Set Profile > The Chambers of Richard Booth QC > Brighton, England
The Chambers of Richard Booth QC Offices
1 Crown Office Row, Brighton
119 CHURCH STREET
BRIGHTON
BN1 1UD
England
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- Profile > Chambers of Philip Havers QC > Bar – Brighton
The Chambers of Richard Booth QC > The Legal 500 Rankings
Immigration (including business immigration) Tier 1
Neil Sheldon QC - 1 Crown Office Row ‘ He is exceptional in his drafting and will ensure that every case has the best chance of success through thorough examination of the evidence. ’Clinical negligence Tier 1
1 CROWN OFFICE ROW remains 'the go-to set for medical negligence cases', fielding 'an ever-growing pool of excellent barristers to choose from at all levels'. The set 'offers a diverse range of skills and experience', making it a first-choice for a wide range of clients in relation to high profile multi-party claims and precedent-setting cases. Philip Havers QC represented the defendant in Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust before the Supreme Court, which turned on if non-medical staff (in this case, a receptionist) owe a duty of care to patients. Henry Witcomb QC represented the claimant and John Whitting QC the defendant in SXL v West Hertfordshire NHS Trust, in which a newborn who suffered a catastrophic brain injury after a two-day delay in prescribing aciclovir caused herpes simplex virus to develop into a brain infection received a £37m award, thought to be a national record. Cara Guthrie joined from Outer Temple Chambers.
2018 Silks
2019 Silks
Leading Juniors
Leading Silks
Inquests and inquiries Tier 1
1 CROWN OFFICE ROW is for many 'the leading set for inquests and inquiries work'. Members have appeared in inquiries covering a vast array of areas such as child abuse, matters with national security elements, deaths in custody and clinical settings and transport accidents. They have also been involved in many of the most high-profile inquests, acting for both interested parties and coroners, as well as handling judicial reviews of coroners' decisions. Peter Skelton QC was counsel to the inquest into the death of Alexander Perepilichnyy, a businessman who allegedly helped identify the perpetrators of a $230m fraud on the Russian treasury and was found to have suffered a fatal heart attack while jogging in Surrey. Clodagh Bradley QC represents the widow of a patient of a urological surgeon who was dismissed for gross-misconduct after offering experimental treatments rather than curative surgery for bladder cancer.
Leading Juniors
Leading Silks
Environment Tier 1
David Hart QC - 1 Crown Office Row ‘ Very respected and active in the major cases, he is great to work with and knows his stuff. ’Personal injury, industrial disease and insurance fraud Tier 2
Justin Levinson - 1 Crown Office Row ‘ He is the authority on child abuse cases in the country. ’Personal injury, industrial disease and insurance fraud Tier 2
Elizabeth-Anne Gumbel QC - 1 Crown Office Row ‘ She is tough and yet tender with vulnerable clients and gets truly life-changing results. ’International crime and extradition Tier 3
Catriona Murdoch - 1 Crown Office Row ‘ Well known for her expertise in cases involving human rights arguments. ’Personal injury, industrial disease and insurance fraud Tier 3
Henry Witcomb QC - 1 Crown Office Row ‘ He has excellent judgement and great ideas for case progression. ’Professional disciplinary and regulatory law Tier 3
Medical regulation instructions form the backbone of 1 CROWN OFFICE ROW's professional disciplinary practice. In one representative instruction, Clodagh Bradley QC successfully defended an osteopath against allegations of unacceptable professional conduct after the defendant performed a cranial technique on a four-week-old baby. Also of note, Richard Smith acted for Dr Divyang Shukla, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon accused of sexual assault. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal did not find the charges proved.
2019 Silks
Leading Juniors
Tax: corporate and VAT/indirect tax Tier 3
Owain Thomas QC - 1 Crown Office Row ‘ He has an almost unrivalled competence in VAT and customs duty work. ’Administrative and public law (including local government) Tier 4
1 CROWN OFFICE ROW includes a number of members who have experience of acting as special advocates. Angus Mccullough QC was the Campaign Against the Arms Trade's special advocate in its challenge to the government's authorisation of the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen. Also of note, Oliver Sanders QC represented the government in a Court of Appeal case concerning the Prevent policy's guidance to universities on external speakers.
Leading Juniors
Leading Silks
Immigration (including business immigration) Tier 4
Natasha Barnes - 1 Crown Office Row ‘ A rising star with enormous capacity for hard work. She grasps the technical detail extremely well and is superb on her feet, too. ’Immigration (including business immigration) Tier 4
David Manknell - 1 Crown Office Row ‘ He is excellent in conference and on his feet with a real eye for detail. ’Family (including divorce and financial remedy) Tier 4
David Balcombe QC - 1 Crown Office Row ‘ Very experienced in pre-nuptial agreements. ’Civil liberties and human rights (including actions against the police) Tier 4
Jeremy Hyam QC - 1 Crown Office Row ‘ He has an enormous grasp of the law; his written pleadings and arguments are thorough. ’Civil liberties and human rights (including actions against the police) Tier 4
Shaheen Rahman QC - 1 Crown Office Row ‘ Produces an impressive quality of work and is an absolute pleasure to work with. ’Commercial, banking, insolvency and Chancery law
1 Crown Office Row, Brighton is home to Paul Ashwell and Stuart Wright, who act for clients on a wide range of commercial matters, including professional negligence, contractual disputes and director and shareholder issues.
Leading Juniors
Crime
The criminal team at 1 Crown Office Row, Brighton is instructed on a wide range of serious violent, sexual, and drug-related offenses for both prosecution and defence. Notable recent work includes Rebecca Upton's defence of an alleged drug debt enforcer charged with attempted murder, who was eventually convicted of section 18 wounding, and Rowan Jenkins' successful prosecution of a mother charged with gross negligence manslaughter, following her daughter's consumption of methadone left out by the defendant. Christopher Prior joined the set from Westgate Chambers in 2018.
Leading Juniors
Family and children law
1 Crown Office Row, Brighton continues to operate across the family and children law space, with specialist practitioners in finance, care and private children work. The set is also notable for its work concerning cross-border placements and relocations. Anita Mehta departed the set for 4 Paper Buildings.
Leading Juniors
Property
1 Crown Office Row, Brighton's members are instructed on both residential and commercial landlord and tenant matters, along with receiving instructions from local authorities. Other key areas include boundary disputes and listed building issues.
Leading Juniors
Set overviews: England and Wales
‘Undoubtedly one of the top sets for clinical negligence work in the country’, 1 CROWN OFFICE ROW has ‘great strength in depth’ with ‘a good range’ of silks, as well as senior juniors and junior counsel who are ‘all very hardworking and knowledgeable’ and ‘not unsurprisingly involved in lots of the most interesting and high-profile cases’. In London, chambers’ strengths lie in regulatory, public law, and inquests and inquiries. Meanwhile, on the South Eastern circuit, the set has a strong team across the commercial, professional negligence, crime, as well as family and children law disciplines. In recent chambers news, Robert Kellar QC and Neil Sheldon QC took silk in 2019, while clinical negligence specialist Cara Guthrie joined from Outer Temple Chambers in June 2019. In London, the clerking team is led by senior clerk Matthew Phipps and first juniors John Mclaren and Andrew Tull; David Bingham is the senior clerk in Brighton and is ably assisted by first junior James Hart. Andrew Meyler is chambers director. Offices in: London and Brighton
The Chambers of Richard Booth QC > Firm Profile
A leading civil and public law set (with a large annexe in Brighton) providing advisory, advocacy and mediation services with a pre-eminent reputation for its clinical negligence and healthcare practices, its expertise in public law and human rights and its professional disciplinary work.
The set: Established over 70 years ago, its reputation for quality is reflected in the fact that it counts among its members and former members the former Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf, four Lord Justices of Appeal and three former chairmen of the Bar. Chambers runs the highly acclaimed UK Human Rights Blog and the well-established Human Rights Update and podcast, Lawpod UK.
Types of work undertaken: Members are recognised as leading practitioners in a range of areas including: clinical negligence; professional discipline; personal injury; public and administrative law; public inquiries; healthcare; environmental law; professional negligence; immigration and asylum; employment and equality; costs; coroners and inquests; sports; and cyber tax. Chambers has a mediation service, with accredited mediators and arbitrators, including a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
Chambers is widely recognised as the leading set for clinical negligence. It acts for both claimants and defendants, representing individuals, groups and numerous health authorities, NHS Trusts, GP’s and consultants nationwide. Landmark cases include: Darnley v Croydon Health Services, CN & GN v Poole BC, Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board, Nyang v G4S and Dr Thomas, and Meiklejohn v St George’s NHS Trust, as well as the group actions such as the Paterson litigation, Barclays Bank litigation, Infected Blood Inquiry or arising out of benzodiazepine administration, femodene use, organ retention and MMR.
Chambers handles personal injury litigation for claimants and defendants and has a particularly strong niche practice in handling historic child abuse claims. Cases include representing victims of Jimmy Savile, the Grafton House and Elm House abuse cases, and IICSA cases.
Healthcare work has included: the right to treatment abroad on the NHS; whether guidance on the withdrawal of artificial nutrition is compatible with human rights; and the rights of parents to be notified of their daughters seeking of an abortion. A large number of its members were heavily involved in the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust Public Inquiry.
Chambers has a growing practice in coronial inquests, often arising from its expertise in healthcare and public law. Members have also appeared in high profile inquests such as the Perepilichny Inquest and the recent Birmingham Pub Bombings, London Bridge Inquests, Westminster Bridge Inquests and Manchester Bombing Inquests.
The human rights practice is founded on the expertise gained through running the human rights blog and podcast stream Lawpod UK. Significant cases include R v Jogee, as well as the healthcare cases mentioned above. Chambers has a long experience of public inquiries, including the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, Infected Blood Inquiry, Al-Sweady Inquiry, the Leveson Inquiry, the Detainee Inquiry and the inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa in Iraq, and the Victoria Climbie and Alder Hey Inquiries.
The environmental practice includes: the recent case for Japanese Knotweed, M4 Road Relief case, the test case on the applicability of new pollution regulations; measures to mitigate the problem of dolphin by-catch in fishing nets; flooding; claims for water and methane escape from mines; waste and land fill issues; asbestos and groundwater pollution; aircraft noise; dust pollution; interference with TV reception and judicial review of abatement notices.
Chambers is regularly involved in disciplinary work involving all types of professionals and internal inquiries into the competence and conduct of clinicians, solicitors, architects, surveyors and accountants. Cases include Dr. Michalak v GMC & Ors, Dr Wakefield and subsequent appeals (MMR scare representing three parties, including the GMC); the Dr Waney Squier case (shaken baby) and Webster v Liddington (the Isolagen litigation).
Chambers tax practice acts for both taxpayers and HMRC. Cases include injunction reviews of the ‘Alcohol Wholesalers registration scheme’,
Court of Appeal case concerning ‘Talacre’ carve out (Case C-251/05), the Supreme Court judgment on third party consideration in Airtours Holidays Transport Limited v HMRC and Volkswagen Financial Services (UK) Ltd v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs [2017] UKSC 26 as well as Loyalty Management (UK) Ltd, BAA Ltd, Newnham College and Mayflower Theatre.
In costs and funding matters, members have appeared in a number of leading cases including: Church v Great Western Hospitals, Cashman v Mid Essex Hospitals, and Hall v Everton FC.
Please visit the Careers section on our website for more details on our two Pupillages, Mini-Pupillages and Assessed Mini-Pupillages.
Main Contacts
| Department | Name | Telephone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Head of Chambers | BOOTH QC, Richard (1993) | ||
| Senior clerk | Matthew Phipps | ||
| Chambers director | Andrew Meyler | ||
| Members of Chambers | SEABROOK QC, Robert (1964) | ||
| Members of Chambers | MILLER QC, Stephen (1971) | ||
| Members of Chambers | HAVERS QC, Philip (1974) | ||
| Members of Chambers | GUMBEL QC, Elizabeth-Anne (1974) | ||
| Members of Chambers | REES QC, Paul (1980) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BOWRON QC, Margaret (1978) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BALCOMBE QC, David (1980) | ||
| Members of Chambers | HART QC, David (1982) | ||
| Members of Chambers | FORDE QC, Martin (1984) | ||
| Members of Chambers | EDIS QC, William (1985) | ||
| Members of Chambers | McCULLOUGH QC, Angus (1990) | ||
| Members of Chambers | WHITTING QC, John (1991) | ||
| Members of Chambers | EVANS QC, David (1988) | ||
| Members of Chambers | WHEELER QC, Marina (1987) | ||
| Members of Chambers | WITCOMB QC, Henry (1989) | ||
| Members of Chambers | THOMAS QC, Owain (1995) | ||
| Members of Chambers | HYAM QC, Jeremy (1995) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BRADLEY QC, Clodagh (1996) | ||
| Members of Chambers | SKELTON QC, Peter (1997) | ||
| Members of Chambers | SANDERS, QC Oliver (1995) | ||
| Members of Chambers | RAHMAN, QC Shaheen (1996) | ||
| Members of Chambers | LAMBERT QC, Sarah (1994) | ||
| Members of Chambers | SINGH QC, Sarabjit (2001) | ||
| Members of Chambers | SHELDON QC, Neil (1998) | ||
| Members of Chambers | KELLAR QC, Robert (1999) | ||
| Members of Chambers | KING-SMITH, James (1980)* | ||
| Members of Chambers | GIMLETTE, John (1986) | ||
| Members of Chambers | KENNEDY, Andrew (1989) | ||
| Members of Chambers | DOWNS, Martin (1990) | ||
| Members of Chambers | CAVE, Jeremy (1992)* | ||
| Members of Chambers | COLIN, Giles (1994) | ||
| Members of Chambers | CHAWATAMA, Sydney (1994) | ||
| Members of Chambers | LEVINSON, Justin (1994) | ||
| Members of Chambers | SMITH, Richard (1999) | ||
| Members of Chambers | MELLOR, Christopher (1999) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BARNES, Matthew (2000) | ||
| Members of Chambers | O'DONNELL, Iain (2000) | ||
| Members of Chambers | GUTHRIE, Cara (2000) | ||
| Members of Chambers | MANKNELL, David (2001) | ||
| Members of Chambers | LAMBERT, Suzanne (2002) | ||
| Members of Chambers | ROGERSON, Judith (2003) | ||
| Members of Chambers | MANNION, Amy (2003) | ||
| Members of Chambers | MUMFORD, Richard (2004) | ||
| Members of Chambers | WOODS, Leanne (2005) | ||
| Members of Chambers | MARCUS, Rachel (2005) | ||
| Members of Chambers | RATHOD, Pritesh (2006) | ||
| Members of Chambers | CROSS, Caroline (2006) | ||
| Members of Chambers | DONMALL, Matthew (2006) | ||
| Members of Chambers | PAULIN, Michael (2007) | ||
| Members of Chambers | WALKER, Amelia (2007) | ||
| Members of Chambers | McARDLE, Isabel (2008) | ||
| Members of Chambers | HENDERSON, Alasdair (2009) | ||
| Members of Chambers | McGREGOR, Claire (2009) | ||
| Members of Chambers | HILL, Matthew (2009) | ||
| Members of Chambers | FLINN, Matthew (2010) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BARNES, Natasha (2010) | ||
| Members of Chambers | REYNOLDS, Paul (2010) | ||
| Members of Chambers | WILLIAMS, Lois (2012) | ||
| Members of Chambers | DUFFY, Jim (2012) | ||
| Members of Chambers | RUCK KEENE, Dominic (2012) | ||
| Members of Chambers | ELLIOTT, Jessica (2013) | ||
| Members of Chambers | NOYCE, Hannah (2013) | ||
| Members of Chambers | DEACON, Michael (2014) | ||
| Members of Chambers | CHALMERS, Rhoderick (2014) | ||
| Members of Chambers | FENELON, Emma-Louise (2015) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BARTH, Gideon (2015) | ||
| Members of Chambers | MOORE, Jo (2015) | ||
| Members of Chambers | METZER, Jonathan (2016) | ||
| Members of Chambers | GILMARTIN, Charlotte (2015) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BARHEY, Rajkiran (2017) | ||
| Members of Chambers | COFFEY, Darragh (2018) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BEAMONT, Thomas (2019) | ||
| Members of Chambers | ENGLISH, Rosalind (1993)** |
Lawyer Profiles
| Photo | Name | Position | Profile |
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Richard Ager | View Profile | |
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Paul Ashwell | View Profile | |
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Jonathan Atkinson | View Profile | |
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Eleanor Battie | View Profile | |
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Timothy Bergin | View Profile | |
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Daniel Frier | View Profile | |
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Ms Philip Havers | View Profile | |
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Rowan Jenkins | View Profile | |
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Amanda Minto | View Profile | |
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Catriona Murdoch | View Profile | |
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Jane Peckham | View Profile | |
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Christopher Prior | View Profile | |
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Simon Sinnatt | View Profile | |
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Rebecca Upton | View Profile | |
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Stuart Wright | View Profile |
The Chambers of Richard Booth QC > Firm Profile
Chambers has been in Brighton since 1972 as an annexe of One Crown Office Row, a long -established common law set in the Temple which has maintained strong Sussex connections for over 50 years. Members practise from centrally located modern premises, only a few minutes walk away from the Brighton District Registry and county and magistrates courts. Chambers is fully integrated into the IT infrastructure of One Crown Office Row in London. Conference, library and seminar facilities are excellent.
The set: Chambers is by far the largest set based in Brighton. For some time, it was the only regional set to have won preferred set status with Brighton and Hove City Council for its family, civil and criminal work.
The set has grown quickly in recent years, to its current strength of 56 members based in Brighton. Its turnover has grown significantly in recent years, reflecting the dynamism of the local legal scene and chambers success in capturing an increasing share of the work available. It now services clients along a wide stretch of the South coast, from Portsmouth to Hastings, and clients in Hampshire, Surrey and Kent, in addition to Sussex.
The heart of the Civil Practice Group’s work is commercial dispute resolution and property litigation. It acts for and against public authorities, companies, partnerships and individuals. The commercial practice ranges from contracts to shareholder and director disputes. Property litigation includes sales and purchases of land, options, easements, boundaries, leasehold enfranchisement and town and country planning. The group also has expertise in probate & trusts, personal injury, professional negligence and employment law.
Our Criminal Team is committed to providing advocacy and advice to the highest possible standard. Our highly experienced team generally covers courts from Portsmouth in the West to Canterbury in the East and up to and including London in the North. However, Members of the Team are happy to travel beyond this region to cater for clients’ needs.
Chambers has a fully committed Family Law Team who undertake the whole range of family proceedings. We have specialists in both Public and Private Law Children, Financial Remedies, Domestic Violence & Injunctions.The team comprises advocates that excel in their field with strength in numbers and expertise from Senior counsel to Junior members. Uniquely, we offer accredited Arbitrators for Child Arbitration.
Members of the family team ensure they are approachable, and sensitive to the client’s needs. We have excellent conference facilities in a central Brighton location and our Chambers are conveniently located close to the major family centres of Sussex. With extensive expertise in Criminal, Civil & Family Law, One Crown Office Row is able to pride itself both on client care and professional excellence. We are available for emergency applications and can normally accept instructions at very short notice. Our local practice gives us extensive experience and knowledge of local judicial practice.
Types of work undertaken: Chambers undertakes all types of general common law work civil, criminal and family. While it is particularly widely recognised for its strength in all types of family proceedings, chambers also has wide experience of landlord and tenant and building work, professional negligence, personal injury, employment and licensing, and prosecuting and defending crime, increasingly all types of regulatory crime. In many of these practice areas (eg in matrimonial finance and personal injury), practitioners benefit from having access to leading silks in these areas, based in One Crown Office Row, London. A good number of members are also trained mediators (www.disputesmediated.com) and many accept instructions under the Bar Council’s Direct Access arrangements (www.barristerforme.com).
Recruitment: up to two pupils are taken annually, each with an award of £10,000 for the first six months and a guaranteed level of earnings of £10,000 for the second six. Applications are accepted by CV and covering letter sent to Chambers. Please visit the Careers section on our website for more details.
Main Contacts
| Department | Name | Telephone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Head of Brighton Chambers | SINNATT, Simon (1993) | ||
| Senior clerk | David Bingham | ||
| Chambers Director | Andrew Meyler | ||
| Members of Chambers | BOOTH, Roger (1966) | ||
| Members of Chambers | ASHWELL, Paul (1977) | ||
| Members of Chambers | KING-SMITH, James (1980) | ||
| Members of Chambers | McLAUGHLIN, Karen (1982) | ||
| Members of Chambers | STEVENSON-WATT, Neville (1985) | ||
| Members of Chambers | SMITH, Adam (1987) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BERGIN, Timothy (1987) | ||
| Members of Chambers | LE PREVOST, Aviva (1990) | ||
| Members of Chambers | RICE, Christopher (1991) | ||
| Members of Chambers | CAVE, Jeremy (1992) | ||
| Members of Chambers | TAYLOR, Nigel (1993) | ||
| Members of Chambers | MORELLI, Luisa (1993) | ||
| Members of Chambers | JENKINS, Rowan (1994) | ||
| Members of Chambers | HEALEY, Susan (1995) | ||
| Members of Chambers | CLARIDGE, Rachael (1996) | ||
| Members of Chambers | ROACH, Jacqueline (1996) | ||
| Members of Chambers | DAVIES, Rebecca (1996) | ||
| Members of Chambers | SHARGHY, Pegah (1998) | ||
| Members of Chambers | WELLS, Camilla (1998) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BAYLEY, Laura (1998) | ||
| Members of Chambers | UPTON, Rebecca (1999) | ||
| Members of Chambers | PECKHAM, Jane (1999) | ||
| Members of Chambers | WRIGHT, Stuart (2000) | ||
| Members of Chambers | COGIN, Leo (2000) | ||
| Members of Chambers | STATHER, Julie (2000) | ||
| Members of Chambers | PACKHAM, Amy (2000) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BERLEVY, Kriston (2002) | ||
| Members of Chambers | HOWE, Gavin (2003) | ||
| Members of Chambers | McFADYEN, Lynn (2003) | ||
| Members of Chambers | AGER, Richard (2004) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BATTIE, Eleanor (2004) | ||
| Members of Chambers | MILLER, Daniel (2005) | ||
| Members of Chambers | FRIER, Daniel (2005) | ||
| Members of Chambers | HEYWOOD, Matthew (2006) | ||
| Members of Chambers | HAND, Edward (2007) | ||
| Members of Chambers | PRIOR, Christopher (2007) | ||
| Members of Chambers | PANDYA, Abha (2007) | ||
| Members of Chambers | ATKINSON, Jonathan (2007) | ||
| Members of Chambers | MINOPRIO, Delia (2007) | ||
| Members of Chambers | TREGONING, Bruce (2008) | ||
| Members of Chambers | WALKER, Michael (2008) | ||
| Members of Chambers | CIBOROWSKA, Clare (2009) | ||
| Members of Chambers | MURDOCH, Catriona (2009) | ||
| Members of Chambers | MINTO, Amanda (2009) | ||
| Members of Chambers | LEWIS-HALL, David (2010) | ||
| Members of Chambers | EVANS, Sophie (2010) | ||
| Members of Chambers | MORRISH, Charlotte (2013) | ||
| Members of Chambers | LONG, Vanessa (2014) | ||
| Members of Chambers | RICHMOND, Kate (2014) | ||
| Members of Chambers | JAPP, Kirsten (2014) | ||
| Members of Chambers | STOREY, Scott (2015) | ||
| Members of Chambers | WITHERS, Matthew (2016) | ||
| Members of Chambers | READER, David (2017) | ||
| Members of Chambers | GIMSON, Rachel (2018) | ||
| Members of Chambers | ISSAC, Natasha (2017) | ||
| Associate Members of Chambers | HOLLIS, HH Keith |
Diversity/Community
We take very seriously our commitment to encouraging both equality and diversity in chambers and at the Bar generally, in recognition of the need for the profession to be representative of society as a whole. We aim to recruit from as wide a talent pool as possible, and indeed nearly half of our new tenants in the last five years have been women and a significant proportion of our members are from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds or attended state schools.
We are conscious of the financial difficulties entrants to the Bar can face and we have adopted a number of measures to tackle this problem. Our assessed mini-pupillages and pupillages are generously funded and we support our most junior tenants with a variety of initiatives. In terms of the large drop-out rate at 10-15+ years’ call, we have a policy designed to retain members returning from maternity or paternity leave and our clerks proactively support returning parents, both in generating work and being flexible with working practices.
We take positive action to address the lack of representation of those from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds at the Bar. For example, we offer assessed mini-pupillages to socio-economically disadvantaged applicants and guarantee a first-round interview for pupillage to those who do well. We have partnered with the Sutton Trust at events and sponsor their ‘pathways to Law’ programme. This programme selects highly able 16-year-olds to provide them with a range of opportunities to further their legal education, all delivered in partnership with some of the finest universities in the country.
Head of Outreach is an important position within chambers with our previous head, Sarabjit Singh QC, a Social Mobility Advocate for the Bar Council. Current Head of Outreach, Jo Moore, continues to promote access to the Bar. 1COR supports initiatives such as the Inner Temple Pegasus Scheme and Freebar. Listen to Law Pod UK episode 84 to hear Emma-Louise Fenelon, Jo Moore, and Laura Bruce, Sutton Trust’s Head of Programmes and Partnerships discuss improving access to the Bar.
We promote a culture within chambers where any issues concerning equality and diversity can be freely raised by members or staff. Through our active E&D committee, our formal and informal mentoring schemes, we encourage the discussion of such issues so that we can monitor and address any concerns as early as possible. We are proud to consider ourselves not as a chambers committed to E&D merely ‘on paper’, but committed to E&D as part of our ‘DNA’ and in everything we do in practice.
Top Tier Set Rankings
Set Rankings
- Personal injury, industrial disease and insurance fraud
- International crime and extradition
- Professional disciplinary and regulatory law
- Tax: corporate and VAT/indirect tax
- Administrative and public law (including local government)
- Immigration (including business immigration)
- Family (including divorce and financial remedy)
- Civil liberties and human rights (including actions against the police)
- Commercial, banking, insolvency and Chancery law
- Crime
- Family and children law
- Property
- Set overviews: England and Wales