Maya Lester KC

Maya Lester KC is a senior barrister (King’s Counsel) at Brick Court Chambers with a wide-ranging practice in public law, European law, competition law, international law, human rights & civil liberties. She has a particular expertise in sanctions. She is the “star practitioner” for sanctions in the legal directories which describe her as the “Queen of the Sanctions Bar” who “owns the world of sanctions”.

Maya’s sanctions practice is broad, spanning all areas of advisory work and litigation, including sanctions & export control investigations, compliance, reporting, breaches, de-listings, contractual issues including sanctions clauses, Magnitsky and the EU Blocking Regulation. She has given evidence to a number of parliamentary committees on sanctions issues, including the post-Brexit UK framework.

Maya was educated at Cambridge University and Yale & Columbia Law Schools, and has a very international practice. She represents and advises hundreds of companies and individuals before the European and English courts and has acted & advised in most of the leading cases, including Kadi, Tay Za, Central Bank of Iran, NITC, Sberbank, IRISL and Mamancochet. She is qualified at the Bar of Ireland as well as England & Wales.