Chris is a barrister in England & Wales as well as an advocate in Scotland. He specialises in public law, public international law and international arbitration.

Since being called to the Bar, he has assisted with several public inquiries, including the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry, Scottish Hospitals Inquiry and the Sheku Bayoh Inquiry.  Chris was also appointed as Standing Junior Counsel to UK Government departments by the Advocate General for Scotland in December 2022. In that capacity, he has acted as junior Counsel for the UK Government in the judicial review of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill (Prohibition on Submission for Royal Assent) Order 2023 and other matters, including in a peerage case before the Lord Lyon. He has also acted as junior Counsel in several extradition cases.

Chris also has particular expertise in public international law.  Since calling, he has worked as seconded external counsel at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

He was also formerly an Assistant Legal Adviser at the FCDO for over five years, during which time he represented the UK at the United Nations in New York and before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in contentious proceedings. He also previously worked for law firms in London representing private clients and States on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious issues, including arbitration proceedings brought under bilateral investment treaties (BITs).  

Before calling to the Bar, Chris was dual-qualified as a solicitor in both Scotland and England & Wales. He trained as a solicitor at Brodies LLP with seats in dispute resolution, employment, commercial property and an external secondment to a financial institution. Chris also spent three years (2018-2021) as Legal Secretary (Deputy Director) to the Advocate General for Scotland, one of the UK Government’s Law Officers. In doing so, Chris worked on public law litigation of national significance including: the prorogation case (R (Miller) v The Prime Minister and Cherry v Advocate General for Scotland ([2019] UKSC 41); the UK Withdrawal from the EU (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill reference ([2018] UKSC 64); and the Article 50 (Wightman) case heard before the Inner House of the Court of Session ([2018] CSIH 62) and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) (C-621/18).

Chris also worked previously as a Judicial Assistant to Lord Hope of Craighead and Lord Mance in the House of Lords (now the UK Supreme Court).