Karl Laird

Call: 2018

Karl accepts instructions across all of Chambers’ areas of practice, with a particular focus on public law. Karl specialises in public law and has particular expertise in cases which raise novel and complex legal issues.

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Karl Laird
Barristers

Karl Laird

Public and Administrative

Public and Administrative

Karl specialises in public law and has particular expertise in cases which raise novel and complex legal issues.

In recent years Karl has appeared in a number of significant and high-profile cases, including Shamima Begum’s challenge to the decision to deprive her of her British citizenship and he is currently instructed to represent the Rt Hon Boris Johnson before the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. He is recognised as Up and Coming by Chambers and Partners for Administrative and Public Law.

Highlights of Karl’s practice in recent years including representing the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the first case to consider the exercise of the powers in the National Security and Investment Act 2021, representing the Secretary of State for International Trade in a challenge to the decision to continue granting licences for the export of arms to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and appearing in the first case in which the Divisional Court considered interim relief in the National Security and Investment Act 2021 regime. Karl is currently instructed to represent the Secretary of State for the Home Department in a case brought by Apple Inc before the Investigatory Powers Tribunal which raises issues as to the Secretary of State’s powers to make Technical Capability Notices under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016.

Karl studied law at Queen Mary, University of London, graduating at the top of his year, before completing the BCL at Mansfield College, Oxford, where he obtained a Distinction and was awarded the Law Faculty Prize for Comparative Public Law. Upon completing the BCL, Karl began his legal career as an academic at Oxford and for five years he was a Stipendiary Lecturer and Fixed-term Fellow at various colleges teaching public and criminal law. During this time Karl also taught at the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge and at the LSE and he was Team Lawyer at the Law Commission of England and Wales. Karl continues to hold a part-time academic position as a Stipendiary Lecturer and Tutor in Law at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

Karl was called to the Bar by Lincoln’s Inn in 2018, having been awarded a Lord Mansfield Scholarship and a Hardwicke Entrance Award.


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Personal Highlights

Qualifications and achievements

Qualifications

  • BCL at Mansfield College, Oxford
  • LLB (Hons) at Queen Mary, University of London

Awards

  • Lord Mansfield Scholarship, Lincoln’s Inn
  • Roy Goode Prize
  • Roger Crane Medal
  • The Oxford Law Faculty Prize for Comparative Public Law
  • Hardwicke Entrance Award, Lincoln’s Inn

Memberships

  • ALBA

Recommendations

  • "Clients have complete trust in Karl."

    "Karl is just outstanding. He knows national security inside and out. He is punching way above his weight."

    "Karl is wise and experienced beyond his call. There's nothing he doesn't know about public law. He has a real intellectual understanding and applies it practically for the benefit of his client."

    Administrative & Public Law, Chambers and Partners, 2026

Practice Managers

Contact our friendly and helpful Practice Managers for more information about our barristers and services or to make an enquiry.

Ben Connor

Practice Director

Richard Bolton

Senior Practice Manager

Jamie Lal

Assistant Practice Manager
Ben Connor

Ben Connor

Practice Director

020 7421 2483

Richard Bolton NEW 2025

Richard Bolton

Senior Practice Manager

020 7421 1392

Jamie Lal Oct 2025

Jamie Lal

Assistant Practice Manager

020 7421 1309

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