The Legal 500

Chambers of George Bompas QC

LINCOLN'S INN, LONDON, WC2A 3XT, ENGLAND
Tel:
Work 020 7242 5524
Fax:
Fax 020 7831 7907
DX:
385 LONDON CHANCERY LANE WC2
Web:
www.4stonebuildings.com
Email:

4 Stone Buildings specialises in company law, corporate insolvency, financial services and regulatory work, and commercial law.

The set: 4 Stone Buildings currently consists of 31 members, including six silks. Five members are currently on one of the Treasury panels. Five members are appointed to sit as deputy High Court judges and one as a recorder. Chambers belongs to the Commercial Bar Association and the Chancery Bar Association.

Further information about chambers and the work undertaken is available on the website (www.4stonebuildings.com). The clerk’s room is staffed from 8am to 8pm during term, Monday to Friday; and chambers can be contacted out of hours on the number given on the chambers answering machine and on the website.

Types of work undertaken: Company law; corporate fraud; corporate insolvency; financial services; shareholder disputes; commercial litigation; banking; international trusts; and public law.

Publications: members of chambers have contributed to numerous publications in the set’s specialist fields. These include: Annotated Companies Acts (Oxford University Press); Tolley’s Company Law; Atkin Court Forms (2nd edition, volumes on companies, winding up, and equitable remedies); Halsbury’s Laws of England (4th edition; volumes on corporations and money); and A Practitioner’s Guide to Directors’ Duties and Responsibilities (City & Financial Publishing). Malcolm Davis-White is the co-author of Directors’ Disqualification and Bankruptcy Restrictions: Law and Practice (Sweet & Maxwell), and Rosalind Nicholson is the author of Table A Articles of Association (Sweet & Maxwell).

International: chambers undertakes a substantial amount of work for overseas clients and members regularly receive instructions from the Caribbean, the United States, Europe and the Far East. In recent years, members have appeared in court in Hong Kong, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas, Gibraltar, Anguilla, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Malaysia, Singapore, Nevis, Dominica and Trinidad. Various members of chambers have been called to these Bars for specific cases. In addition, certain members are full members of the Northern Ireland Bar, the Cayman Islands Bar and the Bar of the British Virgin Islands.

Recruitment: 4 Stone Buildings’ policy is to seek to recruit one new member each year from amongst its pupils. Prospective applicants for pupillage will find further information, including details of chambers’ awards, in the pupillage pack, which is available on request. Mini-pupillages are encouraged.

Above material supplied by 4 Stone Buildings (Chambers of George Bompas QC).

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.
    - 11KBW
  • 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
    - 11KBW
  • 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:
    - 11KBW
  • 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.
    - 11KBW
  • 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.
    - 11KBW
  • Immigration update May 2012

    In this issue: