• What is the FCO?
• Who we are
• Our Ministers
• Special representatives
• Permanent Under Secretary
• The FCO Management Board
• Our directorates
• Ambassadors, High Commissioners and Consuls
• Locarno Group
• Our Legal Advisers
• Diversity in the FCO
• What we do
• Our Ministers
• Our history
• Working for us

Our Legal Advisers

Iain Macleod is the FCO's Legal Adviser with overall responsibility for all aspects of legal advice to the Foreign Secretary, FCO Ministers and policy departments.

He is supported by a team of Deputy Legal Advisers, Legal Counsellors and Assistant Legal Advisers.  

Types of advice

Our Legal Advisers provide advice to FCO Ministers and officials on law and practice arising in the course of business of the Office, including on questions of:

• Public International Law
• EU Law
• Human Rights Law
• Constitutional Law
• Law relating to the British Overseas Territories
• Domestic law (eg Freedom of Information Act and Data Protection Act)
• All Legal Advisers are qualified as barristers or solicitors within the UK, and many have post-qualification experience in private practice, with partners across government or in international institutions.  

The teams

There are four teams which cover the work of each Directorate/Department within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office:

• EU and Wider Europe
• International Institutions and Security Policy
• Counter Terrorism and Human Rights
• General Law and Litigation
  
  
  
  

   

See also

• FCO publications
• Treaties
• Transparency and data
• Freedom of information