Michael is an Associate, practising across Carter-Ruck’s core practice areas of Media Litigation, Commercial Litigation and International Law. He in particular has broad expertise advising clients in the midst of complex disputes, especially where litigants’ reputations and privacy are at stake.

Michael has acted on behalf of both claimants and defendants in a broad range of media litigation. He has assisted on pre-publication and post-publication matters, cases involving blackmail and harassment and high-profile instances of alleged journalistic malpractice. Michael also has a particular interest in defending client’s privacy, both in cases where the client’s privacy is the focus of the dispute and in high profile and sensitive commercial disputes, where the client’s privacy could otherwise be collateral in the case.

Michael also advises on a variety of complex commercial disputes, often with an international element. Michael has particular experience in relation to civil fraud, contractual and corporate disputes, professional negligence and banking disputes.

Additionally, Michael is assisting on several international arbitrations, under the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, the London Maritime Arbitrators Association and the London Court of International Arbitration.

Michael graduated from law at Cambridge University in 2014, and obtained a distinction in the LPC in 2018. He then trained at a leading London law firm, qualifying into its Reputation department in 2020. He later joined a highly regarded disputes team – broadening his wider commercial litigation experience – in 2022, and joined Carter-Ruck in 2025.

Michael is a Committee Member of the London Irish Lawyers Association, and was shortlisted for the 2024 Law Society Legal Hero Award on the basis of his social mobility work. He has also helped establish and run pro bono programmes with Law Centre NI in 2016 and the Social Mobility Foundation in 2020.

During the early stages of his legal career, Michael was also an award-winning columnist, writing about a variety of political and legal issues, for the Independent, Legal Cheek, Slugger O’Toole and Amnesty International.

Michael regularly writes articles on issues relevant to his practice areas:

  • Assisted in securing the complete withdrawal of serious allegations by a major news outlet and an NGO against a client. This followed an intensive period of pre-publication engagement with the news outlet and the NGO, working closely alongside the client’s PR representatives. The matter was complex, engaging broader geo-political and sanctions elements.
  • Assisted a client who had suffered from a leak from an EU Member State’s prosecutor’s office, which contained pre-charge, white collar crime related allegations against the client.
  • Acted for a client who faced a potential contempt of court spread via targeted WhatsApp messages to those who operated within the client’s specific genre of the music industry.
  • Assisting on an international arbitration, involving an Investor-State dispute where the claim is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
  • Acted for a client facing a myriad of contractual and proprietary claims by a high-profile sportsperson, which also required professional negligence advice and privacy advice (the latter involved successfully making oral submissions to a Master on a privacy application).
  • Assisted a High Net Worth client who was the victim of a significant Authorised Push Payment Fraud.
  • Assisted a client who was entangled in a high-profile contractual dispute over a multi-million-pound luxury asset, where various factions of an Ultra High Net Worth family were seeking ownership.