MA (Cantab.), BCL (Oxon.), PhD (UCL), FRSA, Barrister

Reader in Law

I teach and research tort, contract, and commercial law. Within the law of tort I am particularly interested in vicarious liability, volunteers, comparative tort law, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, and “tort reform”. I have published in the Cambridge Law Journal, Modern Law Review, Law Quarterly Review, Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, Legal Studies, the Journal of Professional Negligence, and the Torts Law Journal, amongst others. My academic work has been used in argument before the UK Supreme Court, cited with approval by the High Court of Australia, the Supreme Court of Ireland, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the High Court in Malaysia, and also by government bodies and reports in the UK, Switzerland, and Australia, including the Law Commission. I am currently working on a number of funded projects including a European Research Council Horizon 2020 project on liability and regulatory issues for artificial intelligence.

I am the Book Review and Review Article Editor of the Journal of Professional Negligence, and an Editor of the Professional Negligence and Liability Reports.  I was formerly the Torts Subject Section Convenor for the Society of Legal Scholars.

Prior to joining York I taught at Southampton, and Girton College, Cambridge. I have been the Robert S Campbell Visiting Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, a Visiting Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Oxford, a Visiting Associate Professor, and also a Sino-British Trust Fellow at the University of Hong Kong, a Visiting Research Fellow at the Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, a Visiting Scholar of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, a Visitor at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, and the Cambridge Private Law Centre, a Visiting Scholar of St John’s College, Oxford, as well as a Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University Law Center.

I read law at Girton College, Cambridge, (Starred First and Top of Law Tripos Part IB), Christ Church, Oxford, (BCL (Distinction)), University College London, (PhD), and the College of Law, (BVC (Outstanding)), winning 18 University, College, and Inn scholarships and prizes. I was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple (First in Seniority, Trinity 2007).

I am a Council Member of the Society of Legal Scholars, a Member of the Society’s Library Sub-Committee, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. I am also a Barrister. I completed pupillage at Essex Court Chambers, (Commercial / Shipping / Civil Fraud / International Trade / Arbitration), where I mainly worked on large Commercial Court and Arbitral Tribunal cases, before moving to Crown Office Chambers, (Insurance / Personal Injury / Clinical Negligence / Construction), where I regularly appeared in trials and applications in the County Courts. I also appeared in the High Court, Companies Court, and in the Coroner’s Court. I have also been Judicial Assistant to Lord Judge, The Lord Chief Justice, and also to Lord Carnwath, Justice of the Supreme Court, (then Senior President of Tribunals).

I have supervised, (or supervise) PhD projects on efficient breach in commercial contract law, liability within the gig economy, the role of subsequent conduct within the interpretation of contracts, liability and the Manosphere, and AI and open banking regulations.  I am always very happy to hear from prospective research students in my areas of expertise.