Farrar's Building > London, England > Set Profile
Farrar's Building Offices
Farrar's Building
TEMPLE
LONDON
EC4Y 7BD
England
Farrar's Building > The Legal 500 Rankings
London Bar > Personal injury, industrial disease and insurance fraud Tier 4
‘Excellent set’ Farrar’s Building has a strong personal injury offering, with a particular weighting towards juniors in its team. Particularly exceptional members include Joshua Hedgman , who frequently acts on high-value catastrophic injury work, namely having represented the defence on the multi-party action brought against them in the case of Various Claimants v Lime Green Events Limited (We Are FSTVL) regarding a stampede in a festival queue in 2019 which led to numerous injuries, ranging in severity. Huw Davies is also noteworthy for his representation of high-profile defendants on complex quantum cases, as is Howard Cohen for his frequently high-value independent action on injury cases and Nick Blake for his complex and consistently high-value cases.Personal injury - Leading Juniors
Testimonials
Set
‘Farrar’s has a number of excellent individuals whom we instruct frequently.’
‘Farrar’s is an excellent set with a good range of counsel for all types of cases. They are my go-to’ set.’
‘The set has a good offering at different levels.’
‘Farrar’s Building is my preferred set for personal injury claims. They have a large number of suitably experienced counsel that can assist on personal injury matters, and I have always been pleased by any of the ‘substitutes’ if my preferred choice of Counsel is unavailable for any reason.’
‘A good set of chambers and choice of counsel.’
Clerking
‘Very approachable clerks. James Shaw and Kraig Marsh are both very amenable.’
Work highlights
Wales and Chester Circuit > Crime (general and fraud)
Wales and Chester Circuit > Personal injury
Leading Juniors
London Bar > Professional disciplinary and regulatory law
Leading Silks
South Eastern Circuit > Personal injury
London Bar > Clinical negligence
Leading Juniors
London Bar > Employment
Leading Juniors
London Bar > Fraud: crime
Regional Bar > Wales and Chester Circuit > Crime (general and fraud)
Regional Bar > Wales and Chester Circuit > Personal injury
Leading Juniors
Regional Bar > South Eastern Circuit > Personal injury
Farrar's Building > Set Profile
Farrar’s Building is a long-established specialist civil and common law set of chambers based in London with a strong historic regional presence in Wales.
Chambers areas of practice include the following: personal injury; clinical negligence; employment; credit hire; civil fraud and fundamental dishonesty; serious and white-collar crime; health and safety; inquests; disciplinary; regulatory; professional negligence; insurance; product liability; trusts and probate; commercial law; costs; travel; and public inquiries (see individual profiles).
The set: Farrar’s Building has been occupied by barristers for many centuries and its name derives from Thomas Farrar, treasurer of Inner Temple in 1679. Over the years, chambers has provided a number of judges in the House of Lords, Court of Appeal and elsewhere, and current members sit as deputy High Court judges, recorders and in other public positions.
Farrar’s Building prides itself on being a friendly and reliable set, which is efficiently clerked and administered by an experienced and long-established team.
Chambers has a reputation for excellence, with members acting for a variety of corporate bodies, insurance companies, prosecuting authorities, sporting bodies and players, disciplinary, regulatory and professional bodies, as well as individuals. Members act in privately funded cases and under conditional fee agreements.
Types of work undertaken: Chambers core areas of practice are:
Personal injury: Farrar’s Building is recognised as a leading set of chambers in the personal injury field with a long-established reputation for offering high-quality specialist advocacy and advice in all aspects of personal injury work. Personal injury is the largest field of practice within chambers. Chambers is involved in the whole spectrum of cases ranging from catastrophic brain and spinal injury claims to lower value multi-track and fast-track work.
Health and safety: The health and safety team works closely with, and benefits from, Farrar’s Building’s strong PI team. Chambers has been involved in a number of high-profile cases in this area and has a tradition of acting in large-scale disasters, including the Hatfield Rail Disaster, the Ladbroke Grove Rail Disaster and the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
Employment: Chambers and members of the employment law group are recognised in the field for their efficient, commercially sensitive and competitive approach. Members act at all stages of employment disputes by advising, drafting pleadings and providing advocacy before employment tribunals, the EAT and the higher courts. Members also have experience acting in judicial and private mediations.
Regulatory and disciplinary: Farrar’s Building has been heavily involved in the development and administration of disciplinary proceedings over the past 30 years. Chambers provide specialist advice and advocacy across the full range of regulatory and disciplinary law. The depth of knowledge and understanding that the team at Farrar’s Building has to offer comes not only from its members who have experience of appearing before all major disciplinary and regulatory tribunals, but also from those members who regularly advise and chair such panels themselves.
Crime: Chambers has a specialist criminal team, involved in major fraud and serious crime cases, and has close links with Wales where it remains a dominant force on the Welsh Circuit. Chambers is and has been involved in many of the major cases on the circuit and members of the crime team are highly sought-after.
Public inquiries: Chambers has a long history of involvement in public inquiries and of chairing/appearing before a range of regulatory and disciplinary tribunals.
Members of chambers also offer expertise in: contract and commercial litigation, covering areas such as sale of goods and consumer credit and commercial fraud, insurance matters and product liability; clinical negligence and all areas of professional negligence; costs and taxation actions, including solicitor’s bills of costs, counsel’s fees and legal aid costs; sports and competition cases include contracts, advertising and sponsorship and restraint of trade; all aspects of disciplinary and regulatory law; and matters pertaining to trusts and probate.
Members also have experience in administrative and public law work, including matters relating to judicial review, local government, education, health, housing and pharmaceutical actions.
Main Contacts
Department | Name | Telephone | |
---|---|---|---|
Chief Executive & Director of Clerking | CRAY, Paul | ||
Head of Chambers | LEWIS KC, Paul (1981) | ||
Member of Chambers | WILLIAMS KC, Geoffrey (2013) | ||
Member of Chambers | COLE KC, Gordon (1979) | ||
Member of Chambers | QUINLAN KC, Christopher (1992) | ||
Member of Chambers | LEY, Nigel Spencer (1985) | ||
Member of Chambers | PEEBLES, Andrew (1987) | ||
Member of Chambers | MILLIN, Leslie (1988) | ||
Member of Chambers | MEREDITH-HARDY, John (1989) | ||
Member of Chambers | LAKHA, Shabbir (1989) | ||
Member of Chambers | ARENTSEN, Andrew (1995) | ||
Member of Chambers | EVANS, Lee (1996) | ||
Member of Chambers | BLAKE, Nick (1997) | ||
Member of Chambers | DAVIES, Huw P (1998) | ||
Member of Chambers | PRETSELL, James (1998) | ||
Member of Chambers | WILLE, Andrew (1998) | ||
Member of Chambers | COHEN, Howard (1999) | ||
Member of Chambers | MORSE, Andrew (2000) | ||
Member of Chambers | COX, Carwyn (2002) | ||
Member of Chambers | KERRUISH-JONES, Matthew (2003) | ||
Member of Chambers | HUGHES, Simon (2003) | ||
Member of Chambers | PLANT, James (2004) | ||
Member of Chambers | BOURNE-ARTON, Tom (2005) | ||
Member of Chambers | SOLE, Emma (2005) | ||
Member of Chambers | BROWN, John (2005) | ||
Member of Chambers | GOODLAD, Grant (2006) | ||
Member of Chambers | FOUND, Tim (2006) | ||
Member of Chambers | RODERICK, David (2005) | ||
Member of Chambers | LOGUE, Victoria (Tory) (2005) | ||
Member of Chambers | ROZIER, James (2007) | ||
Member of Chambers | SAXENA, Hannah (2010) | ||
Member of Chambers | HEDGMAN, Joshua (2011) | ||
Member of Chambers | O'BRIEN, Aidan (2011) | ||
Member of Chambers | GOLIN, Robert (2011) | ||
Member of Chambers | ROWLEY, Jake (2011) | ||
Member of Chambers | LYON, Frederick (2012) | ||
Member of Chambers | BRADY, Stuart (2012) | ||
Member of Chambers | NIETO, James (2012) | ||
Member of Chambers | McMILLAN, Joel (2014) | ||
Member of Chambers | FITZGIBBON, Laura (2016) | ||
Member of Chambers | EMSLIE-SMITH, Tom (2016) | ||
Member of Chambers | FERGUSON, Martin (2016) | ||
Member of Chambers | YOUNG, Rosalind (2017) | ||
Member of Chambers | DOUGHERTY, Michael (2017) | ||
Member of Chambers | HIGHNAM, Amelia (2016) | ||
Member of Chambers | SAVORY, Peter (2018) | ||
Member of Chambers | WIGG, Leonard (2017) | ||
Member of Chambers | JONES, Lauren (2017) | ||
Member of Chambers | KHAN, Kamran (2018) | ||
Member of Chambers | ROSS, Ryan (2019) | ||
Member of Chambers | IRVING, Sam (2020) | ||
Member of Chambers | DERVIN, Sorcha (2021) | ||
Member of Chambers | IVE, Richard (2018) |
Barrister Profiles
Photo | Name | Position | Profile |
---|---|---|---|
![]() | Andrew Arentsen | Andrew Arentsen’s practice is predominantly personal injury, with a focus on high… | View Profile |
![]() | Nick Blake | Nick Blake has experience of a broad range of civil matters. | View Profile |
![]() | Tom Bourne-Arton | Barrister. Specialises in personal injury and employment. | View Profile |
![]() | John Brown | Barrister specialising in personal injury, clinical negligence and regulatory/professional discipline. | View Profile |
![]() | Howard Cohen | Barrister specialising in personal injury and motor insurance fraud; general common law… | View Profile |
![]() | Gordon Cole | Gordon Cole QC specialises in all types of serious crime. He has… | View Profile |
![]() | Carwyn Cox | Barrister specialising in personal injury litigation, including high value multi-track catastrophic claims.… | View Profile |
![]() | Huw Davies | Huw Davies has a predominantly civil practice and is regularly instructed on… | View Profile |
![]() | Michael Dougherty | Barrister specialising in personal injury, employment and education law. | View Profile |
![]() | Lee Evans | Lee Evans has a busy personal injury practice, with particular emphasis on… | View Profile |
![]() | Martin Ferguson | Barrister specialising in personal injury, commercial and general common law. | View Profile |
![]() | Laura Fitzgibbon | Laura has a busy practice in line with Chambers’ areas of expertise,… | View Profile |
![]() | Tim Found | Tim has particular expertise in clinical negligence and personal injury for both… | View Profile |
![]() | Robert Golin | Robert Golin’s practice focuses on personal injury, employment, commercial and insurance, and… | View Profile |
![]() | Grant Goodlad | Specialist areas of practice include employment law; personal injury and clinical negligence;… | View Profile |
![]() | Patrick Harrington | Barrister specialising in Crime (general and serious fraud); prosecution and defence; health… | View Profile |
![]() | Joshua Hedgman | Josh acts for defendants in catastrophic injury work. He is instructed in… | View Profile |
![]() | Mr Simon Hughes | Simon practices across the spectrum of personal injury claims in cases of… | View Profile |
![]() | Matthew Kerruish-Jones | Coroner’s inquests/public (representing insured parties), Health and safety (defending), personal injury (defendant… | View Profile |
![]() | Mr Kamran Khan | Barrister at Farrar’s Building | View Profile |
![]() | Shabbir Lakha | Has practised almost exclusively in employment law work for over ten years.… | View Profile |
![]() | Paul Lewis | Paul has appeared in over 200 homicide cases and in many major… | View Profile |
![]() | Victoria Logue | Victoria Logue (Tory) joined Farrar’s Building in 2017 after 10 years as… | View Profile |
![]() | Frederick Lyon | Barrister. Specialising in Personal Injury, Clinical Negligence, Coroner’s Inquests, Commercial and Cross-Jurisdictional… | View Profile |
![]() | Joel McMillan | Joel has a busy and successful general common law practice. His particular… | View Profile |
![]() | John Meredith-Hardy | Areas of work undertaken for claimants and defendants include personal injury, insurance… | View Profile |
![]() | Leslie Millin | Leslie specialises in all aspects of employment law, where she represents both… | View Profile |
![]() | Mr Andrew Morse | Andrew Morse joined Farrar’s Building in April 2022 having practised for 20… | View Profile |
![]() | Aidan O'Brien | Aidan is ranked as a ‘Leading Junior’ in the Legal 500 (2022),… | View Profile |
![]() | Andrew Peebles | Barrister with a wide experience of litigation in chancery, commercial, employment, regulatory… | View Profile |
![]() | James Plant | James’ practice consists of three main areas of work: Personal Injury, Property… | View Profile |
![]() | James Pretsell | James’s practice consists largely in multi track personal injury work. He also… | View Profile |
![]() | Christopher Quinlan | Specialises in crime, sport and regulatory work. | View Profile |
![]() | David Roderick | David has an established general common law practice, with particular expertise in… | View Profile |
![]() | Jake Rowley | Barrister specialising in personal injury, commercial and general common law. The areas… | View Profile |
![]() | James Rozier | James Rozier’s practice encompasses personal injury, costs, inquests and employment. He also… | View Profile |
![]() | Peter Savory | Peter is a barrister specialising in personal injury, clinical negligence and commercial… | View Profile |
![]() | Hannah Saxena | Hannah Saxena is a well respected junior with a focus on… | View Profile |
![]() | Emma Sole | Emma Sole joined Farrar’s Building in 2007 after a pupillage at Littleton… | View Profile |
![]() | Nigel Spencer Ley | Nigel is a highly experienced barrister who undertakes high value clinical negligence,… | View Profile |
![]() | Andrew Wille | Barrister with an exclusively civil practice primarily in the fields of personal… | View Profile |
![]() | Geoffrey Williams | Geoffrey Williams QC has specialised exclusively in the field of professional disciplinary… | View Profile |
Staff Figures
:Diversity
Farrar’s Building is committed to actively promoting equality and diversity at the Bar. We demonstrate our commitment through a variety of initiatives, for example:
- We have in place a comprehensive Parental Leave Policy which we take a great deal of pride in. It is one of the most supportive polices in place at the Bar.
- We actively encourage flexible working, allowing our members and staff the ability to work away from our London office. We realise that everyone associated with Farrar’s has very different personal circumstances, so we entrust everyone with the freedom to work remotely to ensure that the rigidity of purely office-based working does not make their lives unnecessarily difficult.
- We support non-profit and community organisations that promote diversity, inclusion and education at the Bar from underrepresented groups, for exampleupReach. A recent example of this is Farrar’s hosting a student for a week in July via the upReach programme, which seeks to create the conditions for undergraduates from less-advantaged backgrounds to access and sustain top-level graduate jobs. This placement followed on from a workshop delivered via upReach to students with volunteers from Farrar’s in 2021. We are also looking at ways we can support other organisations, such as Bridging the Bar and 10,000 Black Interns, and Inner Temple with Discovery Days for Schools.
- We are completing a race equality audit to identify and take action in relation to any barriers to race equality within our practice, including by: (a) engaging with members of chambers and staff from minority racial and ethnic backgrounds ; (b) analysing available data on recruitment, work allocation, ethnicity pay gaps and opportunities for development and progression; and (c) critically analysing our procedures for recruiting, retaining and supporting the progression of barristers and staff from minority racial and ethnic backgrounds.
- We actively encourage applications from people within underrepresented groups at the Bar – members or staff – in our recruitment promotional materials, for example clerking roles, pupillage, probationary tenancies or lateral recruits.
- We are considering adjustments to our mini-pupillage programme, for example funded mini-pupillages to broaden our reach within communities where financial support is necessary for individuals to take advantage of such an opportunity.
- We have frameworks in place to assess, and if necessary, address inequalities in income/work distribution by race or gender.
Client Testimonials
CLIENT: Andrew Pieri
COMPANY/FIRM: Keoghs LLP
TESTIMONIAL:
I can put hand on heart and say that Farrar’s from the ground up are truly exceptional in the service they provide solicitors. I have instructed Chambers from the very start of my career and have never been let down once.
John Meredith Hardy is one of the best commercial counsel I have come across. He is truly exceptional with a deep understanding of insurance law. He has a keen eye for detail and leaves no stone unturned in his quest for an answer to a client’s problem. He is simply the best.
Carwyn Cox is a hidden gem. He is very client focused, demonstrates empathy with the client and is a good problem solver. He is a very safe pair of hands who you can trust to guide and look after your case in your clients’ best interests.
Farrar’s are a brilliant set of chambers with a brilliant set of counsel. I and my colleagues at Keoghs will continue to instruct Chambers for the future, that I am sure.
CLIENT: Lindsey Bartling
COMPANY/FIRM: Clyde & Co
TESTIMONIAL:
Relationships with counsel and the ability to have frank and honest discussions are paramount in assisting instructing solicitors and clients to build trust and appreciate the risks in their case. Farrar’s offers this service in abundance, from their very senior counsel through to their pupils, ably assisted by their fantastic team of clerks.
Particular thanks from me for the training seminars that Farrar’s have provided and to the support offered by Hannah Saxena and Lee Evans, who always respond promptly to e-mails and answer queries, and to James Pretsell who took the time to provide invaluable insight and guidance regarding a case recently.
CLIENT: Carole Ward
COMPANY/FIRM: Ward Hadaway
TESTIMONIAL:
I have worked with Farrar’s Building for around 12 years and there is nothing that they have been unable to assist with during that time.
I know that can rely on them to provide advice and to draft documents in a timely manner and I never have to chase or remind them of pending deadlines.
They are my go-to chambers due to their reliability, professionalism and calm approach, with the ability to put my clients at ease at a very stressful time.
If I was to mention individuals it would be Carwyn Cox and Emma Sole, but also James and Kieran from the clerking team for their valuable assistance over the years.
CLIENT: Colin Vickers
COMPANY/FIRM: DWF Law LLP
TESTIMONIAL:
Farrar’s are a top-drawer Chambers. The clerks provide a first-class and efficient service in looking after your hearing dates and paperwork. Counsel across the set are excellent with whatever you put their way. They hit the right note with the balance between being technically leading in their field while maintaining a down-to-earth and approachable outlook.
CLIENT: Laura Twist
COMPANY/FIRM: Clyde & Co
TESTIMONIAL:
Farrar’s Building are simply excellent from start to finish. The Clerks are extremely competent and go over and above what is offered by many other sets; nothing is too much trouble. The barristers are first rate and always deliver sound, sensible advice. The drafting work is robust and impressive, leaving the clients in no doubt that they have first rate counsel fighting their corner. The advocacy skills are second to none, as demonstrated by the great results achieved at a wide range of Hearings, over and over again.
CLIENT: Jennifer Sore
COMPANY/FIRM: Blake Morgan LLP
TESTIMONIAL:
Farrar’s Building are my go-to chambers for all aspects of civil litigation. They go the extra step to ensure that I, and my clients, feel supported and in very capable hands irrespective of the level of call or complexity of the instruction. Their personal approach sets them apart from other chambers.