Omar Yaqub - Director of Litigation

Name: Omar Yaqub
Job: Director of Litigation
Team: General Counsel's Office
Joined OFT: 2002

I studied law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, and then took a Masters at the University of London specialising in Islamic Law. From there, I decided to join the Bar, as I liked the idea of advocacy.

After two and a half years, I found the very long hours, six-day week and cash-flow issues made it difficult to survive. I have always had a passion for public law, so joined the Treasury Solicitors Public Law Litigation Team in 2000. I worked there for two years doing interesting and high-profile judicial reviews on behalf of a range of government departments and public bodies.

I saw a position of OFT litigator advertised, and spoke to a friend who worked there, who said the work was very exciting. Being the sole litigator looked like a fantastic opportunity as I could develop the role while providing in-house litigation knowledge.

Since joining, I have moved from being the sole litigator to establishing a litigation unit. This has been an exciting challenge. I became head of the unit in September 2004, and have an amazing team I love working with.

As head of the unit, I have oversight of all the work it does as well as advising colleagues on cases and investigations they are working on.

I have conducted a range of important cases. These have included one of the OFT's largest cases, which concerned price-fixing of replica football shirts. It was something that had a very high public profile. It was a great experience, but also a huge challenge (I learnt what it is like to work a 15-hour day!). The team also advises on judicial reviews, and handles all the OFT's applications for warrants to enter and search premises.

The best thing about my time with the OFT has been the exceptionally interesting work on offer. You wouldn't get this in many other public bodies, and certainly not in the private sector.

Back to: Working for us - what it's like