Thomas is a busy common law practitioner who appears in court on a daily basis across the full range of Chambers’ practice areas. The breadth of his practice has made him an adaptable and comfortable advocate. Thomas is ranked as a ‘Rising Star: Tier 1’ in the Legal 500.
He graduated first place on the Law and French programme at Cardiff University, was awarded the top first in the year for his undergraduate dissertation and won the university mooting competition. He studied for the BPTC at City Law School, for which he was awarded four awards. Prior to joining Chambers, he worked as a stagiaire at the European Court of Justice and as a research assistant at the Law Commission of England and Wales.
He has an entirely paperless practice and has experience of conducting court hearings and conferences remotely.
Outside of work, Thomas is learning Welsh and is a Trustee of the Lord Edmund Davies Legal Education Trust, a social mobility charity which encourages students from disadvantaged backgrounds to aspire to legal careers.
Awards
Click here to download.
Thomas represents Claimants and Defendants in road traffic, employer’s liability, public liability and product liability claims. He has a particular interest in international personal injury claims including claims brought under the Montreal Convention, the Athens Convention and the Package Travel Regulations. He is regularly instructed to advise on liability, evidence and quantum in fast track and multi-track cases.
Thomas also accepts instructions in clinical negligence cases. In pupillage, Thomas spent two months with the head of the clinical negligence team in Chambers, with whom he drafted advices and pleadings in complex clinical negligence matters including failure to diagnose claims and cosmetic surgery negligence. Prior to joining 9 Gough Chambers, Thomas taught tort law to undergraduates at Queen Mary, University of London.
Thomas is a member of the Attorney General’s Junior Junior Panel and the Welsh Government’s Junior Barrister Public Law Panel. Prior to pupillage, Thomas was a stagiaire at the European Court of Justice to the UK Advocate General and later became a legal advisor within the European law department at an international law firm in Brussels. In his first year in practice, Thomas acted for the Secretary of State for Transport as a Junior Junior in Eurotunnel v Secretary of State for Transport, the challenge to the award by the UK Government of contracts to Seaborne Freight for the provision of additional freight capacity between the UK and continental Europe.
Since joining Chambers, Thomas has developed a busy Court of Protection practice, particularly in cases involving the health and welfare jurisdiction. In Thomas' first year in Chambers, he was nominated for the ALC Outstanding Newcomer Award for “the commitment he has shown to developing the law relating to children and the vulnerable, specifically in the field of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards”.
In his second year in Chambers, Thomas was ranked as a ‘Rising Star: Tier 1’ in the Legal 500 for Court of Protection and Community Care. He was also shortlisted for the FLA Young Barrister of the Year Award for his expertise in dealing with cases which overlap the jurisdictions of the Family Court and the Court of Protection. His nomination describes him as a ‘formidable force in cases where there is an interplay between the two jurisdictions’.
He accepts instructions from local authorities, the Official Solicitor, the Office of the Public Guardian, deputies, attorneys and private individuals. He has appeared in s. 16 cases, s. 21A cases and a series of deprivation of liberty order applications under the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court. Thomas has recently been instructed to advise on the application of a Deprivation of Liberty order made by the High Court of England and Wales in a separate jurisdiction. He has also advised on whether restrictions placed on an inpatient at the Bethlem Adolescent Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit amount to a deprivation for the purposes of article 5 of the ECHR.
Prior to joining Chambers, Thomas worked for the Law Commission on its review into the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. The UK Government responded to the Law Commission’s review by agreeing that the DOLS system should be replaced as a matter of urgency. The Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019, replacing the DOLS with the LPS, received Royal Assent in May 2019.
In 2019, Thomas was seconded to the Welsh Government where he advised on the implementation of Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019 in Wales. Thomas principally provided advice to the Welsh Ministers on the legal accuracy of the new LPS Code of Practice.
Thomas is a committee member of the Court of Protection Bar Association.
Thomas has quickly become a popular junior in public law family proceedings, regularly acting for local authorities, parents and children’s guardians in all aspects of care, adoption and other public law proceedings. In his first year in practice, he was the most frequently instructed barrister in Chambers for children’s services through the London Boroughs’ Legal Alliance. He has appeared in cases of neglect, substance misuse, non-accidental injury and child abuse. He has experience of drafting statements of reasons and skeleton arguments in respect of permission to appeal applications to the Court of Appeal. In pupillage, Thomas assisted with advice on the recognition of foreign adoption in English law.
In private law proceedings, Thomas represents clients in respect of child contact disputes, non-molestation and occupation orders.
Thomas has experience of prosecuting and defending in the Magistrates’ Court and Crown Court in London and across the South East. He is a member of the following panels:
Thomas has represented police forces in respect of proceeds of crime proceedings, Account Freezing Order applications, Forced Marriage Prevention Orders and Sexual Harm Prevention Orders. He also regularly acts for the police in disclosure matters between the criminal and family courts. He has been instructed by the Metropolitan Police to advise in writing on whether the retention of a series of historic cautions constitute an interference with individuals’ article 8 ECHR rights and should be deleted from the Police National Computer.
If you would like to get in touch with Thomas Jones talk to one of our clerks for more information.
For more information please call
020 7832 0500 or
Click to contact this barrister
For more information please call our clerks on
020 7832 0500 or Email »