Gareth Rhys

Gareth accepts instructions across all of 1 Crown Office Row’s practice areas. He has experience working on matters relating to taxation, customs, environmental law, medical law, personal injury, immigration, human rights and public law, as well as public inquiries and inquests (including Article 2 inquests). He is a member of of the Attorney General’s junior junior counsel scheme. Gareth is currently instructed by Baroness Hallett to act as junior counsel to the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry.

Gareth’s background is in public and revenue law. For two years, he was a government barrister at HMRC, where he appeared in the First-tier Tribunal (Tax) and gained experience in three main areas:

• VAT and VAT-related judicial review;
• Specialist personal and capital taxes (including Capital Gains Tax, Inheritance Tax, charity sector taxation issues, trusts, foreign income, dividends and royalties, and domicile and residence issues); and
• the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, advising HM Treasury and other departments on revenue and customs issues in connection with the UK’s exit. This was during “tunnel” negotiations in the final months before the end of the Transition Period.

Gareth recently spent a year as Judicial Assistant to Lady Justice Andrews DBE and Lord Justice Stuart-Smith in the Court of Appeal. He assisted on appeals in both the Civil and Criminal Divisions of the Court of Appeal and judicial reviews in the Divisional Court (Admin). While a Judicial Assistant, Gareth worked on appeals across a breadth of areas of law, including public, tax, immigration, environmental, employment and commercial law. He also helped Andrews LJ update Sweet & Maxwell’s “Law of Guarantees” (8th edition).

Gareth holds a first-class honours degree in Law from Queen Mary University of London, during which he received several awards including the Queen Mary Jurisprudence and Legal Theory Prize for outstanding academic achievement. Gareth also has a Masters degree in Taxation with Distinction from Christ Church, University of Oxford.

Gareth maintains a keen interest in art and architecture and holds an MA in History of Art from Magdalene College, University of Cambridge. Gareth worked on a number of art law matters while at HMRC and welcomes instructions in this area.

Outside his professional role, Gareth has been a supervisor on the Pink Law project at the Queen Mary Legal Advice Centre in Mile End, East London since 2020. This is a pro bono initiative that provides practical legal advice to members of the LGBTQIA+ community on a range of legal issues, such as obtaining asylum, medical treatment, housing and benefits.

For recreation, Gareth enjoys hillwalking with his husband, mainly in Scotland and the Alps. He is also an enthusiastic skier and used to race with the Ski Club Oz-Allemont in his youth. Gareth likes studying languages and speaks several European languages to a proficient level.