Masters of the Bench

Full Title: Mr Alan Bates

Category: Ordinary Bencher

Bench Call Date: 02-10-2025

Call Date: 09-10-2003

Bio:

Alan was Called to the Bar in 2003 and practises from Monckton Chambers, specialising in public (administrative), competition, EU, public procurement, and subsidy control law. He was appointed to the Attorney General’s A Panel of Counsel to the Crown in 2018 and, pre-Brexit, represented the United Kingdom and the EU Commission in various cases in the EU Courts. He was appointed a Deputy High Court Judge in 2023 and sits in the Administrative Court, the Technology and Construction Court and the Crown Court.

Alan read Law at Christ’s College Cambridge and then at the University of Pennsylvania as a Thouron scholar. He took the Bar Course in Nottingham, supported by a Queen Mother scholarship from Middle Temple, and worked at the Law Commission, served as Judicial Assistant to Lords Bingham and Brown, and taught constitutional law at King’s College London. He was awarded a Pegasus scholarship to undertake a work placement in New Zealand.

He has served on Middle Temple’s Hall Committee and Education Committee, the Bar Standards Board’s Education & Training Committee, and the independent panel tasked by the UK Government to review the operation of the Human Rights Act. He undertakes pro bono work in family law and volunteers at Dads’ House advice clinic.