The Legal 500

This cutting-edge set specialises in a wide-range of civil and criminal law, with notable expertise in all aspects of human rights law and civil liberties, public law, crime and regulatory and financial crime.

The set: Doughty Street Chambers was set up in 1990 with the aim of breaking the mould by moving out of the Inns of Court and setting new standards of excellence in the legal world. That desire remains the driving force behind all that Chambers does today. It has grown to more than three times its original size with 112 members, including 25 QCs, and has in recent years established offices in Bristol and Manchester. Chambers is recognised for its unfaltering commitment to the promotion of human rights through the law. Members are noted as leaders in their field, for intellectual excellence and a collegial, team-based approach. There is a commitment to providing a first-class, fully accountable service to clients.

In the past three years, more than 30 barristers have joined Chambers and ten new silks have been appointed, including three in the first half of 2011. The set has won numerous awards. Most recently, Steven Broach was named Young Barrister of Year at the 2011 Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards and Heather Rogers QC was listed as one of the Hot 100 Lawyers for 2011. In 2010 Mark Henderson was named as Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year and Anthony Hudson as Defamation Junior of the Year. In addition, Chambers was named both as Human Rights and Public Law Chambers of the Year and as overall Barristers’ Chambers of the Year.

Types of work undertaken: Doughty Street provides specialist practitioners at all levels of seniority in civil and criminal work enabling it to offer advice and representation before all the courts of England and Wales and the rest of the UK as well as European and international courts. Members are often involved in high-profile, precedent-setting cases, both domestically and internationally.

Principal areas of practice include administrative and public law, civil liberties and all aspects of criminal law and regulatory and financial crime. There is expertise in the full range of community care and health issues including mental health, cases before the Court of Protection, clinical and professional negligence and personal injury. Civil liberties work includes actions against the police, prisoners’ and other detainees’ rights as well as claims for damages following miscarriages of justice. Specialist expertise is provided in inquests, including medical and custodial deaths as well as challenges under coronial law. Other specialist areas include education, housing and social welfare law, asylum, business and personal immigration. The set has teams renowned for dealing with complex employment and discrimination cases as well as regulatory issues involving employees and professionals. Chambers’ media law expertise encompasses areas such as defamation, privacy and regulation.

Criminal expertise covers appellate work, terrorism, homicide, courts martial, drugs offences, sexual offences, political crime, road traffic offences and international crime. Within regulatory and financial crime the team has experience in a wide range of matters including fraud, bribery, asset recovery, money laundering, compliance and civil recovery.

International expertise includes extradition, public and private international law, criminal and humanitarian law. Members regularly attend the Privy Council, ECHR, ECJ and other international courts.

Recent cases include O’Reilly v BBC (age discrimination); OOO & Others v Commissioner of Police (domestic slavery); R (Public Interest Lawyers) v LSC (tender process); WL and KM v SSHD (immigration); representing bereaved families in the 7/7 London bombings inquest and the family of Jean Charles de Menezes in various legal proceedings. High profile ongoing cases include USA v Gary Mckinnon (extradition); Sadeer Salem (7/7 bombings); the phone tap litigation and privacy super-injunctions. Recent criminal cases include R v Fowkes (attempted murder of Ian Huntley) and R v Morley & Devine (fraud relating to parliamentary expenses). The set has a particularly high reputation in criminal appellate work including Al-Khawaja & Tahery v United Kingdom and Pomfrett. International litigation includes cases for residents of Ivory Coast, Kenya, Peru and Iraq. Members act on behalf of British servicemen in claims against the government.

Other offices: Bristol, Manchester, London.