Pembroke Law Alumni: Tony Singla

I read Law at Pembroke between 2002 and 2006, first as an undergraduate and then as a student on the BCL.  Pembroke has a long-standing reputation as a strong College for Law and, based on my experience of studying there, it is a reputation that is well deserved: the Tutors are friendly, the Library is well-stocked with legal textbooks and law reports, and the College has an active law society which organises guest lectures and careers events.

Since graduating from Pembroke I have been practising as a barrister at Brick Court Chambers.  Barristers are specialist advocates: they present their client’s case in Court by making oral and written submissions and they also conduct cross-examination of witnesses.  I specialise in Commercial Litigation and Competition Law.  These are the areas of law which I found most interesting as a student and I continue to enjoy grappling every day with the complex legal problems to which they give rise. 

In addition to running cases on my own, I work together with QCs on cases that involve significant sums of money.  As a result, I have been fortunate to act in a number of important cases in recent years.  For example, in relation to Commercial Law I have appeared in two cases before the Supreme Court (The Alexandros T and VTB Capital v Nutritek International) and I also acted in a long-running contractual dispute against the founders of Skype which was worth several billion dollars.  As to Competition Law, I am representing Intel in its appeal against the largest ever fine imposed by the European Commission for breach of competition law (in excess of €1 billion) and I acted for Imperial Tobacco in its appeal against the largest ever fine imposed by the Office of Fair Trading (in excess of £100 million).  Because of the breadth of my practice, I have worked for a wide variety of clients ranging from investment banks and other corporate clients such as Manchester United and ITV through to individuals including Russian oligarchs and Kylie Minogue.

Life as a barrister is definitely hard work – the hours are often long and clients can be demanding – but working as part of a team with solicitors and clients and having overall responsibility for how cases are prepared and presented in Court are things which I find hugely enjoyable.  It is certainly not necessary to study Law at university to become a barrister, but in my case there is no doubt that the passion which I have for what I do now was stirred whilst I was at Pembroke.