Sarah Palin joins Doughty Street Chambers

Doughty Street Chambers is delighted to announce that Sarah Palin has joined our Media and Information Law team today (September 2020).

Sarah has extensive experience in media and information law litigation, acting for both claimants and defendants and has advised a broad range of clients, including national and local press, television companies, and professional regulatory bodies, as well as for individuals. She returns to practice at the Bar after a spell as in-house counsel at Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL). Her recent work has included pre-publication advisory work and media law cases for ANL, together with court appearances for ANL and other media organisations on open justice. This includes issues in the Family Division (the Al Maktoum litigation) and in relation to the anonymity of child defendants in criminal cases (DXB).

Sarah will be an invaluable addition to the Doughty Street Chambers teams working on domestic law and international media defence. Sarah practises in all areas of media and information law, including defamation, privacy, breach of confidence, data protection, freedom of information, harassment, negligent misstatement, Articles 8 and 10 related human right law, contempt, election law and reporting restrictions. She also has a strong interest in media regulation. While in private practice, she was recognised by the legal directories as a leading barrister in these areas. She deserves to be restored to the rankings on her return.

Sarah has appeared in numerous high-profile defamation and privacy actions. She represented ANL at The Leveson Inquiry and previously acted on behalf of the BBC at The Hutton Inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly. Her significant cases include acting with Andrew Caldecott QC on behalf of the intervening media in the Supreme Court in Spiller v Joseph, an important case in the development of the defence of honest opinion. High profile claimant cases include acting for Mohammed Dahlan (the Palestinian Authority’s former Minister for Security), Neil and Christine Hamilton, and Bruce Grobbelaar.

To read more about Sarah, click here.

For further information about Sarah’s Media practice, please contact Melvin Warner at m.warner@doughtystreet.co.uk or on 020 7400 8896.