The Legal 500

Chambers of John Martin QC

8 NEW SQUARE, LINCOLN'S INN, LONDON, WC2A 3QP, ENGLAND
Tel:
Work 020 7306 0102
Fax:
Fax 020 7306 0095
DX:
311 LONDON CHANCERY LANE WC2
Web:
www.wilberforce.co.uk
Email:

Wilberforce Chambers is widely recognised as one of the leading chambers in its core specialist areas of commercial and financial services, pensions, private client and trusts, property, and professional negligence.

The set: With 48 barristers (23 QCs), the chambers is able to offer specialism at all levels of seniority and across the spectrum of commercial and Chancery work. It has individuals who have excellent reputations for their specialist capabilities in the additional fields of arbitration and dispute resolution, company, banking, insolvency, oil, gas and electricity law, intellectual property, information technology, sports and media law, planning, employment, and charities.

With its strength and depth of expertise, chambers undertakes many of the most complex and important cases, working hard to build and maintain strong, long-term relationships with its clients, who include leading UK and international law firms, multinational corporations, major organisations, private companies and individuals. Clients value the modern quality of chambers’ clerking and organisational management, and the approachable service provided by barristers and clerks.

Chambers frequently advises and appears in jurisdictions outside the UK, including the Bahamas, Bermuda, US, British Virgin Islands, the Caymans, Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, Russia and the European Court of Justice.

Details of each individual member’s practice, including selected reported cases, can be found on the website, www.wilberforce.co.uk.

Types of work undertaken: The set’s aim is always to provide practical and effective advice and to settle disputes in the client’s favour by the most effective means available.

Commercial and other contracts: commercial contracts, banking, insurance loans and security, guarantees, Lloyd’s drafting and regulation, economic torts, breach of confidence, and oil, gas and electricity law.

Financial services and regulatory work: pensions, unit trusts, property enterprise trusts and collective investment schemes, and regulatory work, including investigations and disciplinary proceedings under the Financial Services Act 1986, Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, subordinate legislation and rules of conduct.

Property: all matters relating to land, commercial property transactions, landlord and tenant, property finance negligence and fraud, and mortgages and other securities.

Professional negligence: accountants, actuaries, auditors, barristers, solicitors, surveyors and trustees and construction-related professional negligence.

Pensions: occupational and personal pension schemes.

Trusts: drafting, advice on administration and construction, and contentious and non-contentious litigation.

Tax and estate planning (including offshore tax planning) and a wide range of tax litigation.

Company law and insolvency: including shareholder disputes, directors’ disqualification proceedings, mergers and acquisitions, partnerships and joint ventures, and corporate and personal insolvency.

Arbitration and dispute resolution: advice and representation at arbitrations, or acting as arbitrator, in a wide range of commercial disputes, advertising and intellectual property rights.

Equitable remedies: injunctions, search orders, freezing injunctions, tracing, constructive trusts and proprietary estoppel.

Wills and probate: contentious and non-contentious, administration of estates, intestacy and family provision.

Charities, partnerships and associations: housing associations, clubs, societies and the law as it relates to other associations.

Above material supplied by Wilberforce Chambers (Chambers of John Martin 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.
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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.
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  • 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.
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  • 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.
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  • 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: