrates Court [2011] 1 WLR 1173.
Challenge to the refusal of a District Judge to allow journalists to see evidence filed in extradition proceedings. An appeal has been filed in this case.

In re MGN Ltd and others [2011] 1 Cr App R 31
Media challenge to orders postponing reporting of sequential Crown Court trials.

Gaunt v Ofcom [2011] EWCA Civ 692EMLR 28
Judicial review challenge alleging that an adverse Ofcom ruling breached a radio journalist's Article 10 rights.

Rio Ferdinand v MGN Limited [2011] EWHC 2454 (QB)
Claim for misuse of private information in a newspaper article in the Sunday Mirror.


Employment and discrimination


Carter v Ahsan (HL(E)) [2008] 1 AC 696
Jurisdiction of employment tribunals in race discrimination cases.

Public Law

Finch v Richardson [2009] 1 WLR 1338
Relief granted to a candidate in an election under the Representation of the People Act 1983 in respect of errors in his election expense returns.

R v Chayter, Morley and Devine [2010] 2 Cr App R 34
A decision as to the nature and ambit of Parliamentary privilege in the context of criminal proceedings against Members of Parliament for false accounting in relation to their allowances.

R (on the application of Conservative and Unionist Party) v Election Commissioner [2011] PTSR 416
Test case on whether a political party can be held liable in costs when its candidate fails to defend an election petition.

R (on the application of Woolas) v Parliamentary Election Court [2011] 2 WLR 1362.
Test case on the reviewability of a Parliamentary Election Court comprising two High Court judges. Also as to the meaning and effect of the prohibition in the Representation of the People Act 1983 on making false statement of fact about candidates at elections.

Year of Call

1981

Queen's Counsel

2000

Education

BA (Hons) Jurisprudence

Email Address

g.millar@doughtystreet.co.uk

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Specialist Teams

Team leader :

• Employment and Discrimination
• Media and Defamation

Member :

• Employment and Discrimination
• Human Rights
• Media and Defamation
• Public and Administrative Law