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Harry Hatwell commenced his practising second six at Gough Square Chambers in April 2026. He can be instructed across all of Chambers’ practice areas and is building experience in insolvency, property, and employment work. Harry signed up to the Pupil Pledge with Advocate, recognising his commitment to pro bono work at the Bar, in just his second week of his practising second six.

During his practising period of pupillage, Harry has taken a number of instructions on a pro bono basis through Advocate. He is also a member of the Attorney General’s Junior Junior Scheme. Harry has published and is under commission to write casenotes for journals on consumer credit, trusts, and employment law issues.

During his non-practising period, he observed and assisted across all of chambers’ core areas of practice, including contributing to grounds of appeal and application for judicial review to the High Court in consumer protection and professional disciplinary matters.

Harry combines his busy pupillage with university teaching and examining in contract, torts, and trusts as a Visiting Lecturer at King’s College London as a Teaching Associate at Queen Mary, University of London.

Harry is a qualified (non-practising) solicitor, having trained at one of London’s leading international commercial law firms. He won a prestigious scholarship which enabled him to return to university upon qualification, graduating from Oxford with a distinction in the BCL. Harry has enjoyed a stellar academic career and has studied at the top law schools in the UK (Oxford – twice), the USA (Yale), and France (Assas).

Most recently, during his LL.M. year at the Yale Law School, Harry served on four journals, convened a for-credit reading group, and worked as a research assistant to professors in the Law School and School of Management. He was also accepted to present his original research at three international conferences and invited to contribute to a book recording the proceedings of one such conference.

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  • Highlights from practice

    Insolvency and bankruptcy:

    • Settled (and drafted settlement agreement) long-running sole director-shareholder company liquidation for less than one third of the amount sought (over £100,000) by liquidators (pro bono).
    • Sole counsel for partners in insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings (losses over £100,000) against HMRC, including submissions on costs in the winding-up/rescissions list (pro bono).

    Tax:

    • Sole counsel in VAT dispute underlying insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings (losses over £100,000) (pro bono).

    Property:

    • Represented respondent to a bad husbandry application at short notice at a full-day hearing with four witnesses (North East Derbyshire District Council v Hardy (First-tier Tribunal Property Chamber (Agricultural Land and Drainage), decided 13 May 2026) (pro bono).

    Criminal regulatory:

    • Regularly conducts lists as sole counsel for Transport for London in the Magistrates’ Court.

    Regulated finance:

    • Research for Kevin de Haan KC, Fred Philpott, and Kate Urell on the application of MiFID to cryptocurrency trading.
  • Non-Practising Work Highlights

    Regulated finance:

    • Conducted review of suite of lending documentation for Fred Philpott (during pupillage).
    • Assisted Kate Urell and Iain MacDonald (during pupillage) in drafting a research note on limitation in unfair relationship consumer credit claims post-Zedra (USKC, 2026).
    • Assisted Kate Urell (during pupillage) in conducting research on extortionate credit bargain regime and tipping points in relation to unfair relationship claims post-Johnson (UKSC, 2025).
    • Assisted Sabrina Goodchild (during pupillage) in researching and drafting advice on regulated electricity supplies.
    • Assisted Michael Coley (during pupillage) in researching the application of the indemnity principle where a conditional fee agreement is in place and the powers of the court to order disclosure of the agreement (motor commission consequentials hearing where claim withdrawn).
    • Assisted Alison Hollis (during pupillage) in advising on the costs consequences from potential counsel misconduct under the fixed costs regime (motor commission trial).
    • Assisted Lee Finch (during pupillage) in assessing scope for additional arguments in Angel v Black Horse (Court of Appeal, April 2026).
    • Co-editing chapter of the Pink Book on consumer credit law with Fred Philpott and Daniel Brayley (during pupillage).
    • Attended mediation of a regulated mortgage dispute with Simon Popplewell (during pupillage).
    • Attended strike out appeals, trials, appeals, and consequentials hearings for consumer credit claims covering regulated mortgages and motor commission with various members of chambers (during pupillage).
    • Drafted defences and skeleton arguments in relation to unfair relationship claims in relation to PPI and motor commission (during pupillage).

    Consumer regulatory – civil:

    • Assisted Jonathan Kirk KC and Stuart Jessop (during pupillage) in relation to the Competition and Markets Authority’s exercise of its novel enforcement powers under the Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act 2024. Researching and drafting challenges based on internal CMA appeal procedures, judicial review, and statutory High Court appeal grounds.
    • Drafted update article on university claims following the settlement of Hamon v UCL with Jonathan Kirk KC and Lee Finch (during pupillage).
    • Drafted defences, skeleton arguments, and advice notes in relation to claims under the 2013 Cancellation Regulations and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (during pupillage).

    Consumer regulatory – criminal:

    • Attended PTPHs for offences under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 with Michael Coley and Jack Brady (during pupillage).
    • Attended part of trial in R v O’Hanlon (unfair trading) with Alison Lambert and Sabrina Goodchild. Conducted research on expert witnesses and previous adverse judicial comment.
    • Attended part of trial in R v Yolmo (fraudulent trading) with Jon Goulding and Robin Kingham (during pupillage).
    • Attended Transport for London prosecution list with Jack Brady (during pupillage).
    • Attended R v Chamdal [2025] EWCA Crim 1384 sentencing appeal (record breach of tree preservation orders; consideration of “analogous” sentencing guidelines) with Alison Lambert (during pupillage).
    • Attended pre-trial hearing on a legal argument disputing Swansea Council’s power to prosecute offences on behalf of the DVLA in R (Swansea Council) v Eburne and others with Laura Phillips (during pupillage).

    Professional disciplinary:

    • Assisted Stuart Jessop (during pupillage) in relation to professional disciplinary proceedings resulting from historical criminal offending. Drafting materials for anonymity application in relation to the underlying proceedings for consequential judicial review on common law and Human Rights Act 1998 grounds.

    Public / administrative law:

    • Assisted Stuart Jessop (during pupillage) in relation to professional disciplinary proceedings relating to historical criminal offending. Researching appeal and judicial review grounds relating to underlying proceedings and contributing to drafting judicial review application considering common law and Human Rights Act 1998 issues.
    • Assisted Jonathan Kirk KC and Stuart Jessop (during pupillage) in relation to the Competition and Markets Authority’s exercise of its novel enforcement powers under the Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act 2024. Researching and drafting challenges based on internal CMA appeal procedures, judicial review, injunction, and statutory High Court appeal grounds.

    Commercial:

    • Attended application hearing for a without notice injunction related to claims for defamation, breach of employment contract, and conversion of company property with Julian Gun Cuninghame (during pupillage).

    Health and safety:

    • Attended training led by Alison Lambert and Sabrina Goodchild (during pupillage) at the Office of Rail and Road.
    • Assisted David Travers KC (during pupillage) in researching and drafting a note of advice in a very complex and sensitive matter involving a novel point of law.

    Food law:

    • Attended sentencing hearing in R v Tayto with Jon Goulding and Laura Phillips (during pupillage) in relation to putting unsafe food on the market.
    • Attended Supreme Court hearing in Oatley (during pupillage).
    • Attended Food Law Group seminar (during pupillage).

    Data protection:

    • Drafted defence (during pupillage, supervised by Michael Coley) to claims under UK GDPR and the DPA 2018.

    Defamation:

    • Researched the application of the defence qualified privilege in a consumer credit context for Lee Finch (during pupillage).
  • Publications
    • Hatwell, ‘Unfair Credit Relationships: Swinging A Broad Axe but with Reasons: Saxby Finance Limited v Ms Daphne Baker [2025] EWHC 2919 (KB)’ JIBFL (forthcoming)
    • Hatwell, ‘Application of statutory limitation periods to consumer credit unfair relationship claims: THG Plc v Zedra Trust Company (Jersey) Ltd [2026] UKSC 6’ (2026) 6 JIBFL 401 (forthcoming)
    • Brayley, Philpott, and Hatwell, ‘Consumer Credit Law’ in Kirk (ed.), Consumer and Trading Standards Law and Practice (Butterworths, 2026)
  • Teaching
    • Visiting Lecturer (Trusts), King’s College London (2026-present)
    • Teaching Associate (Contract and Torts), Queen Mary, University of London (2025-present)
  • Prior Professional Experience

    Harry trained at Slaughter and May in London (2021-23), where he was awarded numerous departmental and cohort-wide prizes for submission of legal know-how.

    A flavour of his broad experience at Slaughter and May:

    • In the Disputes & Investigations department, he assisted on the Municipio de Mariana appeal (the largest class action in English legal history), as well as long-running competition litigation, and drafted training materials for FTSE 100 companies on consumer and competition law.
    • In Financing, he researched and drafted a detailed note of advice on conflicts of law.
    • In Employment, Pensions, and Incentives, he researched and drafted substantive technical correspondence, notes of advice on whistleblowing, industrial action, transgender and intersex inclusion in sport.
    • In Corporate, he advised FTSE 100 clients on preparing for AGMs and researched matters relating to a CMA greenwashing / consumer protection matter.
    • Throughout his training contract, Harry maintained a busy pro bono practice. He volunteered for St Luke’s Job Clinic, advised a client for Access Social Care, prepared materials for an entrepreneurship scheme with Barclays, researched and advised on charities law, drafted training materials for charity trustees, and participated in community projects and outreach.

    During his LL.M. year, Harry served as research assistant to Professor and former Dean of Yale Law School Robert Post (preparing the American Law Institute’s Restatement (Third) of Torts: Defamation and Privacy), and to Professor Fiona Scott Morton (preparing journal articles on American and EU antitrust law). Journals: Senior Submissions Advisor, Yale Law & Policy Review; Articles & Essays Editor, Yale Law & Policy Review; Articles Editor, Yale Journal of Law & Feminism; Lead Editor, Yale Journal on Regulation; Notes and Comments Editor, Yale Journal of Law & Humanities.

    During the BCL, Harry served as research assistant to Professor Jérôme Baudry at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland). He also wrote a moot problem on consumer contract law for the compulsory mooting course for first-year law students on the BA in Jurisprudence at Oxford. In addition, Harry was employed by the Oxford Faculty of Law as the coach for Oxford’s team in the international Monroe E. Price Media Law Moot Court Competition 2023/24. Equally as enjoyable and no less important, Harry also played Eugene in the musical Grease at Pembroke College and served as the assistant lighting / sound operator for A Series of Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis: The Musical.

    Until indefinitely postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Harry was due to serve as the Foreign Law Clerk to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel, Esther Hayut, having been selected in a competitive international application process.

  • Education

    LL.M. – Yale Law School, USA 2024-25

    Bachelor of Civil Law – St John’s College, University of Oxford, UK (Distinction) 2023-24

    Legal Practice Course – BPP Law School, UK (Distinction) 2021

    European Law Certificate – Université Paris II (Panthéon-Assas), France (Pass) 2018-19

    BA in Jurisprudence (Law with Law Studies in Europe) – St John’s College, University of Oxford, UK (First Class, ranked fifth in year across Oxford) 2016-20

  • Achievements

    Brodie Center for Jewish & Israeli Law grant (to present research at international conference), Yale Law School – 2025

    Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fund grant (to present research at international conference; two domestic research trips), Yale Law School – 2025

    Streicker Fund for Student Research (major international travel grant for fieldwork), Yale Law School – 2024

    Law Faculty Prize for Modern Legal History (best performance in BCL paper), Oxford – 2024

    College Prize for achieving a distinction, Oxford – 2024

    One Essex Court Chambers Scholarship for the BCL, Oxford – 2024

    College Prize for achieving first-class honours, Oxford – 2020

    College Book Prize for performance in Administrative Law collection, Oxford – 2019

  • Languages

    Harry is fluent in French and developing his Hebrew.

  • Professional memberships
    • Health and Safety Law Association (HSLA)
    • Financial Services Law Association (FSLA)
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