Jo Maugham QC claims Allen & Overy blacklisted him and his chambers

Tax barrister says ‘ban’ came in ‘aftermath’ of fox killing tweet

Jolyon Maugham QC has claimed he and his chambers were blacklisted by a magic circle law firm.

Addressing his some 260,000 followers on Twitter on Sunday, Maugham alleged that the head of litigation at Allen & Overy had contacted Devereux Chambers to inform it that, “so long as I was in Chambers, not only would they not send any work to me, but they would not send any work to any other member of Chambers either”.

Am remembering when Allen & Overy's Head of Litigation told my old Chambers that, so long as I was in Chambers, not only would they not send any work to me, but they would not send any work to any other member of Chambers either.

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) February 14, 2021

Maugham added that the “ban” came in the “aftermath” of a “stupid tweet” on Boxing Day 2019 in which he revealed he had “killed a fox with a baseball bat” while hungover and wearing his wife’s kimono. The fox had been caught in protective netting around a chicken coop in the garden of Maugham’s London home.

In two further posts over the weekend, the barrister claimed the magic circle law firm “later withdrew the ban” and that he subsequently “offered to keep the matter confidential if they tendered a private apology”. They “refused” this offer, according to Maugham.

Maugham, a prolific tweeter who became a leading anti-Brexit voice, was until recently a member of Devereux Chambers, a London set which covers a range of specialisms including commercial litigation, insurance and tax. He left the chambers late last year.

A&O and Devereux declined to comment. Maugham didn’t respond to our request for comment.