John Randall KC > Chambers of Sara Lewis KC > Birmingham, England > Barrister Profile
St Philips Chambers Offices
St Philips Chambers
55 TEMPLE ROW
BIRMINGHAM
B2 5LS
England
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John Randall KC
Work Department
St Philips Business & Property
Position
John has a broad based practice in chancery and commercial law, acting in a wide range of work including contractual, property and professional negligence disputes, together with commercially related judicial review claims and a variety of sports law matters. He is an accredited mediator and was a deputy High Court Judge for 16 years. John has acted in a substantial number of lengthy trials and high value claims, including: ten lead cases in a group action for professional negligence, tried in the Chancery Division in Birmingham over seven weeks; and Queen’s Bench proceedings on behalf of a substantial Building Society seeking to recover losses of over £50 million from MIG and pool insurers in respect of post-property crash defaults and capital losses. His experience includes two major trials involving the extensive use of computers in the court room during the hearing, numerous appeal cases, and a number of remote video hearings. John is an Adjunct Professor at the University of New South Wales law school in Sydney, and has taught both there and at the University of Melbourne on its Law Masters programme. He is also a frequent speaker at legal seminars in the United Kingdom. John’s international experience includes appearances in the Court of Appeal of Tanzania, the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, and the High Court of Justice of the Isle of Man (both Civil and Staff of Government Divisions), and providing expert evidence of English law for Courts in Spain and Eire. He has received two ‘Barrister of the Year’ awards. Visit John’s personal website at www.johnrandallqc.co.uk.
Career
Called 1978, Lincoln’s Inn; silk 1995; deputy high court judge, Chancery and Queen’s Bench Divisions, 2000-2016; Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn, 2003; external examiner, Bar professional training course 2008-2015; member, Legal Services Consultative Panel 2000-09; Adjunct Professor, University of New South Wales 2013 (Visiting Fellow 2004-2013); Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne 2014-17. Publications of note: The Tort of Conversion (with Sarah Green), 2009 (Hart Publishing, Oxford) – finalist in the triennial Inner Temple Book Prize (2011); ‘Rethinking the Economic Torts’ (with Prof Simon Deakin) (2009) 72 Modern Law Review 519; ‘Caparo v Dickman – Legal Celebrity or Jurisprudential Substance?’, in Cases that Changed our Lives, 2010 (LexisNexis Butterworths, London); ‘Proprietary estoppel and the common intention constructive trust – Strange bedfellows or a match in the making?’ (2010) 4 Journal of Equity 171; ‘Detinue, Trover & Conversion’ (with Prof Brendan Edgeworth) in Historical Foundations of Australian Law – Volume II, Commercial Common Law (Federation Press, Sydney, 2013); ‘Express Termination Clauses in Contracts’ [2014] Cambridge Law Journal 113; ‘When Louisa Carlill Caught the Flu – Carlill v The Carbolic Smoke Ball Co’, in Cases that Changed our Lives 2, 2014 (LexisNexis Butterworths, London); ‘Criminal Convictions in the Civil Courts’ (with Matthew Dyson) [2015] Cambridge Law Journal 78; ‘England’s Splendid Isolation’ (with Matthew Dyson) in Comparing Crime and Tort (Cambridge University Press, 2015).
Memberships
Midland Circuit; Chancery Bar Association; COMBAR; Midland Chancery and Commercial Bar Association (MCCBA); Society of Legal Scholars.
Education
Jesus College, Cambridge (1977 BA (Hons) 2(1); 1981 MA); barrister of New South Wales (1979); barrister and solicitor of Western Australia (2001).
Lawyer Rankings
Regional Bar > Midland Circuit > Professional negligence
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 1John Randall KC –St Philips Chambers ‘John has a brilliant legal mind and is exceptionally good at analysing complex legal issues and giving good advice.’
St Philips Chambers handles a variety of domestic and cross-border professional negligence cases for a diverse set of clients. Key members of the team include the ‘powerful and persuasive advocate’ John Randall KC and John Brennan, whose practices include defending solicitors.
Regional Bar > Midland Circuit > Commercial litigation
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 1John Randall KC –St Philips Chambers ‘John’s advocacy is second to none and can explain complex issues to clients in a way they understand.’
St Philips Chambers is ‘a strong set with plenty of strength and depth’ and ‘in-depth knowledge in commercial litigation’. The barristers are highly adept at handling a range of matters, from breach of directors’ duties, shareholder disputes, unfair prejudice petitions, and fraud to injunctive relief cases. John Randall KC is known as ‘a great appeal counsel’ and is ‘a go-to leading counsel when clients require real gravitas to present the hardest cases in court’, while Robert Mundy is praised as ‘an extremely persuasive advocate who is very comfortable dealing with trials over several weeks and complicated last-minute applications’.
Regional Bar > Midland Circuit > Chancery, probate, and tax
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 1John Randall KC –St Philips Chambers ‘John is a powerful and persuasive advocate who is well-respected by opponents and judges alike. He is a good person to have in your corner.’
St Philips Chambers is ‘a good set of chambers with a good variety of barristers’ that displays contentious and non-contentious expertise in Chancery-related work, including wills, trusts, tax and estate planning matters. John Randall KC successfully represented the respondents in Gill v Thind and others, a dispute concerning the ownership of shares in a number of family companies.
Regional Bar > Midland Circuit > Company and insolvency
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 1John Randall KC –St Philips Chambers ‘John’s natural talents are obvious with his sheer attention to detail. By the start of a trial, he knows the facts better than the parties and easily hits every curveball from witnesses and judges.’
St Philips Chambers is a ‘go-to chambers for corporate disputes and insolvency matters’, ‘offering top-quality counsel with a range of experience’, including advising on breach of directors’ duties, shareholder disputes, unfair prejudice petitions and insolvency claims. The ‘powerful and persuasive advocate’ John Randall KC is representing defendants concerning their beneficial ownership of shares in several family companies.
Regional Bar > Midland Circuit > Property and construction
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 1John Randall KC –St Philips Chambers ‘John is a powerful and persuasive advocate who is well-respected by opponents and judges alike. He is a good person to have in your corner.’
St Philips Chambers is ‘an excellent set with very capable counsel’ who advise domestic and international clients on a range of property law. John Randall KC has ‘encyclopaedic knowledge of property law’ and is currently acting in Cayman Shores Development Ltd v Registrar of Lands, a high-profile property rights dispute in the Cayman Islands, while John Brennan successfully acted on behalf of a commercial development owner in GHC Global Holdings Ltd v MK Builders Merchants Ltd, a land recovery claim. The ‘thorough and authoritative’ advocate Anthony Verduyn has extensive experience of property litigation, and John Aldis specialises in boundaries disputes and adverse possession cases. Michelle Caney joined the team in August 2023.