Wayne is a British lawyer and has practiced for 20 years in the international human rights and humanitarian law fields. He has advised clients include governments, international organisations (e.g., the UN and the Council of Europe), NGO’s, corporations and individuals on their compliance with international human rights and humanitarian law. Representation has included advisory work in the global network of international tribunals, including at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Criminal Court [ICC], the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [ICTY], International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [ICTR], the Special Court for Sierra Leone [SCSL], as well as in the higher Courts of the United Kingdom. He is recognised in the Legal 500 UK 2017 as a Leading Queen Counsel and “one of the world’s leading international criminal lawyers”.
Wayne’s work has involved advising states (e.g., UK, The Netherlands, Ukrainian, Bangladeshi, Libyan, Serbian and Vietnamese governments), multi-lateral organisations (e.g., the UN, EU, Council of Europe), corporations and industry leaders, and civil society, providing a range of services to build monitoring, protective and preventative systems to ensure compliance with UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, (‘UNGPs’), international human rights (IHRL) and humanitarian law (IHL).
Wayne has over fifteen years experience working with corporations in conflict affected and high risk regions. He regularly conducts conflict analysis, leads teams of investigators as part of due diligence assessments for multi-national corporations and their supply chains, as well as designing and implementing stakeholder engagement, a variety of grievance mechanisms and remediation.
Recently, his advisory work has also included providing specialist IHL and IHRL legal advice to the UN (on liability of corporations engaged in reconstruction of Syria), Human Rights Watch (qualified privilege for human rights workers), the Ugandan judiciary (on the legality of amnesties in international law), the International Commission of Jurists (on the prospects of prosecuting a sitting head of state for alleged crimes against humanity) and the Ukrainian Office of the Prosecution on Environmental Crimes and conflict related sexual violence.