Ian McDonald

Ian McDonald has a broad practice, with a particular focus on commercial litigation, international arbitration, private international law, and international human rights law. He is regularly instructed in complex, high-value cases, often with an international dimension.

Ian recently represented Nick Suppipat and his companies in their $US 2billion fraud claims against multiple defendants in the Commercial Court (one of The Lawyer’s ‘Top 20 Cases of 2022’). He has a particular expertise, also, in private international law, and has worked as a teaching assistant on the Conflict of Laws module on the Bachelor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford. Ian recently appeared in VP Fund Solutions (Luxembourg) SA v. GI Globinvestment Ltd [2022] EWHC 1872 (Comm), successfully resisting a jurisdiction challenge (under both the recast Brussels I Regulation and the common law rules) in a multi-million-pound unlawful means conspiracy claim. He is also presently instructed in a number of international commercial and investment arbitrations, including under the UNCITRAL and ICC Rules and the ICSID Convention.

Prior to being called to the Bar, Ian spent five years at Liberty, the human rights organisation. He has a strong interest in international human rights law, and the rights to liberty and security and freedom of expression in particular. Ian is currently acting for the Moscow bureau of the international media group RFE/RL in their application to the European Court of Human Rights, challenging Russia’s use of ‘foreign agent’ laws, and is presently part of the Counsel team representing the British-Egyptian writer and pro-democracy activist, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, before the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. He is also an officer of the Human Rights Law Committee of the International Bar Association.