Tayab Ali

Tayab is a partner in our Crime, Fraud and Regulatory team, and heads our International Law Practice. He is internationally recognised and a highly respected Solicitor Advocate. His practice encompasses criminal and civil/public law in both the UK and international jurisdictions.

He is routinely retained by high profile, high net worth, clients seeking to protect their reputations against false public and criminal allegations. His skills are matched by his sensitivity, discretion and single-minded devotion to his clients’ interests.

As a criminal defence lawyer, Tayab’s work and case profiles have consistently been recognised by the principal Legal Directories which have ranked him as a leading lawyer in multiple practice areas.

Chambers & Partners described him as “an irresistible force – he’s fearless and he always gets the right results for his clients”. He is rated as a Super Lawyer by Thompson Reuters and recognised in the field of Civil Liberties by The Legal 500.

Tayab has acted in many of the most high profile and complex criminal trials over the last two decades. He has represented clients in the Supreme Court, European Court of Human Rights as well as at international political and legal institutions including the United Nations, the International Criminal Court and the African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Tayab was shortlisted as Human Rights Lawyer of the Year in the Law Society’s Excellence Awards and nominated as Criminal Defence Lawyer of the Year by the Society of Asian Lawyers. He has been twice featured as The Times Lawyer of the Week. First in 2012 for his successful representation of a senior Arab Israeli politician and activist and again in 2020 for his successful representation of Lesley Gibson who was prosecuted for cultivating cannabis she used to medicate her symptoms of MS. In 2023, Tayab was highly commended for Lawyer of the Year at the Modern Law Awards.

Tayab is regularly asked for his views and analysis on topical legal issues by journalists, broadcasters and various national and international news channels.  He is often invited to lecture at leading Universities and prestigious organisations such as the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. Tayab has made important contributions to public debates on counter-terrorism legislation, the prosecution of international crimes and the use of torture. He has also provided evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees on behalf of his clients.

Tayab has advised a number of UK and foreign members of parliament, ministers as well as political parties and former governments.

As a result of his unique expertise he has been retained by clients to represent them in a wide variety of cases. Here are a few examples of Tayab’s recent work:

Terrorism

Tayab is one of the country’s leading authorities on counter-terrorism law, having acted in numerous high profile prosecutions over the last two decades. He was the solicitor in the Supreme Court case, R v Gul, which defined “terrorism” in the context of military attacks by non-State armed groups in a non-international armed conflict.

He also acted for Sally Lane and John Letts who were prosecuted for funding terrorism when they sent money to their son in Syria. The case involved pre-trial clarification of law, which included a Supreme Court case ruling on the test in terrorism funding cases and a Court of Appeal case which ruled on whether duress of circumstances was available as a defence in terrorist funding cases.

Fraud, Financial Crime and Regulation

Tayab regularly represents clients accused of fraud, money laundering and financial crime, including in an international context. His clients have included individuals, business directors, companies, charities, trustees and professionals.

He is currently advising a client and his company with regards to corporate money laundering obligations arising out of a multi-jurisdictional bitcoin ATM enterprise.

Tayab advises clients that are subject to UK, US and UN sanctions regimes and is currently advising a client who is challenging his special designation pursuant to the United States Global Terrorism Sanctions Regime.

National Security

Tayab has also acted and advised clients on National Security cases. His recent clients have included a member of a UK Government Department in an investigation involving leaks from the Government’s National Security Council.

Tayab has acted as standing counsel for Sarah Harrison, the former investigative editor of WikiLeaks; Bitcoin entrepreneur Amir Taaki and he has also advised US Crypto-anarchist and gun rights activist Cody Wilson.

Tayab has also advised and represented clients on matters related to national security and official secrets including former members of the security services and other government agencies.

Cybercrime

Tayab has represented clients in prosecutions involving hacking and cybercrime. His clients have included journalists and IT specialists as well as defendants investigated under data and computer misuse laws.

Tayab acted for the whistle-blower who provided information to the Guardian about the NHS’s failure to send medically sensitive correspondence to thousands of patients which led to a debate in Parliament on the issue. He also acted for a defendant accused of hacking a competitor’s computer systems in order to steal commercially sensitive information.

Tayab advises extensively on digital rights and data protection including data access and protection, hacking, Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), schedule 7 Terrorism Act and protected material.

Drugs offences

Tayab has been retained by defendants accused of their part in large scale drugs conspiracies often relating to organised criminal enterprises.

Drugs – Medicinal Necessity 

Tayab has recently successfully represented Lesley Gibson who was prosecuted for the cultivation of cannabis. Lesley and her husband Mark were acquitted in Carlisle Crown Court after the Crown Prosecution Service were persuaded that to continue to prosecute Lesley could not be in the public interest. Tayab is now assisting Lesley in her wider campaign to allow sufferers of MS to either obtain cannabis on the National Health Service or grow their own. You can read more about Lesley’s case here 

• The Times & The Times – Lawyer of the Week
• The Telegraph

General Crime (Private)

Tayab represents clients on a private basis where they are accused of general criminal acts. His clients regularly include professional people accused of a variety of criminal offences including murder, fraud, manslaughter, rape, assault, sex offences, theft, and public order offences.

International Law

Tayab is regarded as a leading expert in Universal Jurisdiction. He has advised and acted in private prosecution cases in the United Kingdom where his clients have sought to hold people accused of international crimes accountable in the United Kingdom for their part in the act.

He has advised widely on international criminal law and brought cases before the International Criminal Court and other international bodies including the United Nations and African Union.

His international law clients have included the Egyptian Freedom and Justice Party and the Muslim Brotherhood. He represented and advised President Morsi’s family and has drafted complaints to the United Nations on their behalf.

Tayab has represented the interests of hundreds of people sentenced to death in recent Egyptian mass trials. This is included making oral submissions in Gambia to the Commissioners of the African Commission of Human and Peoples’ rights.

Tayab is currently representing several Syrian returnees and a man who was unlawfully detained by the UK and US armed forces for a 10-year period during the Iraq war.

Tayab gave a lecture on Individual Criminal Responsibility to diplomats, lawyers and civil servants as part of the SOAS Executive Course in Public International Law.

Political, Diplomatic International law (Human Rights / Public Law)

Tayab has a unique practise in advising political groups both in the UK and abroad.

Following the Egyptian coup in 2013 Tayab was retained by the Egyptian Freedom and Justice Party to advise the political party on how best to respond to the massive human rights violations being committed by the military.

Tayab established and led an international legal team which brought the violations to the attention of States and international political and legal institutions. The work included complaints to the United Nations and International Criminal Court. The work led to the British police investigating members of the coup government for international crimes.

In 2015 Tayab represented the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in the then Prime Minister’s review of the organisation’s international activities. He was also retained by the group to provide evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee’s Inquiry into Political Islam.

In 2018 Tayab established the Detention Review Panel which sought to intervene and review the detention of people where there was reason to believe the detention was for political reasons and violated international law. The DRP reviewed the detention circumstances of President Morsi and has also reviewed the detention of women’s rights activists in Saudi Arabia.