Set Profile > Chambers of John Price QC and Cairns Nelson QC > Manchester, England
Chambers of John Price QC and Cairns Nelson QC Offices
23 Essex Street
CENTURY BUILDINGS, 14 ST MARY'S PARSONAGE
MANCHESTER
M3 2DF
England
Chambers of John Price QC and Cairns Nelson QC > The Legal 500 Rankings
Fraud: crime Tier 2
23 Essex Street's members are best known for handling defence work across a spectrum of fraud matters, although the group also has a strong relationship with the Crown Prosecution Service's Specialist Fraud Division and so frequently handles prosecution instructions. Recent cases include Richard Bentwood successfully defending the wife of the Westminster Council's chief investment officer, who allegedly laundered £1m stolen by her husband from the council's pension fund. Mark Fenhalls QC is chair of the Fraud Lawyers Association.
Leading Juniors
Leading Silks
Crime Tier 3
23 Essex Street 'has a great range of barristers for general crime'. The set prosecutes and defends in a mix of work across the board. Instructed by the Crown Prosecution Service, John Price QC prosecuted at trial – and appeared in subsequent appeals – Jemma Beale, who in 2019 had her ten year sentence for perverting the course of justice and perjury upheld by the Court of Appeal; Beale caused a man to be sentenced to seven years imprisonment for a rape he did not commit, and successfully claimed compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority; one key legal issue in the appeal was if the jury direction about "rape myths" given to juries in rape trials should be given to juries in perjury trials concerning rape allegations. Turning to defence work, in Court of Appeal, Francis FitzGibbon QC represented the appellant in R v GS, a case which concerned the prosecution of victims of trafficking. Unled junior highlights include Rupert Wheeler acting as sole counsel for the successful claimant in R (Poskitt) v Reading Magistrates' Court, in which the High Court quashed a decision of a Magistrates' Court to overturn another's decision using section 142 of the Magistrates' Court Act. Senior junior Rupert Pardoe has retired.
2018 Silks
Leading Juniors
Leading Silks
Business and regulatory crime (including global investigations) Tier 3
Mark Fenhalls QC - 23 Essex Street ‘ His work includes significant SFO cases. ’Business and regulatory crime (including global investigations) Tier 3
Paul Ozin QC - 23 Essex Street ‘ Highly experienced across a range of financial crime cases. ’Professional disciplinary and regulatory law Tier 3
At 23 Essex Street, Tim Grey successfully represented the General Dental Council (GDC) in a case brought against Steven Bal Sharma, a high-profile UK dentist, concerning alleged false advertising of the defendant's dental services and charges of misconduct relating to deficient dental work; Sharma was erased from the GDC's register in January 2019. Elsewhere, Christopher Hamlet successful prosecution of a chiropractor over claims of unacceptable conduct. Matthew Kewley left the set in August 2018 to become an assistant coroner.
Leading Juniors
Leading Silks
Commercial, banking, insolvency and Chancery law
23 Essex Street's Manchester offering is particularly active in company and shareholder disputes, professional negligence and insolvency work. The set also includes specialist Chancery practitioners such as Tom Gosling, who recently represented a claimant with complex learning disorders and care needs, who sought financial provision from the estate of a man who was thought to be have been his father, however paternity was disputed.
Leading Juniors
Crime
23 Essex Street is home to several practitioners visible on the circuit, with particular areas of focus including representing vulnerable defendants and serious organised crime cases, as well as sexual offences and violent crime.
Leading Juniors
Crime
The criminal barristers in 23 Essex Street's Manchester office primarily defend, with recent cases including allegations of fraud, serious violence and both recent and historical sexual offences. One particularly notable matter is Bob Sastry's defence of an individual said to be the leader of a gang which trafficked women from Romania into Luton, Preston and Manchester for purposes of forced prostitution.
Leading Juniors
Property
23 Essex Street is home to Brad Pomfret, who is predominantly instructed on behalf of lenders in claims against securities. He recently obtained a summary judgment for £4.5 million for a bridging lender against a borrower, who claimed the original loan was entered into under duress.
Set overviews: England and Wales
For such a large set of chambers, 23 Essex Street ‘manages to maintain consistent quality throughout’. The set’s ‘reputation as a leading criminal law set is well deserved’ with ‘an impressive depth across the junior ranks’. In recent chambers news, James Mulholland QC has been elected vice chair of the Criminal Bar Association and Sarah Morris, formerly of 2 King's Bench Walk, joined chambers in September 2019. The addition of ‘excellent’ chambers director Wayne King to the ‘efficient’ clerking team has been ‘positively received’ by clients. ‘The clerking team is always pleasant to deal with and always constructive should any problems arise. They go the extra mile to assist.’ London-based senior crime clerk Adam Chapman ‘definitely stands out’ as he ‘really understands the cases and is able to recommend who would be best counsel with an informed suggestion’. Jack Shah, first criminal junior in London, is also highly rated by instructing solicitors. The names to note in Manchester are senior crime clerk Sean Hulston, deputy senior clerk Kevin Ambridge, and senior commercial clerk Colin Perrin. Offices in: London and Manchester
Chambers of John Price QC and Cairns Nelson QC > Firm Profile
23 ESSEX STREET
23 Essex Street is a modern, innovative, approachable set of barristers, with a leading reputation in crime, fraud, a range of regulatory and disciplinary matters and more recently commercial law. John Price QC and Cairns Nelson QC were elected as joint head of chambers in November 2015. Under their collective stewardship chambers has continued to grow and is a national criminal set in London and Manchester.
The set: Chambers has a genuine commitment to teamwork, supported by both its formal training programme and its inherent culture, which ensures important recent experience is shared across chambers. This experience is broad, with members of chambers undertaking the entire range of mainstream criminal law, as well as associated regulatory and civil work. Within this, chambers has set up a number of specialist teams, offering a strong portfolio of barristers who are effective at all levels, to harness and develop expertise in certain niche practice areas.
Members regularly appear in high-profile cases in all levels of court in England and Wales as well as other jurisdictions, including the International Criminal Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
Chambers is supported by a motivated clerking team that are committed to delivering a first-class service to clients and members alike.
Types of work undertaken: Chambers deals with Crime, Financial and Corporate Crime, Regulatory and Professional Discipline work , Civil and Commercial work. Specialist areas include corporate and financial regulatory, healthcare discipline, police discipline, environmental crime, IP crime and trading standards. Chambers also undertakes court martial, inquests and tribunals, private property, prison law, public inquiries and direct access work. Chambers also has a strong track record in international work with members appearing in human rights cases involving genocide, war crimes, and international terrorism.
Crime: 23 Essex Street is one of the largest and strongest sets of criminal barristers in England and Wales. Chambers currently has over 100 barristers. The size and national presence of chambers enables it to offer a genuine depth and expertise across the full spectrum of criminal law. Chambers not only defends at the highest level, but is also instructed by all of the major prosecuting agencies including the Serious Fraud Office, Organised Crime Division, the Complex Casework Units and BEIS, on a national level. The general crime team also have a particular expertise in sexual offences involving vulnerable witnesses, and county-lines drug offences.
Financial and Corporate Crime: 23 Essex Street continues to enjoy a superb reputation in this field, with talented and sought after Members prosecuting and defending in many serious and notable fraud cases both in the UK and other common law jurisdictions. Chambers has significant and growing experience in advisory and investigation work in fraud related HMRC tribunal work. Alongside the financial crime practice, runs the civil fraud team comprising commercial law specialists with expertise in civil consequences of fraud such as insolvency. Many of the juniors undertake secondments at the key financial regulators, including the FCA, HMRC and SFO, enhancing chambersâ knowledge and experience.
Professional regulatory and discipline: Chambers continues to present the most serious of cases on behalf of various regulators, including appellate and public law work. These include healthcare regulators (GMC, GDC, GCC, GOC, NMC, RCN, SRA, HCPC), financial regulators (notably ACCA and CIPFA), police work and niche work regulators, including the British Psychoanalytical Council and the Forensic Science Regulator.
Chambers services cross-over criminal/regulatory work from BEIS, FCA, Environmental,Trading Standards and CMA. There is strength across call bands, including the junior members of chambers have a depth of experience beyond their call built on secondment posts with the regulators.
Commercial: The team offers barristers of differing seniorities and styles, with specialisms ranging from traditional chancery areas such as trusts, wills, probate and real property, company law, partnership, Inheritance Act claims, charities and taxation to general commercial litigation, sale of goods and professional negligence. It also has considerable expertise in corporate and personal insolvency.
Additionally, a number of members of the team have significant experience in banking and finance matters, acting for a number of large lenders as well as borrowers on areas ranging from securities to the Consumer Credit Act 1974.
Education and training: Members of chambers are involved in all stages of education and training at the Bar. Chambers is proud to have provided several chairmen of the Criminal Bar Association as well as a leader of the South Eastern Circuit and many members of the committees of these and other organisations; thereby contributing to the sustainability and growth of the bar. Paul Ozin QC co-authors a leading practitionerâs text on the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and was co-ordinating editor of 23 Essex Streets Financial Crime Update in Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law. The general editor of Archbold and Criminal Law Week, James Richardson QC, remains a door tenant having practised from chambers and members regularly contribute to a range of legal periodicals. 23 Essex Street is a recognised leader in the field of legal training, running its own continuing education seminars and a well renowned pupillage training programme. Chambers commitment to education and training is ongoing.
Tenancy: Applications should be addressed to the director of tenancy, Rossano Scamardella QC. All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence. Please see the website for further details.
Pupillage: Applications are advertised on the website – www.23es.com
Mini-pupillage: A limited number are available.
Correspondence regarding mini-pupillages should be made via the email address minipupillage@23es.com.
Manchester: Waterhouse, 2nd Floor, 41 Spring Gardens, Manchester M2 2BG Tel: 0161 870 9969 DX: 303434 Manchester
Main Contacts
| Department | Name | Telephone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joint Head of Chambers | PRICE QC, John (1982) | ||
| Joint Head of Chambers | NELSON QC, Cairns (1987) | ||
| MISKIN QC, Charles (1975) | |||
| Enoch QC Dafydd (1985) | |||
| FitzGibbon QC Francis (1986) | |||
| BOGAN QC, Paul (1983) | |||
| MULHOLLAND QC, James (1986) | |||
| ALI QC, Zafar (1994) | |||
| FENHALLS QC, Mark (1992) | |||
| OZIN QC, Paul (1987) | |||
| HUNTER QC, Allison (1986) | |||
| CLARK QC, Tim (1993) | |||
| LUMSDON QC, Kate (2018) | |||
| MARSHALL QC, Eloise (2018) | |||
| SCAMARDELLA QC, Rossano (2018) | |||
| MACHIN, Charles (1973) | |||
| MULHOLLAND, Michael (1976) | |||
| HARRISON, Michael (1979) | |||
| HORNSBY, Walton (1980) | |||
| MCKEE, Hugh (1983) | |||
| RILEY, John (1983) | |||
| BROWN, Roy (1983) | |||
| SHAY, Stephen (1984) | |||
| WILLIAMS, Brian (1986) | |||
| CRANSTON-MORRIS, Wayne (1986) | |||
| PRITCHETT, Stephen (1989) | |||
| FORGAN, Hugh (1989) | |||
| SMITH, Jonathan (1991) | |||
| AMIS, Christopher (1991) | |||
| MOORE, Richard (1992) | |||
| MILNE, Richard (1992) | |||
| O'CONNOR, Ged (1993) | |||
| MCCRINDELL, James (1993) | |||
| BENTWOOD, Richard (1994) | |||
| WATKINS, Adam (1994) | |||
| CASELLA, Bart (1995) | |||
| HARGAN, Carl (1995) | |||
| MCGRATH, Francis (1995) | |||
| HOSSAIN, Ahmed (1996) | |||
| MORRIS, Sarah (1996) | |||
| SASTRY, Bob (1996) | |||
| BRODY, Saul (1996) | |||
| HOPE, Ian (1996) | |||
| GARDNER, Alan (1997) | |||
| ROYLE, Charles (1997) | |||
| SANDYS, Neil (1998) | |||
| WOLFE, Madeleine (1998) | |||
| FUGALLO, Daniel (1999) | |||
| SMITH, Graham (1999) | |||
| BATES, Leslie (1999) | |||
| DUNKIN, Oliver (1999) | |||
| GREY,Tim (1999) | |||
| HUSBANDS, Abigail (2000) | |||
| HAMLET, Christopher (2000) | |||
| BLOOMER, James (2000) | |||
| POVALL, David (2000) | |||
| HARRIS, Adrian (2001) | |||
| FARLEY, David (2001) | |||
| EAGLESTONE, William (2001) | |||
| KHAN, Aisha (2002) | |||
| DYE, John (2002) | |||
| JAMES, Rhodri (2002) | |||
| HILL, Rina-Marie (2002) | |||
| SAUL, Sonya (2002) | |||
| BANKS, Nathan (2003) | |||
| COMMON, Hamish (2003) | |||
| GODFREY, Tom (2003) | |||
| POMFRET, Brad (2004) | |||
| GOSLING, Tom (2004) | |||
| UPTON, Alexander (2004) | |||
| MOHAMMED, Rashad (2004) | |||
| BUNBURY, Claire (2006) | |||
| TEMPLETON, Joseph (2006) | |||
| VANSTONE, Rebecca (2006) | |||
| MORGAN, Iestyn (2006) | |||
| BARRACLOUGH, Lee (2006) | |||
| RASIAH, Nathan (2007) | |||
| DUFFY, Patrick (2007) | |||
| WHITE, Barry (2007) | |||
| ROSENBERG, Jeremy (2009) | |||
| SAYNOR, Richard (2009) | |||
| CABRAL, Carolina (2009) | |||
| LISTER, Daniel (2009) | |||
| WHEELER, Rupert (2010) | |||
| ACKER, Elizabeth (2010) | |||
| DUONG, Helena (2010) | |||
| GAINZA, Victoria (2010) | |||
| MCINTYRE, Sarah-Kate (2011) | |||
| SMITH, Robert (2011) | |||
| TOLSON, Asa (2012) | |||
| MILLS, Alex (2012) | |||
| TREFGARNE, Sam (2012) | |||
| MURPHY, Micheal (2013) | |||
| DAINTY, David (2013) | |||
| O'DONOGHUE, Daniel (2013) | |||
| AYOO, Arnold (2014) | |||
| QUEFFURUS, Sasha (2014) | |||
| WHITE, Tom (2015) | |||
| CYPLES, Kelly (2016) | |||
| TEALE, Josephine (2016) | |||
| CLEGG, Amelia (2017) | |||
| STEWART, Caroline (2017) | |||
| HODGETTS, Matthew (2017) |
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