Jonathan Laidlaw  Jonathan Laidlaw QC (February 1960) is an English barrister notable for prosecuting and defending in many high-profile criminal cases, including defence of News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks who was acquitted of all charges after the phone hacking trial. In 2012 he was chosen by the Football Association to present their case against John Terry. Laidlaw was called to the Bar in 1982. He practises at 2 Hare Court in the Inner Temple, where in 2013 he was appointed the head of chambers. He sat as a Crown Court Recorder since 1998 and in 2008 was appointed Queen's Counsel. As Treasury Counsel, Laidlaw brought Britain’s first war crimes case and acted as prosecution in the trial of the Provisional IRA bombing of Canary Wharf, the Official Secrets Act prosecution of Richard Tomlinson and David Shayler, the Jill Dando murder trial, the trial of the Al Qaeda cell that planned pre-9/11 attacks in the United States and United Kingdom, the trial of the Al Qaeda attack on Glasgow Airport and of Delroy Grant who received four life sentences and is believed responsible for roughly 100 cases of rape, sexual assault and burglary.