Overview
Oliver’s practice covers a broad range of commercial and Chancery litigation and arbitration across a wide variety of commercial and business disputes.
As a sole advocate he appears at all levels of the English court system, conducting trials, appeals, and interim applications of all kinds. He is also often instructed as part of a team of counsel, especially in larger commercial and international disputes. He works across all the principal areas of Chambers’ expertise, with a focus on those areas listed below, and is especially at home with cases which fall into more than one specialist area.
Much of Oliver’s work involves an international element or concerns matters in offshore jurisdictions such as Hong Kong, the British Virgin Islands, and the Channel Islands (where he has worked on secondment with one of the leading offshore firms). He is well accustomed to working with clients and counsel teams outside the UK. Oliver currently sits on the International Committee of the Bar Council and has spoken at a number of international seminars and conferences.
Oliver can assist at any stage of a dispute, from pre-action correspondence and negotiations through to settlement or post-judgment enforcement. He has experience of several large-scale disclosure exercises and is familiar with the issues which arise. He has worked on a number of arbitrations under ICC and LCIA rules and has acted in mediations.
Terms of business
More information on Oliver’s experience in his principal practice areas is set out below, and further details can be obtained from the clerks. The clerks are happy to discuss the basis on which Oliver will act in any given matter. In the absence of express written agreement otherwise, the terms under which Oliver accepts instructions are The Standard Contractual Terms for the Supply of Legal Services By Barristers to Authorised Persons 2020 (as updated from time to time) referred to in the BSB Handbook.
Education and qualifications
Oliver graduated with a double First Class degree in Classics from Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, winning the Schuldham Plate (his college’s highest academic award), the Chancellor’s Medal, and numerous other prizes and scholarships in Classics and music. After further postgraduate study he joined the Middle Temple to train as a barrister, where he was twice awarded a Queen Mother’s Scholarship.
While studying for the Graduate Diploma in Law Oliver won the Maitland Advocacy Prize, reached the final of the ESU/Essex Court National Mooting Competition (winning the Scarman Shield), and mooted in the USA as a representative of the Middle Temple. He was classed as Outstanding in his bar exams, winning the Sweet & Maxwell Prize in Company Law, the BACFI Prize for Commercial Practice, the Baron Dr Ver Heyden de Lancey Prize, and a Certificate of Honour. He joined Maitland Chambers in 2010 following twelve months of pupillage with Daniel Margolin KC, David Mumford KC, Michael Pryor, Amanda Tipples KC (now Mrs Justice Tipples), and Andrew Westwood KC.