Paul Antony Darling OBE KC (born March 15, 1960) is an English commercial law barrister, King's Counsel and current chair of the Horserace Betting Levy Board.

Darling grew up in Cleadon in County Durham and went to Tonstall School in Sunderland before attending Winchester School and then St Edmund Hall College, Oxford.^[1] His mother was a magistrate and his brother Ian Darling is a British circuit judge.^[1] Darling's grandfather was Newcastle United player Jack Allen.

Darling was called to the bar at Middle Temple in 1983, and in 1999 was appointed King's Counsel.^[2] He was also called to the Northern Ireland Bar.

In 2010, Darling became head of Keating Chambers where he remained until 2017. He then took the unusual step of moving chambers, joining general commercial set, 39 Essex Chambers.^[3]

His areas of practice include construction and engineering, procurement, domestic and international arbitration – areas in which he has been ranked at tier or band 2 levels by The Legal 500^[4] and Chambers and Partners directories.^[2] He is deputy treasurer of Middle Temple for 2023.^[5]

Darling has written and edited several articles and books, and his cases and work have been described in learned and peer-reviewed journals. Examples include:

• Who Do You Want? Who Do You Get? Appointing the Right Arbitrator, a peer-reviewed article in Asian Dispute Review in 2010^[16]

• Lafarge (Aggregates) Ltd v Newham London Borough Council - case review in Arbitration Law Reports and Review^[17]

• Straight There No Detours: Direct Access to Barristers, a research paper by the University of Westminster^[18]

• Wilmot-Smith on Construction Contracts, 4th Ed. 2021 (Co-Editor)^[19]

In the 2015 Birthday Honours, Darling became the third member of his family to be appointed to the Order of the British Empire. He was recognised for his services to sport safety and horse racing.^[20]