Oliver’s practice spans public and human rights, employment, European Union and competition, and commercial law. He has appeared in courts from Port Talbot and Great Yarmouth to the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
He is ranked by Chambers and Partners as a “Notable practitioner” and “Up and coming” in Administrative & Public Law, and by Legal 500 as a “Rising star” in Administrative Law and Human Rights. He has been described in the directories as “an excellent advocate”, “impressive”, “diligent and able to robustly defend a case”, “rigorous, responsive, and very intelligent”, “very responsive”, “really easy to deal with” and whose “written work is always very good”. He also “communicates very easily”, “has very good written advocacy” and “provides very clear strategic objectives and tailors his advice to that”.
Oliver has extensive experience of working both as sole counsel and as a member of large teams. His clients range from individuals, start-ups and NGOs to multinational businesses, government departments and foreign states. His recent cases include:
- The challenge to the Government’s private school fees VAT policy.
- The high-profile challenge to the Michaela School’s ban on prayer rituals.
- A successful appeal to the Supreme Court concerning the provision of local authority mental health after-care services.
- Group claims by thousands of UK businesses against Mastercard and Visa for breaches of competition law, including the landmark constitutional law ‘Volvo limitation’ appeals on how UK courts should address CJEU judgments post-Brexit.
- A £19 billion judicial review claim against HM Treasury by 72 trade unions.
- A ground-breaking case on whether employment tribunal claims by foreign citizens with UK permanent residence are barred by state immunity.
From 2020 to 2021, Oliver was a Judicial Assistant at the UK Supreme Court and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, working on the most complex and high-profile cases in the UK and from across the Commonwealth. He maintains an academic interest in his core practice areas and has published several academic articles, as well as contributing to a leading practitioner’s textbook on public law. In 2024 he was elected to the Executive Committee of the Human Rights Law Association Executive Committee. He is also a trustee of an international development charity building resilience and life skills in refugee camps in Uganda, Liberia and Rwanda. He is on the Pro Bono Recognition List 2025.
Before joining the Bar, Oliver was on the civil service fast-stream. He also advised on human rights issues at Liberty, advocated for the abolition of the death penalty at Reprieve, and volunteered as a caseworker at the Bar Pro Bono Unit. He received a first class degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University, where he graduated second in the year in his subject and won several scholarships and prizes. He has taught maths, physics and chemistry and enjoys cases that arise in a technical or scientific context.
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