The Legal 500

Chambers of Stephen Lowne

1 OXFORD STREET, NOTTINGHAM, NG1 5BH, ENGLAND

What we say about the set's legal practice in Regional Bar

Midland Circuit

Within Chancery, commercial, insolvency and banking,

KCH Garden Square’s James Howlett has a wide-ranging chancery and commercial practice, and has ‘encyclopaedic knowledge of land law and related issues’.

Within Crime,

KCH Garden Square’s Caroline Bradley and Julie Warburton are recommended for serious violence and rape cases. Mark Van Der Zwart has a ‘robust, but fair, cross-examination technique’, and Ian Way is ‘particularly good with clients who have mental health issues, and, indeed, with difficult clients’. Clients also have no hesitation in using Michael Cranmer-Brown in child murder and rape cases without a silk’

Within Family,

KCH Garden Square’s Pami Dhadli is ‘always fully prepared, has a thorough understanding of all of the issues in the case, and is imperious when dealing with (often) massive volumes of paperwork’.

Within Overview, KCH Garden Square (Chambers of Stephen Lowne) is a third tier firm,

The leading sets in Birmingham are St Philips Chambers, which is a ‘commercially astute set’ with clerks who are ‘phenomenal at securing the barrister clients wish to instruct’; and No5 Chambers, which is the ‘number-one set’ for personal injury matters and has an outstanding planning and environmental team. St Ive’s Chambers is the preeminent family and housing law set on circuit; 1 High Pavement houses strong criminal law practitioners; and Cornwall Street Chambers’ family team is well respected. In Nottingham, the civil and chancery Ropewalk Chambers, which is an ‘excellent set’ that is ‘underpinned by the excellence of its clerks and solid administrative support’, has recently moved into state-of-the-art premises. KCH Garden Square has merged with a local Leicester set, taking the set’s head count to over 60. St Mary’s Chambers remains a prominent family law set.

Treasury Panel Lists

Within Treasury Panel Lists Region 2


Legal Developments in the UK

Legal Developments and updates from the leading lawyers in each jurisdiction. To contribute, send an email request to
  • HOUSING

    In Nzinga Maswaku v Westminster City Council [2012] EWCA Civ 669 the Court of Appeal clarified that in offering a homeless person with alternative temporary accommodation the local authority is obliged to point that if the offer is refused it has discharged its Part VII duties under the Housing Act 1996.
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  • COUNCIL TAX

    In Harrow LBC v Ayiku [2012] EWHC 1200 (Admin) Sales J held that the word “or” in the Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) Order 1992, art 3 Class N, had a disjunctive meaning, therefore it was sufficient for the non-British spouse of a foreign student to satisfy one or other of the two conditions, namely being prevented from taking paid employment or being prevented from claiming benefits, in order to qualify as a “relevant person” who was exempted from liability to pay council tax.
    - 11KBW
  • QUEEN’S SPEECH

    Bills already introduced pursuant to the Queen’s Speech on 9 May 2012 include Local Government Finance Bill and Electoral Registration and Administration Bill, both accompanied by Explanatory Notes, which in each case address ECHR compatibility.
    - 11KBW
  • Standards

    In R (Calver) v Adjudication Panel for Wales [2012] EWHC 1172 (Admin) Mr Calver was a member of Manorbier Community Council who successfully challenged the decision of the Panel to dismiss his appeal against a decision by Prembrokeshire County Council Standards Committee censuring him for a number of comments or blogs posted by him on a website he owned and controlled.
    - 11KBW
  • A justified retrospective

    Clive Sheldon - QC debates the pros & cons of retrospective tax legislation
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  • Public Sector Equality Duty (“PSED”)

    In R (Greenwich Community Law Centre) v Greenwich LBC [2012] EWCA Civ 496 the Court of Appeal held that the Council had had “due regard to the PSED when making changes to its funding of community legal advice services”. At para 30 Elias LJ said:
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  • Public Sector Equality Duty

    Surrey County Council conducted a review of its Library Service. This culminated in a Report to the Council’s Cabinet. The Recommendations in the Report included that there should be consultation about a community-partnership approach at selected Libraries.
    - 11KBW
  • Judicial Review

    The Judgment of Lindblom J in The Manydown Co Ltd v Basingstoke and Deane BC [2012] EWHC 977 (Admin) repays attention. The Claimant sought to challenge by judicial review 2 decisions of the Council: (1) the Council’s refusal to reconsider its position on the development of a site that it owns (and is the subject matter of a Joint Development Partnership Agreement with the Claimant); and (2) a decision of the Council’s Cabinet approving a selection of sites for development which did not include this site.
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  • The Health and Social Care Act 2012: impact on adult social services

    After its torrid passage through Parliament, the Health and Social Care Bill received Royal Assent on 27 March 2012. The Act deals principally with healthcare reform, but it also contains some amendments to the legislative framework for social care. It will come into force on a day yet to be appointed by the Secretary of State.
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  • Immigration update May 2012

    In this issue: