User:Carl Gardner

I write Head of Legal to explain developments in law, and the law behind the news, to an informed and interested but not necessarily legal audience. And because I can't help thinking, writing and obsessing about law, particularly my specialisms in constitutional, public, human rights and European law and the way they interact with politics and society.

I'm a barrister, and worked as a government lawyer for twelve years, advising ministers and government departments on a wide range of public law issues from tax to terrorism, from freedom of information to pensions, from discrimination to health and from defence to broadcasting. My career in government included stints at the Cabinet Office, where I advised on the EU Constitution negotiations, and at the Attorney General's Office where I advised Lord Goldsmith on a wide variety of legal issues. I have advised nearly every government department, from the Home Office to Health and from the Treasury to the MoD.

I've left practice now, though, and work as a writer, lecturer and consultant. As well as Head of Legal I also write another blog about politics, culture and ideas, and contribute legal and political comment and reviews to on of the UK's leading blogs, the Wardman Wire. Not forgetting my column on the anglophile website Anglotopia. I'm also trying to find time to write my first book, a guide to the constitution (yes, the UK does have one) for non-lawyers.

I teach human rights and EU law to government fast-streamers and lawyers at the National School of Government, and constitutional and EU law to undergraduates at the Open University. I decide domain name disputes for Nominet and I'm a consultant to the Practical Law Company.

I live in London.