Set Profile > Chambers of Jacob Levy QC > London , London

Chambers of Jacob Levy QC
9 Gough Square
LONDON
EC4A 3DG
London

Email firm Visit website 020 7832 0500 020 7353 1344

Set overviews: England and Wales

9 Gough Square has ‘successfully attracted barristers who are exceptionally good and yet truly approachable’. The set is well recognised for personal injury work and have a varied mixture of experience – both claimant and defendant – has several clinic negligence experts, and has ‘a good selection of criminal practitioners at all levels’. In recent news, Jacob Levy has assumed the role of head of chambers, Giles Mooney took silk in 2019, and Max Melsa joined from 2 Dr Johnson’s Buildings. The overall ethos of the set extends into ‘the most proficient clerking team in the business’. Director of clerking and business development Michael Goodridge is ‘an absolute asset to chambers’ as he ‘encompasses all the qualities that other sets’ senior clerks seemingly lack – he truly stands apart as a moderniser; he is also the most capable of all the senior clerks, and appreciates the commercial matrix facing the firms who instruct the set’. A ‘rising star’, executive civil clerk Ellie Brand is ‘really carving out a great reputation’ for herself for being ‘hardworking and organised’. ‘Excellent’ junior executive civil clerk Philip Austin has arrived from 12 King's Bench Walk. Gordon Walters is the new director of operations following the departure of John Irving and consultant clerk Garry Farrow has left chambers after 43 years of service. Offices in: London

Personal injury, industrial disease and insurance fraud Tier 1

The 'professional yet approachable' 9 Gough Square has 'successfully attracted barristers who are exceptionally good'. As well as 'established silks', the set has a 'remarkable team of leading juniors' who are 'cutting edge' and 'not afraid of taking difficult cases to trial'. Claimant catastrophic injury is at the core of the practice, with expertise spanning brain, spinal, and amputation cases. Giles Mooney QC is a recent silk appointment. Andrew Ritchie QC acted for the claimants in Carlos Valencia Estrada & Seb John v BP, a claim in relation to two fatalities arising from the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks on the defendant's gas facility in Algeria. Grahame Aldous QC specialises in personal injury claims with an international or maritime setting, while Laura Begley has particular expertise in criminal injuries compensation claims.

Industrial disease - Leading Juniors

Jeremy Crowther - 9 Gough Square ‘ He sees the strengths and weaknesses of the most complex case immediately. ’

Ranked: Tier 1

Stephen Glynn - 9 Gough Square ‘ A future silk – his analysis of difficult issues is excellent. ’

Ranked: Tier 1

Personal injury - 2018 Silks

Stuart McKechnie QC - 9 Gough Square ‘ He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of all things quantum. ’

Ranked: Tier 1

Personal injury - 2019 Silks

Giles Mooney QC - 9 Gough Square ‘ Absolutely masterful, great on his feet, and has a super manner with vulnerable clients. ’

Ranked: Tier 1

Personal injury - Leading Juniors

Laura Begley - 9 Gough Square ‘ Extremely hardworking and a very safe pair of hands for complex cases. ’

Ranked: Tier 1

Nicolas Hillier - 9 Gough Square ‘ A fearsome advocate for his clients who is forensic with the evidence. ’

Ranked: Tier 1

Stephen Glynn - 9 Gough Square ‘ A future silk – his analysis of difficult issues is excellent. ’

Ranked: Tier 2

Simon Brindle - 9 Gough Square ‘ Simon is great at grasping the key issues very quickly and has a fantastic technical mind. ’

Ranked: Tier 3

Jeremy Ford - 9 Gough Square ‘ He delivers sensible advice backed up by an extremely impressive knowledge of the law. ’

Ranked: Tier 3

Perrin Gibbons - 9 Gough Square ‘ A highly effective litigator who shows utter commitment and concern for her clients. ’

Ranked: Tier 3

Roger Hiorns - 9 Gough Square ‘ He is a leading force in complex occupational disease claims. ’

Ranked: Tier 4

Shahram Sharghy - 9 Gough Square ‘ He has great drafting skills and is able to get to the issues in a case. ’

Ranked: Tier 4

Christopher Stephenson - 9 Gough Square ‘ He has the rare skill of adapting his manner to perfectly suit the needs of his client. ’

Ranked: Tier 4

Jeremy Crowther - 9 Gough Square ‘ He sees the strengths and weaknesses of the most complex case immediately. ’

Ranked: Tier 5

Adam Dawson - 9 Gough Square ‘ He is great with clients and fair but firm with opponents. ’

Ranked: Tier 5

Robert Horner - 9 Gough Square ‘ Intelligent, very client-focused and an eye for detail. ’

Ranked: Tier 5

Linda Nelson - 9 Gough Square ‘ Very user friendly, approachable and has a good manner with clients. ’

Ranked: Tier 5

Johnathan Payne - 9 Gough Square ‘ His standard of client care is truly exceptional. ’

Ranked: Tier 5

Personal injury - Leading Silks

Andrew Ritchie QC - 9 Gough Square ‘ He is fantastically astute and absolutely at the top of his field. ’

Ranked: Tier 1

Grahame Aldous QC - 9 Gough Square ‘ Notable for his clear-thinking and strategic advice. ’

Ranked: Tier 3

Jacob Levy QC - 9 Gough Square ‘ No stone is left uncovered in relation to liability or quantum disputes. ’

Ranked: Tier 3

John Foy QC - 9 Gough Square ‘ He has an ability to think outside the initial issues. ’

Ranked: Tier 4

Clinical negligence Tier 3

9 Gough Square is a 'good set of chambers with a range of strengths' and 'sound medical knowledge'. High-value birth injury, spinal surgery, fertility treatment and sterilisation claims are all areas of expertise for its barristers, who are also experienced in dealing with genetic issues and delayed cancer diagnosis cases. Grahame Aldous QC and Stuart McKechnie QC reached a multi-million pound settlement, following a Court of Appeal decision (EXP v Barker) concerning allegations of bias on the part of experts, on behalf of a district judge who suffered a disabling stroke after a failure to identify and treat a cranial aneurysm.

2018 Silks

Stuart McKechnie QC - 9 Gough Square ‘ Always one to push the boundaries on difficult quantum matters. ’

Ranked: Tier 1

2019 Silks

Giles Mooney QC - 9 Gough Square ‘ Fantastic on his feet and a master of cross-examination. ’

Ranked: Tier 1

Leading Juniors

Laura Begley - 9 Gough Square ‘ Meticulous attention to detail and extremely good and efficient with clients. ’

Ranked: Tier 1

Perrin Gibbons - 9 Gough Square ‘ She can convey the issues succinctly and ensures that the client is on board for the entire journey. ’

Ranked: Tier 4

Christopher Stephenson - 9 Gough Square ‘ He is tactically astute and very thorough with experts. ’

Ranked: Tier 4

Leading Silks

Andrew Ritchie QC - 9 Gough Square ‘ He gives very clear and robust advice. ’

Ranked: Tier 4

Grahame Aldous QC - 9 Gough Square ‘ He is detailed, focussed and gets under the skin of the case. ’

Ranked: Tier 4

Jacob Levy QC - 9 Gough Square ‘ He is savvy, conscientious and an excellent choice for complex and high-value work. ’

Ranked: Tier 5

Children law (including public and private law) Tier 4

9 Gough Square is 'a hardworking set' with 'an excellent choice of barristers and pupils who understand the demands of public law work' and 'provide consistently good results and advice'. Members routinely advise on a myriad of issues from radicalisation through to sexual abuse cases. In addition, they represent parents in disputes over children arrangements.

Leading Juniors

Tim Parker - 9 Gough Square ‘ A brilliant advocate. ’

Ranked: Tier 2

Tara Vindis - 9 Gough Square ‘ An experienced advocate. ’

Ranked: Tier 4

Esther MacLachlan - 9 Gough Square ‘ A highly rated junior. ’

Ranked: Tier 4

Oliver Millington - 9 Gough Square ‘ A fantastic litigator, he is reliable, presents cases very clearly, and has excellent client skills. ’

Ranked: Tier 4

9 Gough Square is a leading common law set based in London but appearing in courts throughout England and Wales and abroad. The key practice areas are personal injury, clinical negligence, professional negligence, fraud and serious crime, family, police law, professional disciplinary proceedings and commercial litigation.

The set: The set consists of 74 members, including eight silks. Its clinical negligence and personal injury specialists take active involvement in the Personal Injuries Bar Association and APIL, and appear in very high-profile cases, for instance Corr v IBC, Simmons v Castle, Gosling v Screwfix and EXP v Barker. Members of chambers have also been involved with many successful multimillion-pound claims in the last 12 months. They are involved in editing the leading text books in personal injuries including Kemp & Kemp on Quantum and publish their own range of clinical negligence and personal injuries books. The family team has published a book focusing on the Public Law Outline, with a second edition released in 2015.

9 Gough Square’s solicitor clients include many of the highest profile specialised personal injury and clinical negligence firms in England and Wales, local authorities, the government legal department, the Serious Fraud Office, HMRC, police solicitors and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Its barristers deliver advice and advocacy in a professional and approachable manner that fits well with professional clients’ objectives and provide in-house and external CPD training to solicitors around England and Wales.

Alongside dedication to client service and a friendly and proactive approach, there are several areas that make this set unique; the set has continued to embrace change in the provision of criminal court advocacy by successfully building up a highly respected serious fraud practice with success in high-profile cases such as SFO LIBOR prosecutions; the set has a large number of senior and mid-level juniors with leading quality practices.

Types of work undertaken: The largest group specialises in personal injury and clinical negligence. Leaders and senior juniors appear regularly in ground-breaking cases. The members mainly represent injured claimants, but some do a high volume of defendant work. This team is arranged into special interest sub-groups covering abuse claims, Animals Act, asbestos disease work, catastrophic injuries, CICA, Court of Protection, costs, employers’ liability, industrial disease, marine accidents, MIB, occupiers’ liability, product liability, road traffic accidents, travel and foreign claims, and sports law. The set publishes a series of PI books including: asbestos claims, clinical negligence claims, manual handling claims, workplace accident claims and work accidents at sea.

Complex fraud work is undertaken by the criminal team for the SFO, the FCA, BERR and the CPS Fraud Unit. Criminal work also covers terrorism, murder, violent and sexual offences with an emphasis on prosecution work for most London Crown Prosecution offices. In addition, a number of members of the criminal team are regularly in the High Court in judicial review cases such as Denby-Collins (the human rights challenge to burglars being killed by homeowners), as well as appearing in the Supreme Court of Appeal on matters of general public importance such as R v Hunter & ors.

The family team has 24 members and is particularly popular with local government solicitors, having preferred set status with most Greater London authorities. Members are instructed in high-profile non-accidental injury, sexual abuse cases and appear in all types of public law children cases, including applications for judicial review. Meanwhile the team has a flourishing private client practice in financial remedies, trust for land claims, contact and residence disputes, and removals from the jurisdiction.

The highly regarded specialist police law practitioners are involved in civil actions against the police, inquests (such as the Diana Princess of Wales inquest), and every type of police-led application, disciplinary proceedings, firearms and liquor licensing.

The commercial and property group has expertise ranging from general commercial contract litigation and arbitration, to sale of goods, consumer credit and leasing agreements, property work and insurance law. The professional negligence group focuses on solicitors’, surveyors’ and accountants’ negligence. The highly regarded employment and discrimination law team represents employees and employers in tribunals all around England and Wales.

Department	Name	Email	Telephone
Director of Operations	Gordon Walters
Head of Chambers	LEVY QC, Jacob (1986)
Member of Chambers	FOY QC, John (1969)
Member of Chambers	BAILLIE QC, Andrew (1970)
Member of Chambers	ALDOUS QC, Grahame (1979)
Member of Chambers	RITCHIE QC, Andrew (1985)
Member of Chambers	LITTLE QC, Tom (1997)
Member of Chambers	McKECHNIE QC, Stuart (1997)
Member of Chambers	MOONEY QC, Giles (1998)
Member of Chambers	WILSON, Christopher (1980)
Member of Chambers	PINFOLD, Martin (1981)
Member of Chambers	HILLIER, Nicolas (1982)
Member of Chambers	HIORNS, Roger (1983)
Member of Chambers	NAIK, Gaurang (1985)
Member of Chambers	WILLIAMS, Vincent (1985)
Member of Chambers	BUCKETT, Edwin (1988)
Member of Chambers	HOLMES-MILNER, James (1989)
Member of Chambers	GLYNN, Stephen (1990)
Member of Chambers	KATRAK, Cyrus (1991)
Member of Chambers	CROWTHER, Jeremy (1991)
Member of Chambers	BEGLEY, Laura (1993)
Member of Chambers	STEPHENSON, Christopher (1994)
Member of Chambers	PARKER, Timothy (1995)
Member of Chambers	ELFIELD, Laura (1996)
Member of Chambers	FORD, Jeremy (1996)
Member of Chambers	VINDIS, Tara (1996)
Member of Chambers	BUTLER, Simon (1996)
Member of Chambers	PAYNE, Jonathan (1997)
Member of Chambers	MCCRACKEN, Jamie (1998)
Member of Chambers	GIBBONS, Perrin (1998)
Member of Chambers	BRINDLE, Simon (1998)
Member of Chambers	BARRAN, Tabitha (1998)
Member of Chambers	HORNER, Robert (1999)
Member of Chambers	DAWSON, Adam (2000)
Member of Chambers	NELSON, Linda (2000)
Member of Chambers	SHARGHY, Shahram (2000)
Member of Chambers	HARDEN-FROST, Claire (2000)
Member of Chambers	MUNDAY, Gareth (2000)
Member of Chambers	TAUSSIG, Gurion (2001)
Member of Chambers	MAWREY, Eleanor (2001)
Member of Chambers	THACKER, James (2001)
Member of Chambers	HARTSHORN, Sabrina (2001)
Member of Chambers	TREGIDGO, Marc (2002)
Member of Chambers	McALLISTER, Robert (2002)
Member of Chambers	POUNDER, Esther (2003)
Member of Chambers	MILLINGTON, Oliver (2003)
Member of Chambers	RIMMER, Hugh (2003)
Member of Chambers	VERITY, Emily (2003)
Member of Chambers	STAMP, Abigail (2004)
Member of Chambers	MACLACHLAN, Esther (2005)
Member of Chambers	HOGARTH, Alastair (2005)
Member of Chambers	NEWCOMB, Jennifer (2006)
Member of Chambers	LAMB, Edward (2006)
Member of Chambers	BYRNE, James (2006)
Member of Chambers	ATKINSON, Catherine (2006)
Member of Chambers	RODGERS, Ben (2007)
Member of Chambers	OBORNE, Jennifer
Member of Chambers	DYKE, Thom (2007)
Member of Chambers	LAMONT, Kate (2007)
Member of Chambers	RESTALL, Tom (2007)
Member of Chambers	BUMPUS, Laura (2008)
Member of Chambers	TIBBITTS, Holly (2010)
Member of Chambers	ZURAWEL, Ben (2010)
Member of Chambers	RAINSBURY, Tom (2010)
Member of Chambers	DEAN, William (2011)
Member of Chambers	HUNWICK, Sarah (2011)
Member of Chambers	POOLEY, Helen (2012)
Member of Chambers	COLEMAN, Kieran (2012)
Member of Chambers	PARTOS, Natasha (2012)
Member of Chambers	SCHMITT, John (2013)
Member of Chambers	HIBBERD, Laura (2013)
Member of Chambers	STEVENS, Elizabeth (2015)
Member of Chambers	JONES, Thomas (2015)
Member of Chambers	MUFTI, Kyah (2016)
Member of Chambers	RICHARDS, Jake (2017)

Photo	Name	Position	Profile
	Mr Grahame Aldous QC		View Profile
	Ms Catherine Atkinson		View Profile
	Mr Andrew Baillie QC		View Profile
	Mr Tabitha Barran		View Profile
	Ms Laura Begley		View Profile
	Mr Simon Brindle		View Profile
	Mr Edwin Buckett		View Profile
	Ms Laura Bumpus		View Profile
	Mr Simon Butler		View Profile
	Mr James Byrne		View Profile
	Mr Kieran Coleman		View Profile
	Mr Jeremy Crowther		View Profile
	Mr Adam Dawson		View Profile
	Mr William Dean		View Profile
	Ms Laura Elfield		View Profile
	Mr Jeremy Ford		View Profile
	Mr John Foy		View Profile
	Mr Perrin Gibbons		View Profile
	Mr Stephen Glynn		View Profile
	Ms Claire Harden-Frost		View Profile
	Ms Sabrina Hartshorn		View Profile
	Mr Nicolas Hillier		View Profile
	Mr Roger Hiorns		View Profile
	Mr Alastair Hogarth		View Profile
	Mr James Holmes-milner		View Profile
	Mr Rob Horner		View Profile
	Mr Sarah Hunwick		View Profile
	Mr Cyrus Katrak		View Profile
	Mr Ed Lamb		View Profile
	Mr Kate Lamont		View Profile
	Mr Jacob Levy QC		View Profile
	Mr Tom Little QC		View Profile
	Ms Esther Maclachlan		View Profile
	Ms Eleanor Mawrey		View Profile
	Mr Robert Mcallister		View Profile
	Mr Stuart Mckechnie QC		View Profile
	Mr Oliver Millington		View Profile
	Mr Giles Mooney QC		View Profile
	Mr Gareth Munday		View Profile
	Mr Gaurang Naik		View Profile
	Mr Linda Nelson		View Profile
	Mr Jennifer Newcomb		View Profile
	Mr Tim Parker		View Profile
	Ms Natasha Partos		View Profile
	Mr Johnathan Payne		View Profile
	Ms Helen Pooley		View Profile
	Mr Esther Pounder		View Profile
	Mr Tom Rainsbury		View Profile
	Mr Tom Restall		View Profile
	Mr Andrew Ritchie QC		View Profile
	Mr Benedict Rodgers		View Profile
	Mr John Schmitt		View Profile
	Mr Shahram Sharghy		View Profile
	Ms Abigail Stamp		View Profile
	Mr Christopher Stephenson		View Profile
	Mr Gurion Taussig		View Profile
	Mr James Thacker QC		View Profile
	Ms Holly Tibbitts		View Profile
	Ms Emily Verity		View Profile
	Ms Tara Vindis		View Profile
	Mr Vincent Williams		View Profile
	Mr Christopher Wilson		View Profile
	Mr Ben Zurawel		View Profile