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Employment

No5 Barristers’ Chambers
St Philips Chambers

Leading Juniors

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Helen Barney – No5 Barristers’ Chambers 'Helen is thorough in her preparation and cross-examination. She has a strong grip on the key issues and secures the right outcome for clients. She understands the importance of a team approach, which makes onboarding seamless for clients.' 
Edmund Beever –St Philips Chambers 'Edmund is an incredible and tenacious advocate, highly effective, with an admirable success rate. He has the ability to converse with commercial clients and individuals at every level.’  
Charles Crow – No5 Barristers’ Chambers 'Charles has strong technical skills, particularly in relation to disability discrimination. He also has an excellent forensic dissection of the issues.’  
Sophie Garner –St Philips Chambers ‘Sophie is adept at dealing with complex employment matters and explaining in a way that clients are able to understand. She goes the extra mile when instructed.’ 
Elizabeth Hodgetts –St Philips Chambers ‘Elizabeth is an outstanding practitioner. She is particularly good at getting to grips with the intricate details of a case in a short time, always being one step ahead of her opponent and being both practical and approachable with clients.’  
Mugni Islam-Choudhury – No5 Barristers’ Chambers 'Mugni is a commercially-minded barrister, putting the client's interests first. He is a good and clear communicator and an assured presence during complex and stressful proceedings.'  
Nabila Mallick – No5 Barristers’ Chambers 'Nabila is passionate about her client's case and is not afraid to challenge the courtroom or do things a bit differently. She uses these attributes to get the best result for the client.'  
Naomi Owen – No5 Barristers’ Chambers 'Naomi is very approachable, accessible and works in a highly collaborative way. She is intelligent and knows the law inside and out. She handles difficult individuals brilliantly and remains calm and measured in the most challenging of situations.' 
Gemma Roberts – No5 Barristers’ Chambers ‘Gemma is excellent through and through, with a laser-sharp focus and a strong understanding of what it takes to get the right result.’  
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Mirza Ahmad –St Philips Chambers
Julie Duane –St Philips Chambers ‘Julie is extremely thorough and technically sophisticated. She is also very personable, establishes an excellent rapport with clients and offers pragmatic and commercially focused advice.’  
Jack Feeny – No5 Barristers’ Chambers 'Jack is a diligent, trusted and highly competent counsel. He has an impressive ability to understand legal issues and the clients' perspectives quickly.'  
Jonathan Gidney –St Philips Chambers ‘Jonathan is understanding and empathetic in his dealings with the cases instructed upon, giving an honest assessment and opinion on the case's chances of success or otherwise. He is knowledgeable and approachable and gives the best advice. His approach and manner instil a great sense of confidence and trustworthiness, which keeps those instructing him at ease and appreciative of the efforts undertaken on their matters.’  
Caroline Jennings – No5 Barristers’ Chambers 'Caroline is tenacious, bright and has a sharp eye for detail. She is responsive to client needs, but also robust.' 
Patrick Keith –St Philips Chambers ‘Patrick is very approachable, efficient, knowledgeable, and good with witnesses. He is very personable and collaborative to ensure that the correct strategy is adopted for a particular client and case.’  
Robert Mundy –St Philips Chambers
Tim Sheppard – No5 Barristers’ Chambers 'Tim is an intellectual and has a sharp mind with an approachable manner. He is quick in turning around work. He is an excellent cross-examiner and very thorough.'  
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Daniel Brown –3PB ‘Daniel has a great analytical mind, and his real strength is assessing papers in detail at pace. He practices beyond his year of call.’  
Theodora Hand - St Philips Chambers ‘Theodora is incredibly approachable and great with clients and solicitors alike. She is exceptional at digesting large swathes of information and understanding the central issues in a case. She does not sit on the fence and gives an honest and accurate assessment of merits.’  
Richard Hignett – No5 Barristers’ Chambers 'Richard is tenacious, has a great eye for detail and will leave no stone unturned. He is a great advocate and has a strong presence in the Tribunal hearing room.'  
Anthony Korn – No5 Barristers’ Chambers 'Anthony's attention to detail is second to none. He is a very bright individual and a safe pair of hands.' 
Tom Perry - No5 Barristers' Chambers ‘Tom has great technical knowledge and provides the right amount of feedback and updates to the instructing solicitor during multi-day hearings. He establishes a good rapport with witnesses and clients at in-person and virtual hearings.’   
Alexander Rozycki- St Philips Chambers ‘Alexander is great to work with, has a deep understanding of complex employment issues, is very helpful and liked by clients; both individuals and businesses alike.’
Jessica Smeaton – No5 Barristers’ Chambers ‘Jessica has an exceptional skill-set and shows incomparable attention to detail in preparation for hearings. She is amazing with clients, approachable and a truly calming influence to witnesses. Jessica is a “go-to” barrister in the Employment Tribunal.’ 
Paul Wilson –St Philips Chambers ‘Paul is able to grapple with complex areas of law and relay this to clients constructively and concisely. He works tirelessly to achieve great results and is always on hand to help and give advice.’

Rising Stars

Lorna Badham –St Philips Chambers ‘Lorna has fantastic attention to detail, a good understanding of case law, strong communication skills, and is able to work to very tight deadlines.’  

Employment in Regional Bar

No5 Barristers' Chambers

The employment group of No5 Barristers’ Chambers offers the full range of advisory and advocacy services in all courts and tribunals in England & Wales. Mugni Islam-Choudhury heads the employment group and is currently handling a direct age discrimination that challenges the retirement policy of the University of Oxford, affecting over 5,000 academics. Helen Barney is ‘astute at cross-examination’ and the ‘go to’ barrister for a number of NHS clients, local authorities, and social housing providers. Charles Crow has particular experience in the fields of unfair dismissal and discrimination cases.

Testimonials

Set 

‘No 5 has good strength in depth, with some excellent senior counsel.’ 

‘Excellent chambers. Go-to chambers on employment tribunal matters. All the barristers are good.’

‘No5 Chambers is the first choice of chambers when seeking counsel for employment law matters. It has a reasonable selection of counsel at all levels.’

‘Chambers has a very good breadth of barristers at different costs levels.’

‘No5 set as a whole is very approachable, consistently delivering good advice legally and commercially.’

‘Impressive strength in depth.’

‘Very good value for money and excellent choice of barristers.’

‘No5 Chambers is a brilliant chamber, always there to help and provide a quality set of barristers for employment matters.’

‘Expert employment specialists who are highly responsive.’

Clerking

‘Good service, very responsive and client focused.’

‘Very user friendly, highly responsible, and helpful. First class.’

‘The clerks are very helpful. Oliver Lee always responds promptly and will do what he can to assist.’

‘The clerks are efficient and responsive.’

‘Oliver Lee is my main point of contact in the clerks’ room. They are very responsive and provide a good level of service.’

‘Oliver Lee works hard to find the right counsel for the case.’

‘Clerks are very responsive to questions and easy to communicate with.’

‘Good strength in depth. Oliver Lee is efficient and helpful.’

‘The clerks are incredibly efficient and will work very hard to accommodate requests. Oliver Lee is very responsive and communicative – an invaluable attribute.’ 

St Philips Chambers

St Philips Chambers has a ‘vast employment department’ with ‘a large number of counsel available at varying levels of expertise’. ‘Outstanding employment law expert’ Edmund Beever heads the department and recently handled a case related to fraudulent accounting and whistleblowing dismissal. Sophie Garner is ‘extremely able and a superb communicator’ and recently successfully defended a high-profile academy against claims of whistleblowing and disability discrimination. Elizabeth Hodgetts is always ‘methodical and thorough’ and recently secured a favourable verdict for a university in a case involving claim of unfair dismissal by a former warden and lecturer.

Testimonials

Set 

‘Chambers has a wide range of barristers available with experience and expertise ranging throughout and the availability of counsel is always good.’ ‘Responsive, supportive and professional.’ 

‘St Philips Chambers has a broad range of junior to senior barristers who will wherever possible strive to ensure the right person is available for the case.’ 

‘St Philips offer a good availability on counsel and flexibility in terms of fees and availability.’ 

‘Excellent set. Very easy to deal with.’ 

‘The set is very good at providing training to instructing solicitors.’ 

‘Good availability of counsel and chambers linked up well so an alternative counsel could be provided if another is unavailable.’ 

Clerking 

‘Clerks are very responsive and always flexible on cost.’

‘Good and attentive, someone will always pick up your contact.’