Josh Beale

Josh is a Managing Associate (New South Wales qualified) in the Litigation, Arbitration and Investigations practice, based in London.

He advises leading corporates and financial institutions on a breadth of issues from anti-bribery and sanctions to ESG risk, including on matters arising under the UK Bribery Act and UK sanctions regulations. He also advises on competition law issues, particularly proceedings before the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

Before joining Linklaters, Josh worked for several years in the Chambers Bank 1 ranked Disputes and Investigations team at Allens in Sydney, Australia, where he advised leading financial institutions on ESG risk, climate litigation, anti-bribery, modern slavery and money laundering investigations and a broad range of general commercial litigation and class actions.

He has also previously worked for the Australian Government, focusing on complex native title litigation, administrative law challenges and federal criminal law.

Work highlights

• Advising a payment scheme in relation to multiple litigation proceedings brought by merchants in the Competition Appeal Tribunal alleging that multilateral interchange fees on card transactions were levied in breach of Article 101 and 102 of the TFEU (and domestic competition laws), including at trials on liability and pass-on
•  Advising in relation to a shareholder dispute involving UK and UAE aspects, focused on resolving commercial and reputational issues
• Advising a financial services company regarding a complaint made under the OECD Guidelines regarding human rights issues
• Advising in relation to anti-bribery and sanctions issues in relation to numerous acquisitions across the UK, Europe and the Middle East
• Investigating alleged bribery issues in connection with several companies across the Middle East and Asia
• At a former firm, advising a leading Australian bank on shareholder litigation regarding its climate positions and more generally on its ESG policies and procedures
• At a former firm, advising a major engineering contractor regarding investigations into alleged bribery offences and overlapping class action proceedings
• At a former firm, advising an international professional services organisation on regulatory investigations regarding alleged misuse of government information
• At a former firm, acting for a public authority before a Royal Commission and separate Commission of Inquiry

Josh is closely involved with the firm’s ESG practice and is passionate about social mobility and development of junior lawyers.

He has previously been seconded at an Australian bank and at an Australian law enforcement organisation.

Josh holds a Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) and a Bachelor of Arts (Politics and French Studies with distinction) from the University of New South Wales, a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice from the Australian National University, and a Certificat d'Études en Sciences Sociales et Humanités from Sciences Po Paris.

He is currently studying a Masters of Laws at the University of Sydney.