3PB Direct

How much experience do you have in this area?

I qualified as a barrister in 2014 and both before and immediately after qualification, gained experience working in house with some of the country’s leading solicitors in judicial review and education disputes. Consequently, I have had the privilege of being involved directly with members of the public in some of the leading education and social care cases of this decade and have experience representing individuals, central and local government, corporates, school and colleges.

When representing individuals, I pride myself on my exceptional client care skills, ensuring that clients are empowered to resolve their disputes, whilst understanding the cost implications of their actions.

When representing organisations and public bodies, alongside providing excellent client care, I seek to ensure that, as well as resolving ongoing disputes, a risk based approach is adopted to try and prevent future issues arising.

Legal Expertise

With 7 years’ experience in advising, representing and assisting individuals, local authorities, schools, colleges, as well as acting as a non executive director to a higher education institution, I am well placed to advise anyone who has a dispute within the education sector. Whilst I am happy to assist on any education related dispute, or provide advice or documentation, my particular areas of interest are:

  • Bringing and defending appeals to the special educational needs tribunal (both in England and in Wales)
  • Bringing and defending claims for breach of contract/negligence against higher education institutions
  • Advising on non payment of school fees in the independent school sector
  • Judicial review proceedings across the education sphere
  • Advising and preparing various types of commercial documentation in relation to governance and regulation

Recent cases that I have been involved in include:

  • Represented the mother and father of a disabled child in the Court of Appeal in the leading case on the law relating to a local authority’s refusal to issue an Education, Health and Care Plan
  • Represented a mother in an urgent out of hours injunction application and at a substantive application in the Administrative Court seeking emergency accommodation for her son
  • Represented a university student in a claim for breach of contract/negligence against a world renowned university securing substantial financial compensation

Outside of legal work, I am widely published having acted as a contributing editor and author on two leading education law textbooks, alongside authoring various articles across industry and legal publications.

With 7 years’ experience acting for and against public authorities I am well placed to advise and act on a wide variety of public law claims, or in offering advice on the same.

My particular areas of expertise are in relation to adult and child services within local authorities focusing on education, health and social care issues.

For further information on my education law experience, please see my education law profile.

Within the field of healthcare I regularly provide advice to individuals and local authorities in court of protection disputes, both welfare and property & affairs issues.

Within the field of social care, I am an expert in spectrum of English and Welsh community care legislation and have acted in a plethora of judicial review claims regarding the same. See my judicial review profile for further information on this.

Alongside my public law experience, I have experience in the field of medical regulation with a focus on pharmaceutical regulation, particularly in the medicinal cannabis sector and in HMRA regulation.

I have a wide variety of judicial review experience across the education, health and social care sectors. My experience in this can be demonstrated by the breadth and number of cases that I have been involved with in the past few years:

  • challenging a health board’s decision to refuse to provide adequate nursing care at the claimant’s home thereby preventing him from visiting his mother
  • challenging the legality of a local authority’s decision not to fund rental costs under section 117 aftercare
  • bringing an urgent out of hours injunction application and at a substantive application in the Administrative Court concerning the right of emergency accommodation
  • drafting a claim to challenge the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education
  • challenging an IRP’s decision to uphold a child’s permanent exclusion
  • challenging the legality of a local authority’s statutory assessment process
  • challenging a local authority’s failure to maintain a Statement of Special Educational Needs pending the outcome of a cease to maintain appeal to SENTW
  • challenging the legality of a local authority’s withdrawal and subsequent request for repayment of direct payments
  • challenging a local authority’s breach of section 37 of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014
  • advising on and drafting pre action correspondence concerning a local authority’s failure to assist with an application for a Disabled Funding Grant

View full profile on 3PB site

To contact Matthew

Call 0330 332 2633, send us an email or chat to an adviser online:

Chat securely to an adviser online

Or complete the form below:

How to instruct a barrister

Our experienced team of specially-trained clerks make instructing a 3PB Direct barrister simple. Watch our video for a step-by-step guide on how to work with us to achieve a resolution to your legal issue.

We’ll be here every step of the way to support and guide you through the legal challenges at hand.

play movie