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Matthew Slater

"Terrifyingly bright" and "Outstanding"
(Chambers UK)

Matthew Slater undertakes Chancery, commercial and public law work, and a significant quantity of appeals, including to the UKSC and JCPC.

Appointed in 2017 to the Attorney General’s ‘A’ Panel of Junior Counsel to the Crown, Matthew has acted and advised across Central Government, including for the Ministry of Justice on prison policy, the FCO, the Home Office, the Parole Board, the Business Department, the Department for Transport concerning Battersea Power Station, HM Treasury on interest rates on unclaimed assets, the National Crime Agency on confiscations offshore, the Department for Education on teachers’ pensions and HMRC on numerous appeals, including in its attempts to reduce tax avoidance amongst the leading hedge funds. As far back as 2012, Chambers and Partners said Matthew was ‘attracting high-profile cases’.

Matthew has acted for investment banks, sovereign wealth funds, landed estates, UHNWs and overseas sovereign states and has been led by Sir James Eadie in the Supreme Court and by Sir Keir Starmer in Privy Council litigation about the constitutionality of the mandatory death penalty in Grenada.

Formerly a Fellow at Yale Law School, Matthew was, between 2012 and 2015, a Lecturer in Law at Oriel College, Oxford, having previously taught at Balliol and Magdalen. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Wills and Trusts Law Report.

In addition, between 2012 and 2014, Matthew was the Visiting Professor of Trusts at the Institute of Law in Jersey and a member, with Sir William Bailache, of the three-person Board of Examiners for the Jersey Advocates Exams.

Finally, in 2006-2007, Matthew spent a year as the Judicial Assistant to the then Senior Law Lord, Lord Bingham.

(Matthew is regulated by The BSB [Ref 49269]; insured by the Bar Mutual Indemnity Fund [Ref 2860/045]; and registered for VAT under the ref. 898685823.)

 

Practice Areas


Matthew Slater

Trusts, Estates and Taxation

MN v OP Chancery Division (02 March 2017), Rose J; [2019] EWCA Civ 679 – leading cases on anonymity/open justice in Variation of Trusts Act applications.

Larsen and Volaw v Comptroller of Taxes and States of Jersey [2015] JRC 244 – legality of the Tax Information Exchange Agreement between Jersey and India.

Freedman v Freedman [2015] EWHC 1457 (Ch) – equitable mistake concerning trusts; difference between ignorance, mistake and disappointed expectations.

Buzzoni v HMRC [2013] EWCA Civ 1684 – gifts with reservation of benefit, legal test for being ‘excluded or virtually excluded’.

Rogge v HMRC [2012] W.T.L.R. 537 – tax treatment of settlor-interested trusts.

Globalised Corp v HMRC [2012] UKFTT 556 (TC) – MTIC fraud, overlap between CPR and FTT Rules.

Barclays Trust Company v HMRC [2011] EWCA Civ 810 – first Court of Appeal authority on disabled person’s trusts.

Julian Frost v HMRC [2010] UKFTT 344 (TC) – estoppel against the Crown, legitimate expectation.

Contrast Graphics v HMRC [2010] UKFTT 289 (TC) – interrelationship between flat-rate schemes under s. 23B, VATA 1994 and claims for repayment under s. 73 (2), VATA 1994.

Peter Lyon v HMRC [2010] SFTD 175 – vires challenge to VAT (Cars) Order 1992.

Baynes v Hedger [2008] EWHC 1587 (Ch) – 1975 Act claim, rectification, incidence of administration expenses and IHT.

 

Commercial Litigation and Appeals

Medsted Associates Ltd v Canaccord Genuity Wealth (International) [2017] EWHC 1815 (Comm); [2019] EWCA Civ 83 – multi-jurisdictional commission dispute arising out of derivatives trading, scope and nature of fiduciary duties.

Derwent Holdings Ltd v Trafford Borough Council [2011] EWCA Civ 832 – litigation arising out of the redevelopment of the Old Trafford Ground.

Close v Wilson [2011] EWCA Civ 5 – recoverability under gaming contract, restitutionary remedies.

Lane v Robinson [2010] EWCA Civ 384 – pre-contract deposits and lock out agreements.

Automobile World Ltd v Lombard [2009] EWCA Civ 379 – implied terms in hire purchase agreement.

 

Government Litigation

R (Hassett & Price) v SSJ [2017] EWCA Civ 33 – legality of a prison policy.

Mackay v SSJ (2014) – Supreme Court litigation concerning Category A prisoners’ recategorization policy. (Matthew was instructed to draft the revised policy, advise Ministry of Justice on its implementation and to handle the 10+ cases which had been stayed behind Mackay. He is also instructed in the lead cases challenging the revised policy.)

R (Cain) v SSJ [2013] EWHC 900 (Admin) – prisoners’ rights, particularly procedural rights.

R (Lynch) v SSJ [2012] EWHC 1597 (Admin) – circumstances in which, post-DM v SSJ [2011] EWCA Civ 522, common law fairness requires an oral hearing in front of the Category A Review Team.

R (Boylan) v Parole Board [2012] EWHC 1233 (Admin) – procedural rights before Parole Board.

R (Willoughby) v SSJ [2011] EWHC 3483 (Admin) – effect of tariff expiry on procedural rights.

R (Flinders) v SSJ [2011] EWHC 1630 (Admin) – Human Rights Act damages, level of case management powers are required for the Parole Board to be an Article 6-compliant.

R (Downs) v SSJ [2011] EWCA Civ 1422 (Admin) – High Security Prisoners’ procedural rights.

R (Longmire) v Secretary of State for Justice [2011] EWHC 1488 (Admin) – when a dispute of fact will call for an oral hearing before the Director of High Security, decision maker’s procedural discretion.

For more information and advice

Call: +44 (0)20 7405 0758

Email: clerks@tenoldsquare.com

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