Find a Barrister
Welcome to 39 Essex Chambers
39 Essex Chambers is a leading set based in London, Manchester, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Our barristers offer a depth of expertise in a range of specialist sectors and practice areas.
39 Essex Chambers regularly produces case reports, articles, newsletters and seminar across a range of areas.
Please subscribe to our mailing list if you would like to receive regular updates.
Cases
News, Blogs & Articles
Home // Barristers // Gethin Thomas
Gethin Thomas has a multidisciplinary practice, encompassing public law & human rights, environment & energy, planning, commercial, financial services and regulatory law.
He appears frequently in court, and regularly undertakes pleading and advisory work. Reflecting the breadth of his practice, Gethin has acted as sole or junior counsel in proceedings in the Court of Appeal, and in the High Court (in the Administrative Court, Commercial Court, Queen’s Bench Division, and Technology & Construction Court). Gethin was ranked as one of the ‘Highest Rated Planning Juniors Under 35’ by Planning Magazine (2020).
Gethin is a member of the Attorney General’s C Panel of Counsel, and of the Welsh Government’s B Panel of Junior Counsel.
Gethin graduated from the University of Oxford with a First Class law degree. Before joining the bar, Gethin worked as a research assistant in public law at the Law Commission for two years. Latterly, Gethin interned at the human rights charity JUSTICE. He worked in the administrative justice team.
Gethin is a contributing editor to the Environmental Law Bulletin (published by Sweet & Maxwell). He has also contributed to the latest editions of Wilmot-Smith on Construction Contracts (4th edition, May 2021), and Shackleton on the Law and Practice of Meetings (15th Edition, November 2020).
Gethin spealises in public law. He regularly acts in judicial review proceedings, as both sole and junior counsel, and on behalf of both claimants and defendants. Gethin has a keen interest in all areas of public law, including civil liberties and human rights, healthcare law, electoral law, education law, immigration and asylum, housing, public procurement, EU law, inquiries and social security. He also has a particular interest in data protection and information law.
Gethin is a member of the Attorney General’s C Panel of Counsel, and of the Welsh Government’s B Panel of Junior Counsel. He is vetted, and holds security clearance.
Gethin is currently instructed to assist the Independent Human Rights Act Review Panel, chaired by Sir Peter Gross.
Gethin is also instructed as junior counsel to Charlie Corey-Wright QC by NHSBT, a core participant in the Infected Blood Inquiry.
Gethin’s broad public law practise spans planning, environment and energy cases, as well as commercial judicial review, procurement and matters concerning the regulation of financial services & pensions. He has particular experience of claims involving Article 1 of the First Protocol to the ECHR (A1/P1).
Gethin’s current, and recent, instructions in respect of judicial review claims include:
Gethin is also regularly instructed to advise on a broad range of public law issues. Recent instructions include:
Gethin’s broad experience also includes acting in private law matters, involving a public or regulatory law element. Recent instructions include:
Before joining the bar, Gethin worked on public law reform projects in areas such as electoral law, misconduct in public office and wildlife law. He has particular experience of those areas. Gethin also worked on a project that proposed a new system of codification for the law applicable to Wales, and has a particular interest in Welsh law.
Gethin was also an administrative justice intern at JUSTICE.
Gethin specialises in environmental law. Gethin is regularly instructed to advise on a broad range of planning and environmental matters. He has experience of acting in inquiries. Gethin has extensive experience of acting in judicial review proceedings, as both sole and junior counsel. Gethin was ranked as one of the ‘Highest Rated Planning Juniors Under 35’ by Planning Magazine (2020).
Gethin is a contributing editor of the Environmental Law Bulletin (published by Sweet & Maxwell). Gethin is also a member of the Environmental Law Foundation, through which he provides pro bono assistance on environmental matters. Gethin has particular experience of environmental judicial review challenges, and climate change litigation.
Gethin also has a keen interest in energy regulation, including nuclear power and renewables.
Recent instructions include:
Gethin also has experience of nuisance claims. As a pupil, Gethin assisted in respect of a private nuisance claim for group litigants concerning odour and noise emissions, and a claim under Part 1 of the Land Compensation Act 1973 concerning noise, odour and air pollution.
Gethin has written articles, and delivered seminars and lectures on environmental matters, such as climate change, air quality, environmental impact assessments and habitats regulation.
He is also a member of LexisNexis’ Q&A Expert Panel on environmental law.
Gethin is regularly instructed to advise on a broad range of planning and environmental matters. Gethin has particular experience of acting in judicial review proceedings, as both sole and junior counsel. He has experience of acting on behalf of the successful party in a four-week inquiry, as junior counsel to Richard Wald QC.
Gethin was ranked as one of the ‘Highest Rated Planning Juniors Under 35’ by Planning Magazine (2020).
He advises developers, planning consultants, local authorities, and private clients on all aspects of the planning process, including planning enforcement, and planning appeals.
He has particular experience of Development Consent Orders under the Planning Act 2008, having acted in one of the first successful judicial review challenges to the grant of a DCO, concerning Manston Airport.
Examples of his recent instructions include:
Gethin is a contributor to the current edition of Shackleton on the Law and Practice of Meetings.
Gethin welcomes instructions in property matters. He has experience of a wide range of property disputes. His recent instructions include, for example, advising as to break and surrender clauses in a commercial lease, and acting in forfeiture proceedings. Gethin also has experience of residential property cases.
Gethin is regularly instructed in commercial and construction matters. He has a particular interest in procurement, PFI and project financing.
Gethin has appeared as both sole and junior counsel in commercial and construction proceedings in the High Court (in the Technology & Construction Court, Commercial, and Queen’s Bench Division). He also frequently appears in commercial and construction matters in the County Court. He has extensive experience of drafting pleadings, and frequently advises on a broad range of commercial and construction matters, often complex and high-value. He also has adjudication experience. Examples of recent instructions are listed below.
In addition, he has particular experience in financial services, having acted as consultant counsel to the Financial Ombudsman Service. He has advised on a wide range of matters under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. He also regularly advises on complex agency issues.
Gethin is currently instructed as a member of the legal team from 39 Essex Chambers offering legal advice and support to the Foskett Panel. Further information is available online here: www.foskettpanel.com.
Gethin has also been instructed in a number of contractual claims arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic, on behalf of both claimants and defendants, in which issues of frustration and force majeure are in dispute.
Gethin also has experience of international arbitration. He is currently instructed as sole counsel in a commercial LCIA arbitration. During pupillage, Gethin assisted on a major ICC arbitration concerning payment disputes, delay and variation claims (whilst supervised by Rachael O’Hagan). He was involved in the matter in the lead-up to, and throughout, the trial.
Gethin’s recent instructions include:
Gethin is a contributing editor to Wilmot-Smith on Construction Contracts. He co-edited the chapter on loss and expense with Adrian Hughes QC.
As a pupil, Gethin was a member of the winning team in the Worshipful Company of Arbitrators Mediation Skills Competition 2018.
Before commencing practice, Gethin interned with the Chief Justice of Hong Kong at the Court of Final Appeal.
Gethin is a member of COMBAR.
Gethin is developing a practice in financial services, banking and pensions law. Gethin has acted as consultant counsel to the Financial Ombudsman Service, where he advised on a wide range of issues under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Gethin has also acted in several judicial review claims, on behalf of the Financial Ombudsman Service, as sole counsel.
Gethin is currently instructed as a member of the legal team from 39 Essex Chambers offering legal advice and support to the Foskett Panel. Further information is available online here: www.foskettpanel.com.
Recent matters include, for example:
Gethin also has a particular interest in the regulation of cryptoassets.
Gethin has a keen interest in regulatory and disciplinary law. His experience includes:
Gethin has also gained experience of regulatory law whilst working in electoral law and misconduct in public office at the Law Commission.
Call +44 (0)20 7832 1111 for more information
Share
Click the + icon next to any barrister to add their profile to this portfolio.
Barrister | Call | CV |
---|
Click here to email this list of barristers to a colleague
Remove AllNeed more information about the above Barristers?
Talk to one of our clerks: +44 (0)20 7832 1111
3
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_GRECAPTCHA | 5 months 27 days | This cookie is set by Google. In addition to certain standard Google cookies, reCAPTCHA sets a necessary cookie (_GRECAPTCHA) when executed for the purpose of providing its risk analysis. |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement | 1 year | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Advertisement". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional | 11 months | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". |
viewed_cookie_policy | 11 months | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
__atuvc | 1 year 1 month | This cookie is set by Addthis to make sure you see the updated count if you share a page and return to it before our share count cache is updated. |
__atuvs | 30 minutes | This cookie is set by Addthis to make sure you see the updated count if you share a page and return to it before our share count cache is updated. |
lang | This cookie is used to store the language preferences of a user to serve up content in that stored language the next time user visit the website. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_gat | 1 minute | This cookies is installed by Google Universal Analytics to throttle the request rate to limit the colllection of data on high traffic sites. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_ga | 2 years | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors. |
_gid | 1 day | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the website is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages visted in an anonymous form. |
uvc | 1 year 1 month | The cookie is set by addthis.com to determine the usage of Addthis.com service. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
loc | 1 year 1 month | This cookie is set by Addthis. This is a geolocation cookie to understand where the users sharing the information are located. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
pum-47471 | 1 hour | No description |
xtc | 1 year 1 month | No description |