Introduction
Alexander Bradford joined chambers in October 2024 upon completing a specialist Business and Property pupillage under the supervision of Ali Tabari.
Alexander’s practice encompasses all aspects of Chambers’ Business and Property work, with a balanced caseload spanning commercial, property, and insolvency matters. He combines skilled advocacy with meticulous attention to paper-based instructions, ensuring comprehensive client support.
Recent highlights include:
- Ndaryiyumvire v Birmingham City University [2025] 10 WLUK 719 (Birmingham County Court): Acted (as sole counsel) for Birmingham City University in successfully obtaining strike out with indemnity costs of a claim brought by a former student, as well as wasted costs against the former student’s solicitors for the use of AI-generated fictitious cases.
- Acted (as sole counsel) for an individual debtor against a KC in a 2-day insolvency trial. The debtor sought to go behind a judgment debt on grounds of undue influence, duress, and an unfair relationship under the Consumer Credit Act 1974.
- Acted (as sole counsel) for a neighbour in a boundary and rights-of-way dispute from beginning to end, from pre-action advice to drafting the pleadings, attending interim hearings and trial. The claim settled on the day of trial.
- Appeared (as sole counsel) successfully in the High Court in an application for an urgent Validation Order shortly before Christmas for payment of staff salaries.
- Advised (led by Avtar Khangure KC) a business in a potential private law action against HMRC for negligence and breach of statutory duty, involving issues of transferred loss.
- Advised (led by Robert Mundy KC) a large healthcare provider on contractual termination scenarios in respect of a 500-plus page public sector contract, with potential liabilities of over £100m.
- Advised (led by David Nutall) a registered provider of social housing on claims for breach of contract and unjust enrichment in the High Court, following a forensic review into the evidence for each occupant of each room in the properties used by the provider.
- Advised and represented (as sole counsel) consumers and businesses in various consumer disputes, including on complex issues of transfer of ownership and the nemo dat rule, claims arising out of the CCRs 2013 and CPUT 2008, and disputes involving mercantile agents and other third parties.
With five years of legal experience across the Bar, at Pinsent Masons, boutique solicitors’ firms, and in-house roles at Barclays Bank and Sainsbury’s, Alexander has developed a versatile approach to legal problem-solving. Notable achievements include managing a regulatory and compliance project at Barclays and handling his own caseload of consumer disputes for major brands such as Sainsbury’s Supermarkets, Argos, Habitat and Nectar, often appearing in court as an advocate.
Alexander has delivered talks and seminars for the commercial, insolvency, and real estate groups.
Alexander has co-authored a blog on responsible gambling, exploring legal and regulatory aspects of the industry.
His broad professional background is complemented by a commitment to pro bono work, particularly in eviction-related matters.
Commercial and Chancery Litigation
Alexander has built a robust practice in commercial litigation, representing clients in a variety of disputes across interim hearings and trials, as well as in advisory and drafting work.
Alexander has represented companies and individuals in business-to-business and business-to-consumer disputes in claims in contract, negligence, conversion, bailment and unjust enrichment, as well as statutory causes of action such as transactions defrauding creditors and unfair relationships. Alexander has also represented public bodies in commercial claims.
Drawing from his in-house roles including at Sainsbury’s, Alexander frequently provides advice and representation in consumer disputes. Alexander has particular experience of acting for universities in defending student litigation, including Ndaryiyumvire v Birmingham City University [2025] 10 WLUK 719, which began as a claim brought by a former student against a university for breach of contract and fraud. The claim was struck out with indemnity costs and wasted costs. Alexander can also advise on obtaining Civil Restraint Orders against vexatious litigants.
Alexander has delivered seminars on practical tips on litigating commercial claims in the Birmingham District Registry, dealing with potentially impecunious parties, and the shareholder rule in company litigation.
As well as his work as sole counsel, Alexander is equally at home being led as part of a larger team. In recent months Alexander has been led by:
- Robert Mundy KC, advising a large healthcare provider on the implications and liabilities of terminating a public sector contract. The case raised contract law issues of remedy and quantum, as well as wider reputational harm and consequences under public law and the Procurement Act regime.
- Avtar Khangure KC, advising a group company who had suffered loss of profit as a result of a public body’s negligence and breach of statutory duty. The case raised complex issues of whether the public body had assumed a duty of care, and who could sue for the loss given that the loss was suffered by the group company’s subsidiaries rather than the company itself.
Company & Partnership
Alexander is happy to provide advice and representation in relation to company and partnership disputes. Alexander often encounters and advises on issues of company law in his practice, such as the reflective loss principle and separate legal personality, directors’ duties, and piercing the corporate veil. Alexander has delivered talks and seminars on company and partnership law, including directors’ duties and the equitable doctrine of laches, the shareholder rule in company litigation.
Before coming to the Bar, Alexander provided hands-on assistance as a paralegal to a partner in a long-running, multi-jurisdictional partnership dispute in the High Court in London with leading counsel instructed on both sides, involving allegations of fraud, breaches of the Partnership Act, and unfair prejudice. Alexander also ran his own caseload of company restoration litigation in this role.
Outside of the Bar, Alexander sits as a director of a leaseholders’ management company that manages a residential development.
Insolvency and Restructuring
Alexander’s pupillage with Ali Tabari and Kirsty White provided specialist training in insolvency law. Alexander accepts instructions in corporate and personal insolvency matters, including applications to set aside statutory demands, winding up petitions, bankruptcy petitions, applications to increase office-holder remuneration, applications to annul a bankruptcy, and other insolvency applications. His experience includes:
- Appeared unled against a KC whilst acting for an individual debtor in long-running proceedings with several interim hearings, culminating in a 2-day bankruptcy trial. The debtor alleged that her ex-partner had forced her to enter into a loan agreement with a third party under duress and undue influence, and that her relationship with the third party was unfair under the Consumer Credit Act 1974.
- Appeared unled in the High Court in an application for a Validation Order in the week before Christmas for urgent payment of staff salaries. The court carefully scrutinised the evidence in support, which included a purported £75m valuation of the company and witness evidence from the directors that they were not properly served with the winding up petition. After some initial reluctance, the court ultimately granted temporary relief for payment of the staff salaries for December.
- Acted for a major law firm in pursuing a former high-profile client for unpaid fees, raising complex issues of law about the nature of a qualifying debt for insolvency proceedings.
- Acted for a UK-based company seeking to enforce a judgment debt obtained in a foreign court against another UK-based company.
- Acted for an Australian-based creditor seeking to enforce a judgment debt against a UK individual.
Alexander has delivered or written various talks and articles on insolvency, including restructuring plans, individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs), and practical tips for dealing with impecunious parties.
Real Estate
Alexander’s property practice encompasses a diverse range of cases, reflecting his growing expertise in this area. Alexander has experience of disputes over easements, nuisance, trespass, restrictive covenants, orders for sale, landlord and tenant obligations (including disrepair, dilapidations, and claims under the 1954 Act), boundaries, service charges, possession claims, telecommunications, and council tax and business rates.
Recent instructions include:
- Acted for and advising a neighbour in a boundary and rights-of-way dispute from beginning to end, from pre-action advice to trial and enforcement. The dispute initially began with the next door neighbour blocking the shared driveway. It then evolved into a much wider dispute involving allegations of trespass, harassment, and the rightful location of the boundary. Alexander was involved at every stage, drafting the pleadings and application notices, providing advice, and attending interim hearings and trial. The claim settled on the day of trial save for costs. Alexander then secured a substantial costs order in the client’s favour.
- Advised (led by David Nuttall) a registered provider of social housing for claims for breach of contract and unjust enrichment, as well as a defence of estoppel by convention. The housing provider operated around 60 rooms let to social tenants. The case required a detailed review into the evidence for each tenant in each room, poring over whether housing benefit was paid to each tenant and whether the housing provider might have been misled as to which tenants were occupying the rooms and on what basis.
- Acted for individual seeking an order for sale against her brother with whom she co-owned a property. Both sides made extensive submissions on costs, with the defendant seeking over £30,000 and the client seeking no order as to costs. The judge ultimately granted no order.
- Acted for a residential landlord defending an application for an interim injunction brought by former tenants to recover property and chattels they had left at the property. The landlord alleged that the tenants had refused to collect their belongings, but the tenants argued that they had not been afforded a reasonable chance to do so. The application was dismissed with costs.
- Representing landlords and tenants in possession proceedings, from straightforward cases to those involving regulated mortgages, matrimonial home rights, insolvency, claims against trespassers and Persons Unknown, and other complex issues.
Alexander has delivered seminars on dilapidations and the meaning of a “notice” following Khan v D’Aubigny [2025] EWCA Civ 11.
Alexander also has gained experience of leaseholder rights and obligations and building safety matters through his directorship of a residents’ management company.
Education
- LLB (Hons) 2:1 (68% average), Queen Mary University of London
Including a year abroad studying EU and international law at the University of Leuven, Belgium.
- LLM/BPTC (Distinction), BPP University.
Scholarships and prizes:
- Dissertation Prize, Queen Mary University of London
- Advocacy Scholarship, BPP University
