Melanie Carter, national leader in public and regulatory law, joins Stone King

Melanie Carter, a national leader in public and regulatory law, has joined Stone King as a partner based in the firm’s London office. She has been taken on to lead the highly specialised Public and Regulatory team at the firm and strengthen its offering through her senior leadership.

Melanie, a former barrister and for many years a judge, is a top ranked lawyer in four categories in legal directory Chambers, including being Band 1 in administrative & public law. She is also named as a Leading Individual for the public sector and in the Hall of Fame for professional discipline in The Legal 500.  

Melanie brings with her over 30 years of experience as a public law lawyer, with an impressive repertoire of high profile work, including working on the Independent Child Sexual Abuse Inquiry and, more recently, the Covid Inquiry, acting for a wide range of Non-Departmental Public Bodies, judicial reviews including for and against the Government and local government, the drafting of legislation and co-authoring the Law Society’s International Toolkit for Women in the Law. Melanie brings many years’ experience in investigations. 

Melanie will head up Stone King’s new Public Law and Regulatory team, which will work across a broad range of clients in the public sector, including for many regulators and, in particular, the external auditors to local government and the NHS, as well as clients from the firm’s existing Education, Charity and Social Enterprise Sectors. She will also lead our work in information law (data law and freedom of information).  

“I’m very much looking forward to building out the existing public and regulatory work at Stone King,” said Melanie. “To be using my expertise to head up an entirely new team for the firm is an exciting prospect that poses so many opportunities. I will be working closely with the existing Information Law team and across Stone King’s multiple sectors.”

Roger Inman, Chair of Stone King’s Management Board, said “Melanie’s unrivaled expertise is precisely what Stone King needs to further strengthen our public and regulatory law offering, adding greatly to our focus on work for clients who serve the public interest. Her further expertise in information law will also assist the whole firm as the vital importance of data use continues to grow.”

Melanie joins Stone King from Bevan Brittan and, before that, Bates Wells, where she was a trusted adviser to various public authorities, regulators, charities and private companies, often operating at Board level and as external general counsel.

Stone King works nationally, with offices in Bath, Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, Manchester and London. The firm is top-ranked by both independent legal guides Chambers and The Legal 500, and has been named a Best Law Firm for 2024 by The Times.