Hugh Tomlinson

Hugh Richard Edward Tomlinson KC (born January 1954 in Leeds) is a barrister in England and Wales, an English translator of the philosopher Gilles Deleuze and a founding member of Matrix Chambers. He is a specialist in media and information law including defamation, confidence, privacy and data protection.

He acted in the litigation that sought the full disclosure of UK MP's parliamentary expenses and in the Phone hacking scandal case. He is known for his privacy work for celebrities who have included Lily Allen, David Beckham and Victoria Beckham, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Ryan Giggs, as well as others such as retired banker (and ex-knight) Fred Goodwin and Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales. He is a visiting professor at the London School of Economics. He has been accused, in Parliament, of working on behalf of corrupt Russian clients to silence their critics.

Early life

Tomlinson was born and grew up in a working-class area of Woodhouse in Leeds, West Yorkshire. After winning a place at Leeds Grammar School he went on to Balliol College, Oxford where he earned the top first in the University in PPE. After Oxford he continued his philosophical studies at the University of Sussex and in 1977 went to the University of Paris VIII, at the time notorious for its radical philosophy department. Tomlinson met the philosopher Gilles Deleuze there and went on to translate eight of his books.

Legal career

In 1984 he joined New Court Chambers and according to Carman’s biographer, Dominic Carman, Tomlinson "made a deep impression" on George Carman who was then head of chambers. Carman regarded him as his star performer, insisting that he become his junior in the two Branson defamation cases - the British Airways "dirty tricks" campaign against Virgin Atlantic, and the case involving an alleged attempt to bribe Richard Branson by the head of the lottery company GTECH S.p.A.

In 2000 he became a founder member of Matrix Chambers. Other founding members included Cherie Booth KC, Lord Brennan KC, James Crawford SC, Professor Conor Gearty, Ben Emmerson KC, Lord Ken Macdonald KC, Clare Montgomery KC, Helen Mountfield KC, Tim Owen KC and Philippe Sands KC.

Tomlinson has had a very broad practice at the Bar. In addition to his work in privacy and media law he been instructed in public law, criminal law and commercial cases. His cases range from substantial Chancery Division cases such as that relating to Marlborough Fine Art and the Francis Bacon Estate to representing the DPP in the Criminal Court of Appeal in the first application on the changed law on double jeopardy.

In 2007 Tomlinson successfully represented Lord Baker a former Environment Secretary in a Freedom of Information request against John Prescott, the then Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions. The Information Tribunal ruled that civil servants' advice to ministers on major planning decisions should be disclosed to anyone who asks for it once the decision is taken.

He represented Prince Charles in preventing the publication of the Prince’s Hong Kong travel diaries and claimed that any arguments that the journals should be published in the public interest were "far-fetched". He was the leading barrister in the campaign to force the public release of information relating to MPs' expenses.

Tomlinson is known as a "super injunction" specialist protecting celebrities from the disclosure of "private" information but in accordance with the bar’s taxi rank principle he works on both sides of this legal divide. In the case where England football captain John Terry went to court to protect details of a relationship with Vanessa Perroncel, (the ex-girlfriend of his England team-mate Wayne Bridge) Tomlinson represented Associated Newspapers. He also represented Jeremy Clarkson’s ex-wife Alex Hall where Clarkson was seeking (but subsequently dropped) efforts to prevent Hall from claiming that they had had an affair during his subsequent marriage. In Ntuli v Donald he again acted for the Defendant, Ntuli, a former partner of Take That’s Howard Donald, who had obtained a "super-injunction" to prevent her revealing details of their relationship (and preventing the reporting of the existence of the injunction itself). This was the first appeal against a "super-injunction". It was removed by the Court of Appeal who allowed the proceedings to be reported and Donald and Ntuli to be named. Tomlinson successfully represented the publisher Harper Collins when the BBC
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