Our People

Lord Gifford Q.C.
(1962, QC 1983)

Teams

Actions against the Police, Crime, and Public Law

Education

Winchester College; Kings College, Cambridge

Practice

Lord Gifford practises in criminal law, judicial review, inquests and inquiries, and general common law.

Lord Gifford has had a remarkable career as a pioneer in human rights, legal reform and the opening up of the Bar. He was co-founder of the North Kensington Neighbourhood Law Centre, Britain’s first law centre. He founded Wellington Street Chambers and was its head for 15 years. He joined Chambers (formerly at 8 King’s Bench Walk) in 1989 and has been head of Chambers since 2001.

He was chairman of the Broadwater Farm Inquiry and the Liverpool Eight Inquiry, both of which investigated patterns of racism and discrimination. He represented the family of James Wray at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.

Some of his most high-profile cases include those of Gerry Hunter (the Birmingham Six appeal) and of Paul Hill (the Guildford Four appeal). Lord Gifford has particular experience in representing highly politically-active defendants. His reported cases include appeals involving trade unions, libel, contract and tort as well as criminal law.

In 1991 Lord Gifford set up a firm of attorneys in Kingston, Jamaica, where he is known as a leading advocate in civil and criminal law. He divides his practice equally between Jamaica and the UK.

Recent cases

Lord Gifford continues to maintain an active practice in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, covering human rights, trade union law, libel and general commercial law. Many of his cases are available on the website of the Jamaican Court of Appeal or the Privy Council.

In the Privy Council appealed successfully against rulings of the Jamaica courts against his client the National Transport Co-operative Society (NTCS). NTCS was a co-operative of bus operators in Kingston which had been awarded franchises to operate buses in the city. The Government of Jamaica reneged on a promise to fix the bus fares at a rate which would allow a profit to be made. Lord Gifford was successful in securing for NTCS an award from arbitrators in the sum of over 4 billion Jamaican dollars (around 50 million pounds). On appeal the Government claimed that the original frachise was an illegal contract. The Privy Council rejected this argument (click here for the judgment) and remitted the calculation of damages to the Court of Appeal.

The calculation of damages has already resulted in one judgment (click here for the judgment) and another is pending.

On the human rights side, Lord Gifford won the case of Attorney General v Neville Whyte [2010] JMCA Civ 24 which was a test case on the right of certain life sentence prisoners to apply for parole.

In his trade union practice, Lord Gifford was successful in Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort v Industrial Disputes Tribunal and National Workers Union [2010] JMCA Civ 9 in establishing the bargaining rights of hotel workers who had been employed on successive "short term contracts" of three or six months. The Court rejected the claim of the employer to have avoided the impact of Jamaica's trade union laws.