Adam Sowerbutts has practised as a lawyer in the UK for over twenty years. For the last ten years he has worked at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) specialising in Freedom of Information (FOI) Law. In that role he has managed the team of lawyers dealing with legal challenges to the ICO’s statutory decisions and has been responsible for conducting many high-profile court cases, developing the FOI case law which applies to the FOI regime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Adam is currently the Head of the ICO’s Freedom of Information Complaints and Appeals Department which handles with all of the FOI casework, decision making and litigation undertaken by the ICO. Each year the Department’s  65 members of staff are responsible for dealing with 5750 applications, issuing 1400 statutory decision notices and defending 300 information rights appeals in the Information Rights Tribunal.