Tabitha Macfarlane

Adam Griffiths

Barrister

Name: Adam Griffiths
Position: Barrister

Year of Call: 2013

Called to the Bar in the Summer of 2013 after being awarded a Distinction in a specialist Commercial Law LLM, Adam—

‘is a first-rate barrister. As an advocate, he is persuasive, deliberate and captivating; he holds court very well and is disarmingly affable but highly effective in cross-examination.’ – Legal 500, 2022: Commercial Tier 1

Adam has been ranked as a Tier 1 counsel in Legal 500, 2023

Adam’s versatile oral and written advocacy lends itself to the specialist practice areas in which he is instructed; he regularly appears in the High Court (QBD) and specialist commercial court (LMC). Adam is entrusted with cases which garner significant public interest.

Adam is regarded for his legal acumen: readily identifying, distilling and clearly presenting complex legal arguments which quickly go to the core of disputes.

Background

Adam was previously appointed as in-house counsel to and managing director of a large financial intermediary business in Hong Kong, managing cross-border litigation, compliance to financial regulations and advisory work.

Adam’s experience gives him a depth of insight into commercial pragmatism and building business relationships complementing his often technical practice at the Bar.

Adam was the updating author of Hong Kong’s leading practitioner text on banking and finance law and contributed to Halsbury’s Laws of Hong Kong.

Commercial and Chancery Commercial

Shipping and Admiralty

Employment

Regulatory and Public

Adam is sought by solicitors faced with unusual regulatory and public law issues, chiefly matters of shipping regulatory law, human rights inquest proceedings and contempts.

Adam’s practice in these specialist areas originates from his first years in practice; he spent four weeks with his pupil supervisor Charles Row in R v Wood, a three-defendant gross negligence manslaughter trial in the context of corporate and regulatory breaches. Later Adam appeared as acting-junior counsel for a fortnight in a four-defendant murder trial led consecutively by David Hunt QC and Ed Burgess QC.

Adam has recently been instructed by public agencies including the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (for collisions between vessels) and BIS (now the Insolvency Service enforcement team), leveraging his experience as an offshore yacht racer and former financier (respectively). Adam particularly enjoys the legal intricacies of procedurally unusual regulatory litigation.

Instructions

Notable unled recent instructions:

Prosecuting the master of a vessel in Bournemouth Crown Court for conduct endangering life following a shipping collision: R v Jarvis (January 2019) (reported: The Times, The Telegraph, Metro et c.)
Advising on the procedure and prospects of a judicial review against a maritime body of uncertain public nature (October 2018)
Appearing in two multi–week Article 2 Coroner’s inquest on behalf of the family of the deceased. Notwithstanding jury directions to return a short form conclusion Adam successfully protected a jury’s five page narrative conclusion relying on 18th Century ‘jury prerogative’ case law: Re. C. J. Jeffery (March – September 2018)
Appearing in a contested committal for contempt trial for breach of a County Court injunction: Liverty v Allen (June 2018)
Representing a defendant facing a custodial sentence in committal for contempt proceedings in the County Court: BCC v Hammond (April 2018)
Advising on a prosecution under maritime regulatory law (IRPCAS) following a collision at sea (March 2018)
Submissions in the Court of Appeal in response to an appeal founded on procedural irregularity (following a Newton hearing in the Crown Court) (February 2018)

Adam welcomes instructions in—and is particularly suited to—wet shipping issues, white collar/business and regulatory cases including breaches of the Insolvency and Company Acts.

Adam holds an appointment to a junior treasury counsel scheme.

References

“Conveys his advice in a concise and commercial manner, and can hold his own in court against counsel of significantly greater seniority.”
– Legal 500, 2021: Commercial Rising Star

Scholarships and Memberships

Cassel Scholar of Lincoln’s Inn (Major, named bar finals scholarship)
Wigglesworth Scholar of Lincoln’s Inn (Major, named pupillage scholarship)
Denning Society Member, Lincoln’s Inn
Commercial Bar Association (COMBAR)

Qualifications

Direct Public Access Certification, 2017
BPTC (Very Competent), 2013
LLM Commercial Law (Distinction), 2012
LLB Law & International Relations (2.i), 2011

Hobbies and Interests

Outside of legal practice Adam enjoys yacht racing (at a previously professional level), triathlon (at a vanishingly amateur level), increasingly technical scuba diving, backcountry skiing, fly fishing, historical linguistics, chess, photography and contemporary art.