Oliver maintains a broad practice across public and human rights, employment, 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.
After only 18 months in practice, he was ranked by the Legal 500 as a Rising Star in Administrative Law and Human Rights, where he is recommended as “An excellent advocate. He is diligent and able to robustly defend a case”. Clients say they are “impressed” and praise his “highly responsive” manner. He is an elected member of the Human Rights Law Association Executive Committee.
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:
- A successful appeal to the Supreme Court concerning the provision of local authority mental health after-care services (R (Worcestershire County Council v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care).
- A £19 billion judicial review claim against HM Treasury by 72 trade unions (R (Fire Brigades Union, British Medical Association and ors) v HM Treasury).
- Group claims by thousands of UK businesses against Mastercard and Visa for breaches of competition law (The Merchant Interchange Fee Umbrella Proceeding), including the landmark constitutional law ‘Volvo limitation judgment’ concerning the status post-Brexit of rights accrued under EU law while the UK was a member of the EU.
- Acting for disability rights campaigners in their highly publicised challenge to UK abortion laws (Heidi Crowter v UK).
- A widely reported, high-profile challenge to a school’s ban on prayer rituals (R (NN) v Michaela Community School)
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.
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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