Name: Aaron Khan Chambers: Brick Court Chambers Location: London University: University of Bristol Degree: Law
much less frequently because cases tend to be long running and you are often building up to big hearings as part of a teamof barristers,” Aaron explains. “Another part of our work which is different to other areas of law is that some of our ‘advocacy’ takes place before a regulator rather than in court. For example, we sometimes represent clients inmeetings with regulators.” Pro bono Signing off, Aaron is keen to draw attention to another benefit of a career as a barrister – the opportunity to make a difference through pro bono work: “I take huge satisfaction from all my cases, and I also do some pro bono work which can have incredibly positive outcomes. Recently I represented an individual who had been wrongly deprived of benefits that they were entitled to for a long time and we were able to get that decision overturned on appeal. That made an important difference to that person’s life and to be able to help someone in that way was hugely rewarding. To be able to do that on top of a fascinating and varied ‘day job’ is brilliant.”
Advisory work is the second category. “We are often approached to advise whether – and to what extent – a certain course of conduct falls within the scope of competition law,” he says. This leads to the third and largest part of Aaron’s work – litigation, where cases “most frequently involve an action whereby one party seeks damages from another, arguing that they are the result of a breach of competition law.” Regulatory and advisory work are still important parts of his practice – Aaron has acted in investigations involving the UK regulator, the Competition andMarkets Authority, and the EuropeanCommission, and he frequently produces expert advice – but litigation is the main area. “Inmany ways these cases are similar to other types of big commercial litigation and youwill see the same sorts of issues arising. Thesemight include questions of jurisdiction, applicable lawand so on,” he explains. “The area that stands out in competition law litigation is the assessment of damages; one of the key issues in a competition damages claim is determining what themarket would have looked like if there had been no breach of competition law, so you spend a lot of timewith economists and accountants looking at how tomodel the impact of a particular course of conduct on themarket.” Variety and advocacy outside court “One of the beauties of this job is the variety of clients and sectors you are involved with, and it is important to develop a deep understanding of whatever sector you are working in and to be an expert in your client’s business in order to be able to represent them effectively,” Aaron observes. “For example, I have been taken on a tour of a strawberry farm to understand how they are produced and packaged; and for another case I had to familiarise myself with the detail of foreign exchange trading. There are very few jobs where you can learn so much about such a variety of sectors.”
As with commercial work, “the nature of a competition practice is that you are in court
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