Courtenay Barklem

Courtenay successfully represented the claimant in the Employment Appeal Tribunal case of Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis v Kevin Maxwell, where the Metropolitan Police was found to have committed 41 acts of race/sexual orientation discrimination. The case was covered in Good Black News.

He also represented a former Police Community Support Officer claiming unfair dismissal on the grounds that a previous reprimand was wrongly taken into account when dismissing her. It was argued that the reprimand should have been removed from her record because the EAT had previously upheld that she was suffering from dissociative amnesia - the first case to recognise that this was capable of being a disability.

He represented a cross-border whistle-blower in relation to the alleged irregularities in debt buybacks, related party transactions and accounting anomalies of his UK-US employer. Courtenay worked on the employee's submissions to the UK's Serious Fraud Office and the US's Securities and Exchange Commission.

In June 2018, he successfully conducted a fast-track trial in relation to commission and bonus payments claimed by an estate agent after leaving employment.

Commercial: Courtenay regularly advises on multi-jurisdictional disputes, e.g. on the Brussels (Recast) and Rome I Regulations. For example:

• Courtenay was both advocate and litigator in the Commercial Court case of Catalyst Managerial Services v Libya Africa Investment Portfolio. He succeeded in obtaining a summary judgment on the first $15 million of the claim after a 4-day hearing. In July 2018, he represented the claimant in the Court of Appeal. The case was covered in Libya Business News and Digital Journal.
• He represented the claimant in a breach of a contract claim involving the sale of gold bonds for damages in excess of US$7 billion, including seeking enforcement of the English judgment in Switzerland under the Lugano Convention.

Money services businesses: Courtenay regularly represents money transfer and foreign exchange companies. For example:

• Courtenay advised on judicial review of the UK Government's regulatory stance in relation to one of the largest money transfer companies in Africa. His advice was co-ordinated to support related competition proceedings.
• He successfully made an application in the High Court, Chancery Division, for a third party to claim payment of €78,000 from the Respondent, an internet gaming and betting money-processing company, which were frozen under a separate ongoing dispute concerning the beneficial ownership of the Respondent.

Courtenay's interest in climate change litigation stems from two angles.

First, Courtenay takes civil action against companies. He has experience in both commercial law and human rights law. Courtenay originally practised commercial law, in particular construction disputes and arbitrations. Later, he transitioned to become the human rights advisor at the Law Society from 2007 to 2012. He is currently the Chair of the Law Society's Human Rights Committee while continuing to litigate commercial disputes.

Second, he also has an interest in protecting environmental/land rights and human rights defenders globally through the Law Society and the Alliance for Lawyers at Risk. He was in Colombia in the summer of 2022 on a field mission to take testimony from lawyers working on human rights and environmental cases who receive threats of violence or death for their work. 

• Lawyers' Advisory Committee of Peace Brigades International, 2008 to present.
• Trustee of Just Fair, 2011 to present.
• Honorary adviser to the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission, 2012 to present.
• Member of the Law Society's Human Rights Committee, 2013 to present.
• Member of ABA's Business and Human Rights Project Advisory Committee, 2014 to present.