Alison has extensive international arbitration experience, including both advocacy and advisory work. She has acted in a number of significant ICSID arbitrations and annulment proceedings, and advises companies, individuals and States on arbitration, environmental and trade law matters. Recent and ongoing work includes acting for Kazakhstan in an ICSID arbitration relating to the mining sector; for Mauritius in an ICSID arbitration raising issues of environmental regulation; for Jordan in an ICSID arbitration arising out of the telecommunications sector, and for Bangladesh in an ICSID arbitration in the oil and gas sector. She is experienced at acting in teams with international law firms, firms local to the State of the dispute, and in-house corporate and State advisers. Alison has a particular interest in the application of international law in the domestic courts, and has advised in a number of cases relating to the enforcement of arbitral awards against State assets, including questions of State immunity. She is experienced in the cross-over between commercial and human rights issues, and represented Yukos in Yukos v Russia, in which the European Court of Human Rights awarded 1.5bn in damages to Yukos for violation of its rights in the tax enforcement process (the largest ever Strasbourg damages award). Alison also has experience of sports-related arbitrations, including representing West Ham United in FA/FAPL arbitrations brought by Fulham FC and the players of Sheffield United, arising out of the Carlos Tevez affair.
HERE S WHAT THEY SAY: Alison has acted in a number of significant inter-state cases, and is recognised in this field as plainly a top-flight lawyer who will go a very long way. She is experienced at providing advice and advocacy at all stages, from strategic advice on an emerging dispute, to working as a team to frame the claim and manage the production of written pleadings and exhibits, to acting as advocate at the eventual hearing. She works closely with State clients, experts, and lawyers across jurisdictions. Current work includes acting for Mauritius in relation to the long-running dispute with the UK about the Chagos Archipelago, and acting for Ghana in a maritime boundary delimitation claim against Côte d Ivoire. She has particular experience of provisional measures applications, and recently appeared before a Special Chamber of ITLOS as part of the counsel team which successfully resisted an application by Côte d Ivoire to halt a significant part of Ghana s oil production. Alison advises clients from all over the world on the full range of international law issues, from state immunity for war crimes, to issues of territorial sovereignty and boundary delimitation, to the enforcement of arbitral awards against State assets. She contributes to the leading UK textbook on state immunity (State Immunity, Hazel Fox QC and Philippa Webb). Alison s criminal practice focuses on financial crime, primarily cases involving an international dimension, arising out of multi-jurisdictional investigations or prosecutions, or raising points of international law. Much of her criminal work involves advising at the early stages of an investigation. She has also represented a number of clients in damages claims arising out of failed prosecutions, for example Robert Tchenguiz in his successful damages claim against the Serious Fraud Office arising out of its investigation into the collapse of Kaupthing Bank. She regularly advises on legal issues related to an ongoing investigation, including extradition and mutual assistance requests and Interpol Notices. She has advised a number of prominent business and political figures who have been subjected to Red Notices, including notices arising out of politically-motivated prosecutions. She regularly provides advice in relation to criminal prosecutions in other jurisdictions: recent examples include Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, France, Liechtenstein, Jordan, Yemen and the UAE. She has provided legal and strategic advice to clients facing investigation and prosecution by the International Criminal Court. Alison is singled out as one of the very few barristers who works at the confluence between criminal, public and commercial law. (Chambers Global, 2016) She is regularly instructed in significant public law and human rights cases in the UK Supreme Court, Privy Council and European Court of Human Rights. 2
: Representing Kazakhstan in an ongoing ICSID claim arising out of a gold mining concession. Representing Mauritius in an ongoing ICSID claim raising issues of environmental regulation. : ICSID claim arising out of a disputed taxation measure in the telecommunications sector. : ICSID claim arising out of a project to revive marginal and abandoned gas fields. : advised Jordan on post-award remedies in this ICSID arbitration, arising out of a construction dispute. : ICSID annulment proceedings arising out of the Siemens corruption scandal. : ICSID claim and subsequent annulment proceedings arising out of the privatisation of the water services of a province of Argentina. : ICSID annulment application relating to the privatisation of the water services of Buenos Aires. : ICSID annulment application relating to the application of the defence of necessity to the Argentine fiscal crisis, and the standard of review on annulment. : ICSID arbitration arising out of the construction of a dam in Jordan by an Italian company. : Ongoing maritime boundary delimitation claim in front of a Special Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. : UNCLOS Annex VII Tribunal: arbitration arising out of UK's declaration of a marine protected area around the Chagos Archipelago. : acted for Ireland in this inter-state arbitration relating to the scope and nature of the right of access to environmental information. : acted for Ireland in this application for provisional measures relating to the commissioning of the Sellafield MOX facility. Represented the former News of the World editor, Andy Coulson, in the criminal prosecution relating to alleged phone hacking and payments to a public official. Advising individuals, including senior State officials, on challenges to politically-motivated Interpol Red Notices. Advising a Jersey company director in connection with a money-laundering investigation by the Jersey Financial Services Commission. 3
Jersey money laundering prosecution arising out of the Nigerian Abacha investigation: instructed on international law and mutual assistance issues. Advising solicitors firms on the scope of legal professional privilege in the context of SFO investigations into their clients. Representing Liechtenstein companies charged with money laundering on behalf of the Abacha family Advising on alleged fraud in the context of football transfers. Advising a multinational company charged with bribery of a foreign official. Advising company directors in connection with the Icelandic Special Prosecutor s investigation into the financial collapse. : Represented 90-year old peace protester in his Supreme Court case about the retention of his personal data on a domestic extremism database. Represented in his damages claim against the Serious Fraud Office, arising out of his high-profile arrest and search in connection with the investigation into Kaupthing. : Represented Yukos in its damages claim before the European Court of Human Rights: awarded 1.5bn. Represented Liberty in the judicial review claim brought by about his detention under anti-terrorism powers while carrying journalistic material relating to the Edward Snowden surveillance revelations. Represented Liberty in the judicial review relating to the impact of police stop and search powers:. Represented a number of public figures, including John Prescott, Chris Bryant and Brian Paddick, in their judicial review of the failure of the Metropolitan Police Service to investigate News of the World phone hacking. Editor, lawofnationsblog.com (public and private international law in the English courts) Contributing author, Canons of Construction and other Interpretive Principles in Public International Law (forthcoming, Kluwer) Contributor to latest edition of Fox and Webb, State Immunity (Oxford University Press, 2013) General Editor, with Ben Emmerson QC and Professor Andrew Ashworth QC, Human Rights and Criminal Justice (3rd ed, Sweet and Maxwell, 2012) 1999-2006 Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford 1999-2000 Visiting Lecturer in Public Law, King's College London BA (Law) University of Cambridge -1998 (first class; top of year); Slaughter & May prize for best performance in law finals; George Long prize for jurisprudence. BCL, University of Oxford, 1999 (first class) 4
Bar Vocational Qualification - 2000 Gray's Inn Bedingfield Scholarship 1999-2000 Young Public International Law Group (Board Member) International Bar Association LCIA European Users Council British Institute of International and Comparative Law Administrative Law Bar Association (ALBA) Fraud Lawyers Association (FLA) Human Rights Lawyers Association (HRLA) 5