Sarabjit Singh QC

Sarabjit Singh QC has long been recognised as a leading and versatile practitioner in various areas of law including tax, public law, clinical negligence and historic abuse cases. He acts for claimants and defendants and, being public access qualified, is happy to accept instructions directly from members of the public.

Sarabjit is known for his calm, cool and persuasive manner in court, with solicitors and opponents describing him in Chambers and Partners 2018 as “remaining cool and cheerful under intense judicial scrutiny, which is impressive to see” and as “very persuasive”, and in Chambers and Partners 2019 his clients state: “When handling our case, he remained incredibly cool under heavy fire from Supreme Court judges”. Chambers and Partners 2020 concludes that Sarabjit’s “drafting is fantastic and he’s a very compelling advocate”.

The skill of his advocacy was recognised by the Attorney General, who appointed him to each of the Crown’s A, B and C panels, and it was through his work on the panels that Sarabjit represented government departments and others in the most complex and high-profile cases in his areas of practice, including numerous appearances as sole or leading counsel in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. His excellence in advocacy in the higher courts was recognised by his appointment as Queen’s Counsel in 2018, whilst still in his thirties.

Sarabjit has appeared in some of the most heavyweight cases in tax and public law in the last few decades, as outlined in the description of his practice in each of those areas below, and translates the forensic approach necessary in such areas to all areas of his work. He continues to act for the government in high-profile cases, being instructed in late 2019 by HMRC in Brexit-related litigation and by the Home Office in 2020 in the Jamaica deportation flight case. He also acts against the government in similar cases, having been recently instructed by the taxpayer in a £300m import tax case and by claimants in major statelessness and human rights cases.

Unusually for someone who practices in tax and public law, Sarabjit is regularly instructed in and thoroughly enjoys acting in more ‘human’ areas of the law, such as in clinical negligence and abuse cases, where his careful and high-quality pleadings and advocacy and tactful manner with clients invariably help secure excellent settlements and trial outcomes. His expertise in clinical negligence was recently called upon in the family law context, where Sarabjit cross-examined medical experts on the causation of a baby’s brain injury and succeeded in establishing an innocent cause for the injury, which resulted in the baby being returned to the care of his family.