Client Testimonials

CLIENT: Andy McGregor, Head of Civil Fraud, RPC
TESTIMONAL: “We have been very impressed and pleased with the completely reliable round the clock service, both in London and Singapore. As you know the best work often comes in on Friday night and Saturday morning and one has to be able to deploy serious combined resources without fuss immediately. On a major multi-party energy dispute we needed to drop everything over a weekend to deliver time critical advice and a top QC and junior worked solidly for three days to get this done. Another QC/senior junior team has been deployed at short notice to great effect on an extremely sensitive contempt application where familiarisation with a huge amount of material has been required. There have been a number of other mainstream matters where everything has gone very smoothly. We consider ourselves to be in extremely capable hands with a depth of resource that can take on whatever is needed.”

CLIENT: Michael Leeds, Partner, Grant Thornton UK LLP
TESTIMONAL: “I have worked with Essex Court Chambers for a number of years now and continue to have a very positive experience in terms of both the quality of barristers that I have worked with and the support team in place.

In particular:

1 – The EC team organise a number of key technical events within the market which have been thorough in content and material. They are well organised and innovative in approach and explore topics not many other organisations look at eg Banking Disputes on insolvency cases
2 – The EC team is innovative in its approach to Business Development for example in the way it targets markets and regions eg the Offshore market, Russia and the Asset Recovery space
3 – My interactions with the support team on events have only been positive and in particular team members at the junior clerk level have pro-actively sought to build relationships with Business Development people within my team to grow a rapport at all levels
4 – When I have sought the input of the EC clerking team on identifying suitable Counsel for matters, I have found them to be adept at recommending the right people, whether they are QCs or Juniors
5 – The EC team is an effective communicator across multiple channels, especially LinkedIn and Email
6 – It is clear from everyone at EC that this is a market leading Chambers.

The service from EC Chambers goes from strength to strength and their support for our Insolvency and asset recovery and Forensics and Investigations practices is outstanding. We thoroughly enjoy working and engaging with their clerking team and their barristers and are always provided with a superb level of service.”

CLIENT: Andrew Savage, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery UK LLP
TESTIMONAL: I have found the Essex Court team to be (as ever) very responsive and attuned to the outlook of the lay client. They are excellent at identifying the right barrister for the job and always reliable. A go to set of chambers with clerks who don’t rest on their laurels.

CLIENT: Sophie Eyre, Bird and Bird LLP
TESTIMONAL: “The team at Essex Court Chambers are forward looking and client understanding. The now clear split between arbitrator clerks and barristers clerks is also of huge assistance and adds an extra layer of separation so that information barriers are all the more visible to clients.

The clerks recognise the pressure solicitors are often put under by clients and the budgetary constraints and various fee structures that we are required to work with now. They are always creative and find counsel that not only specialise in the issues but who culturally suit the client/solicitors.

TESTIMONAL: Joe Ferrigno and his team are a modern group with clear value add above other sets and whose modus operandi is to build long term relationships with solicitors.”

CLIENT: Rupert Boswall, Senior Partner, RPC
TESTIMONAL: “Essex Court’s stellar reputation is driven to a large extent by having a clerking team that is head and shoulders above the competition. Joe and his team are always commercial and a joy to work with.”

CLIENT: Kambiz Larizadeh, Partner, Akin Gump
TESTIMONAL: “Choice of counsel is a very important decision in any significant piece of litigation. A good clerking team is an integral part of that decision-making process and also in ensuring that, once made, the counsel team provide the best possible client service. The clerking team at Essex Court Chambers, led by Joe Ferrigno, is without question the premier clerking team in London, in a crowded field. They are reliable, provide excellent judgment and advice in choice of counsel, and help effectively to co-ordinate with the Courts to administer client cases. All of which enables solicitors to meet and manage client expectations. The team goes from strength to strength, and is one of the key reasons I keep coming back to Essex Court time and time again.”

Diversity

Members of Essex Court Chambers are involved in a variety of initiatives for the furtherance of equality and diversity and promoting access to the legal profession and to the bar. Examples of these include:

The Social Mobility Foundation 

For the last five years, Essex Court Chambers has been an official supporter of the Social Mobility Foundation, and a large number of members of Chambers are regularly involved in running workshops and activities for students identified by the Social Mobility Foundation. Essex Court Chambers was the first (and still the only) chambers to become an official supporter of the Social Mobility Foundation. One of the key focuses of the Social Mobility Foundation is to support talented students from non-traditional backgrounds to focus on both thinking about careers and university choices whilst at school, and to support students in these endeavours. Supporting the Social Mobility Foundation came as part of a recognition by members of chambers that more needs to be done, far earlier in the recruitment process, and with a long term focus: supporting talented students to achieve their potential at school and university, enabling them to be the barristers of the future. Members of Chambers run at least four events per year with the Social Mobility Foundation, including a public speaking workshop for sixth form students, a mooting workshop for students at university, attending the Social Mobility Foundations career events, giving feedback on draft personal statements for university law degree applications, and providing mock university law interviews.

Mentoring Scheme

Essex Court Chambers is one of six Barristers’ Chambers who created a mentoring scheme for underrepresented groups at the Bar. The mentoring scheme, aims to support and encourage individuals from groups which are underrepresented at the Bar of England and Wales (and in particular the commercial bar) to pursue careers as barristers. Those underrepresented groups include women; people from minority ethnic backgrounds; people with disabilities; LGBT+ people; people who spent time in care; and people from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.

Outreach

Outreach to potential candidates to widen the pool of potential applicants, for instance sponsoring QMUL’s diversity event, providing speakers or participants to student events, providing mentors for students as part of the KCL Bar & Mooting Society’s Social Mobility Mentors Scheme, putting on student open days, assisting with the Bar Council’s Bar Placement Week, participating in the Inner Temple’s Pegasus Access and Support Scheme. In 2019, one of our current pupils, Lorraine Aboagye, spoke as a panelist for BME Legal, which caters to aspiring barristers from a black/minority and/or low socio-economic background, providing support, one-to-one mentoring and workshops on the pupillage process. The event was a workshop on networking tips and tricks, and general pupillage application advice.

COMBAR

Assisting with the work of COMBAR, the specialist bar association for the commercial bar, which has recently been supporting a series of diversity events with ‘Cake and Counsel’ in Birmingham and London with an emphasis on informal networking with aspiring lawyers. Several members of chambers are involved in COMBAR’s governance, and Bibek Mukherjee is a member of the Junior COMBAR Committee.

Annual Student Open Day

Essex Court Chambers led the way in introducing an annual student open day, in addition to traditional mini-pupillages, as a way of running an event specifically focused on giving students an opportunity to learn about the different areas of the bar and the routes to the bar, the available scholarships and financial support and where they are encouraged to freely ask questions and meet current members of Chambers. This annual event has proved very popular, including attracting many students not yet studying law and attracting equal numbers of male and female students.

Pro Bono

Members of Chambers regularly undertake pro bono work, including via the Bar Pro Bono Unit and the Employment Law Appeal Advice Scheme (“ELAAS”). Notable pro bono cases undertaken by members of Chambers include appearing in the Supreme Court in (1) Jivraj v Hashwani, in which the Supreme Court held that an arbitrator was not a person “employed” within the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003; and (2) Bates van Winkelhof v Clyde & Co LLP, in which the Supreme Court held that members of limited liability partnerships are workers for the purposes of whistleblowing protection. Further information on pro-bono work undertaken by members of Essex Court Chambers can be found on individual members’ CVs. In addition to arguing cases pro bono, many members of Essex Court Chambers are individually involved in supporting charitable causes, including working with legal advice clinics and acting as trustees. In 2019 Essex Court Chambers was acknowledged as a Gold Patron of the Bar Pro Bono Unit.