Chris Meiring

Chris Meiring has practice covering several specialist areas on a background of a broad civil and commercial practice. For a full list see the drop-down sections below. Particular areas of focus are:

In 2023, Chris undertook a five month secondment with the Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) where he dealt with matters relating to financial sanctions including licensing and breaches from both a legal and policy perspective. He has since built a busy sanctions practice and accepts instructions either as a junior or unled on a range of matters across the UK autonomous sanctions regimes, but primarily relating to the Russia sanctions regime. He is currently undertaking a part-time secondment at a leading sanctions firm, advising on matters of UK financial sanctions and licencing. He is thereby particularly well-placed to advise on matters of UK sanctions as a junior with genuine, broad and extensive experience of UK sanctions law, policy and practice.

Prior to joining Chambers, Chris built up a diverse range of experience across different sectors. He studied medicine as an undergraduate at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and Imperial College London. He began professional life in a top tier strategy consultancy, where he worked on projects mostly relating to banks and financial intermediaries. He returned to Cambridge to read for an MPhil, during which he published research on using machine learning to improve decision making in the intensive care setting, recieving the top distinction. He subsequently practised as a junior doctor while undertaking the GDL (Distinction) and Bar course (Outstanding). This breadth of experience stands him in good stead to understand and adapt quickly to instructions in a wide variety of settings and helps him relate to clients from all backgrounds.

A full list of his practice areas and some previous and ongoing case work is listed below. The sensitive nature of certain areas of his work means that the details below are necessarily limited. His Clerks would be happy to assist with more detail as to his recent experience, and ongoing cases in these and other areas.

Expertise

In 2023 Chris undertook a five-month secondment with the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), where he worked on matters of breaches and licensing under the Russia sanctions regime. Through this, he has gained a deep insight into the law, policy and practice of financial sanctions licensing and enforcement under the various sanctions regimes under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018.

His work at OFSI involved the range of financial sanctions under the Russia Regulations, the Global Anti-Corruption Regulations and the Libya Regulations.

Since leaving OFSI, he regularly accepts instructions in sanctions matters, primarily relating to financial sanctions, licensing, and de-listing, both unled and as a junior.

He is currently on part-time secondment at a leading sanctions firm, advising primarily on matters of financial sanctions and licensing under the Russia Regulations.

The extent and breadth of his hands-on experience in UK sanctions sets him apart as a junior with genuine and extensive experience in the law, policy and practice relating to the UK’s autonomous sanctions regimes.

His work in this area has included:

  • Ongoing designation challenges under section 23 and section 38 SAMLA 2018;
  • Advising on a corporate transaction with issues relating to financial sanctions (Regulations 11-18), circumvention (Regulation 19) and trade sanctions including the legal services prohibition (Regulation 54D) under the Russia Regulations;
  • Advising on matters relating to prohibitions under the Russia Regulations to a corporate insolvency;
  •  Advising on sanctions issues relating to the administration of a charitable trust in a British Crown Dependency;
  • Advising on potential breaches of financial sanctions relating to the management of let residential property, including the applicability of the exceptions under regulation 58, and the reporting requirements under regulation 70 of the Russia Regulations;
  • Advising on the reporting requirements on designated persons under regulation 70A of the Russia Regulations, and their applicability to the Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories;
  • Advising on sanctions issues relating to an international arbitration with the seat of Arbitration in London, in which one party was a designated person; and
  • Advising on numerous licence applications, mostly under section 64 and Part 1 of Schedule 5 to the Russia Regulations, with considerations as to strategy, form, evidential requirements, and communication with OFSI (or the equivalent decision maker in the British Overseas Territory or Crown Dependency). While the majority of his licensing work relates to applications to OFSI under the Russia regime, he regularly advises on licensing under multiple UK sanctions regimes across the UK, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.

Chris has experience of regulatory investigations and proceedings, acting in his own right and as a junior in large-scale internal and regulatory investigations, in cases involving fraud and serious financial and non-financial misconduct.

He was junior counsel to Farhaz Khan KC in an large-scale inquiry by a regulator into non-financial misconduct by firms and individuals.

He was also junior counsel to Farhaz Kahn KC, on a matter involving sanction by a regulator for individual non-financial misconduct in a financial services setting.

He has acted as sole counsel for individuals under investigation in matters involving misconduct by regulated individuals, including allegations of fraud.

Chris regularly accepts instructions, both as a junior on large commercial matters and unled for hearings in the County Court.

Recent cases of note include:

  • Acting for the Claimant in a successful application for summary judgement against the Defendants in a matter involving a personal guarantee of business loans.
  • Acting for the Defendant in successfully resisting the Claimant’s application to set aside an order striking out the Claimant’s Appellant’s notice. Costs of the application and the hearing below awarded to the Defendant on the indemnity basis.
  • Settling pleadings in a claim relating to a personal guarantee.
  • Acting for a Claimant in a claim of fraudulent misrepresentation against the director of a company.

He also accepts instructions as a junior in large commercial disputes. He was recently instructed to assist with disclosure in Republic of Mozambique v Privinvest, Credit Suisse, VTB (and others), a case involving $2bn-worth of sovereign guarantees.

Chris works with Alex Haines on matters of International Organisations law. This includes:

  • Assisting a client in a dispute with a Multilateral Development Bank.
  • Successfully having charges of fraudulent practice dropped against their client by a UN Specialised Agency and International Financial Institution.

Chris frequently appears in the Employment Tribunal on all matters ranging from preliminary case management hearings to multi-day trials.

He has experience on cases across the range of employment litigation, including discrimination, unfair dismissal, TUPE, employment status, and equal pay.

Recent employment includes:

  • Acting for the Respondent in a successful strike out application of a discrimination claim.
  • Acting for the Respondent in successfully defending a claim involving issues of failure to pay notice and breach of express and implied terms in the contract of employment.
  • Acting for the Claimant and advising on a wide-ranging whistleblowing claim which was successfully settled for a six-figure sum.

Chris acts as a junior or unled on pensions matters, including advising on pensions aspects to employment claims. He has particular experience in the calculation of pension losses in DB schemes.

Recent pensions work includes:

  • Advising the Claimant on a claim relating to the transfer of pension rights under TUPE (Beckmann claim).
  • Advising on the pension loss calculation in a claim for unlawful exercise of a discretion in a DB scheme.
  • Advising on a potential claim for miscalculation of pension entitlement in a statutory pension scheme.

Chris regularly accepts instructions in personal injury matters, both fast track and multi-track, for claimant and defendant. His experience includes matters involving road traffic accidents, employer’s liability, the Highways Act, the Fatal Accidents Act, and the Animals Act.

He regularly accepts instructions in clinical negligence matters, acting for claimants and defendants in the High Court and County Courts. He has a busy paperwork practice advising on prospects, drafting pleadings, valuing claims, and advising on settlement.

Chris’ background as a doctor means that he is well placed to understand complex and extensive medical records, to get to the key issues quickly and effectively, and to handle complex medical expert evidence.

Recent examples of personal injury work include:

  • Advising on a claim relating to an injury sustained on common land which was not common land under the Commons Registration Act 1965.
  • Settling pleadings and advising on settlement and strategy in a personal injury claim involving issues relating to CRPS.
  • Advising a Claimant on merits, expert evidence, and strategy and settling pleadings in a matter involving multiple orthopaedic and psychiatry injuries sustained by an independent contractor attending the Defendant’s site of work.
  • Advising on a claim under Animals Act relating to personal injury caused by falling from a horse.
  • Advising on and acting for the Claimants in several claims involving issues of the contributory negligence of a pedestrian.
  • Advising on merits in an employer’s liability claim relating to an assault by a member of the public at the workplace.
  • Acting for the Claimant in a multi-defendant claim which included claims of vicarious liability for the negligence of an employee, contractual negligence and product liability.

Recent examples of clinical negligence work include:

  • Settling pleadings and attending hearings for the Defendant in clinical negligence matters across a variety of medical disciplines, including plastic surgery, orthopaedics and ophthalmology.
  • Advising the Claimant on settlement in a claim relating to failure to diagnose a pulmonary embolus.
  • Acting for the Defendant in a High Court claim relating to delayed diagnosis of cauda equina syndrome.
  • Acting for the Claimant in a claim for failure to diagnose by a general practitioner, in a case involving loss of sight.

He accepts instructions to appear in preliminary and substantive hearings, to settle pleadings, and to advise on merits, quantum, strategy and settlement. He also accepts instructions to advise and attend infant settlement approval hearings.

During his pupillage, Chris sat with Eliot Woolf KC and Will Young where he worked on higher value personal injury matters, gaining experience issues of both liability and quantum in complex injury cases. He accepts instructions as a junior in high value and complex matters.

Related updates

What next?

To find out more, contact Paul Barton on +44 (0)20 7427 4907 or Sam Carter on +44 (0)203 989 6669 for a confidential discussion.

Our experienced practice management team can help you identify the right barrister for your case.

  • Holt Scholarship (Gray’s Inn) for BTC (2020-2021)
  • BPP Advocacy Scholarship (2020-2021)
  • Linklaters Prize for the Best Advocate, LSE-Featherstone National Moot.
  • Finalist, University of Leicester / 1 Crown Office Row National Medical Law Moot.
  • Josephine Barnes Scholarship (Gray’s Inn) for GDL (2019-2020)
  • BPP Scholarships for GDL and BTC (2019-2021)

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