Details
Quick links
Desmond Browne QC
Profile
Desmond Browne QC is a leading silk in all areas of media law. He has been involved in a huge number of the most important cases affecting the media over the past three decades.
These include Collins Stewart v. Financial Times, Berezovsky v. Fridman & Alfa Bank, McKenna v. Mirror Group Newspapers, McKennitt v. Ash, Lowe v. Associated Newspapers, Turner v. News Group, Al Amoudi v. Brisard, Douglas v Hello!, Naomi Campbell v MGN, Hamilton v Al Fayed, Berezovsky v Forbes, Spycatcher, Kiam v MGN and Loutchansky v Times Newspapers.
He is Joint Head of Chambers (with Adrienne Page QC).
Desmond Browne chaired the Bar Council Group on the Legal Services Act and was Bar Council Chairman for 2009. He has been appointed to the government's Libel Reform Panel announced by the Lord Chancellor, Jack Straw, to consider whether the law of libel needs reform and if so to make recommendations as to solutions.
Career
Called
1969 Called to the Bar
1990 Silk
1991 Year of Recorder
Education
Eton College
New College, Oxford (Open Scholar, B.A. Jurisprudence)
Areas of work
- Defamation
- Privacy and Confidence
- Intellectual Property
- Reporting the Courts
- Administrative Law
- Contempt
- Copyright
- Human Rights
- Injunctive Relief
- Malicious Falsehood
- Media Law
- Professional Negligence
Verbatim
This “outrageously smart” player is “relentless in pursuit of his case, applying the legal equivalent of Chinese water torture to his opponents.”
from 2009 Chambers and Partners
Testimonials
'the inexhaustible Browne “is busier than ever.” According to one source, “he is a formidable advocate whose imposing presence does not fail to impress even the most difficult of judges and clients.” In Northern Rock v Financial Times, he appeared for the defendant in proceedings brought by the building society following the publication of the memorandum drawn up for interested bidders. Clients are also impressed by “canny, class act”
The 'straight-talking’ Desmond Browne QC whose ‘ unflappable advocacy skills and legal knowledge are unrivalled’ is ‘ an imposing figure in a courtroom’ and the ‘ silk of choice’ for many solicitors... He successfully acted for the claimant in McKennitt v Ash, which established that public figures are entitled to a private life.
Memberships
Bar Council as Gray's Inn representative
Publications
(26 Jan 2006)