Cornerstone Barristers

cornerstonebarristers.com

Jack Barber

Jack Barber specialises in planning, environmental and public law, with a particular focus on major residential, commercial, and infrastructure projects. Ranked among the top-rated planning juniors under 35 (Planning Law Survey 2024, 2025), Jack is known for providing clear, strategic, and commercially focused advice to help clients unlock development potential and navigate planning risk. He is a member of the Attorney General’s Junior Counsel to the Crown (‘C’ Panel). Generally, his instructions concern projects raising issues at the forefront of national policy, from building housing to accelerating the net zero transition and protecting valued landscapes and heritage assets. His clients include housebuilders and infrastructure providers, as well as authorities, housing providers, community groups and individuals. His work often concerns planning applications, appeals, statutory challenges, and judicial review proceedings. He contributes regular case commentary to the Journal of Planning and Environmental Law.

Alistair Cantor

Alistair Cantor specialises in commercial and regulatory, property and housing law. He undertakes a broad range of drafting, advisory and advocacy work for private litigants and public authorities. Alistair began his career at UBS Investment Bank, before being called to the Bar in 2011 and has since built a successful practice. He combines his legal acumen with sound commercial expertise when advising his clients. He holds long-standing instructions from the Dobbs Review, the ongoing high-profile independent review into the HBOS Reading fraud. He has a unique specialism in enforcement law, having regularly acted in enforcement proceedings concerning high value and foreign judgments. Alistair is a mentor under the ‘Mentoring for Underrepresented Groups at the Planning, Public Law and Property Bar’ scheme. He is a member of Cornerstone Climate, our cross-disciplinary practice group for climate litigation and advice. An alumnus of University College London, Alistair earned his Graduate Diploma in Law with Distinction at the University of Law and was awarded the Buchanan Prize from Lincoln’s Inn for Outstanding Performance on the BPTC.

Olivia Davies

Olivia maintains a consciously broad practice in most areas of Chambers’ work, including public law, planning and environmental law, commercial law, election law, housing law, licensing law, information law, and inquests. Olivia is a member of the Cornerstone Climate team. Olivia regularly appears before courts, tribunals, public inquiries and inquests for a range of clients, both public and private. Her current private clients include a popular fashion brand in a commercial injunction claim for alleged breach of a licence agreement. Her public work has recently included being part of a team of counsel for three former Post Office sub-postmasters in the Court of Appeal proceedings where their wrongful convictions were overturned after the ‘biggest miscarriage of justice in history’. Olivia’s public clients are often local authorities, whom Olivia represents in a range of cases, from a recent un-led two-week planning inquiry concerning the refusal of permission a 49.9MW solar development on Green Belt land, to complex multi-track possession trials.

Matthew Feldman

Matthew Feldman has extensive experience in housing law representing local authorities, registered social providers and tenants in statutory homelessness appeals, possession claims, human rights, discrimination and Equality Act 2010 challenges, statutory succession and right to buy proceedings, claims and injunctions based on anti-social behaviour, unlawful eviction and harassment claims, disrepair, succession and Environmental Protection Act 1990 cases. Recent work Matthew Feldman has acted in several influential social housing cases, including: \tR (on the application of Nolson) v Stevenage BC - The Court of Appeal considered the procedure for reviewing an application for the provision of relief in the form of interim accommodation in a homelessness judicial review case, following a refusal of interim relief on the papers. \tYemshaw v Hounslow LBC - The Supreme Court held that the term 'domestic violence' in section 177(1) of the Housing Act 1996 included physical violence, threatening or intimidating behaviour and any other form of abuse which, directly or indirectly, might give rise to the risk of harm. \tR (McGarrett) v Kingston Crown Court - The Divisional Court held that the purpose of an ASBO was not to punish, and the terms of the order had to be proportionate to the risk to be guarded against. Further, the order had to be both necessary and justified. \tLondon & Quadrant Housing Trust v Ansell – Part of the ‘tolerated trespasser’ litigation for which leave to appeal to the House of Lords was granted, and the case settled on favourable terms shortly before the final hearing.

Matt Hutchings KC

Matt has a broad practice spanning the full range of chambers’ public law work, property, and commercial and regulatory litigation. He is the ideal barrister to advise in cases involving elements of commercial, property and public law. Matt has several decades of experience in appearing before the High Court in both judicial reviews and commercial trials, as well as of appellate advocacy, including at the highest level. Recent public law cases include Supreme Court briefs in R(Z) v Hackney, McDonald v McDonald, Hotak v Southwark and R(N) v Lewisham. He also appeared in the CJEU in R(Hemming) v Westminster. Matt has appeared before the Court of Appeal on dozens of occasions. Recent trial work includes Rail for London v Hackney, a landlord and tenant dispute in the Chancery Division about the construction of a rent covenant, implied terms and estoppel by convention, Chalfont St Peter v Holy Cross, a claim in unlawful interference/unlawful means conspiracy arising out of alleged planning fraud, Southwark v London District Housing Association & ors, a multi-party claim for breach/evasion of planning obligations and the Building Act arbitration following the Supreme Court decision in Manolete Partners v Hastings. He frequently acts for or against the government as well as in disputes between private individuals and organisations, often in the development sector, and has a keen understanding of his clients’ commercial and strategic aims. Matt is very active across the social housing sector, providing strategic advice to many London boroughs, particularly in the areas of regeneration, property, homelessness, and housing. A significant part of Matt’s practice relates to highways and traffic management. Matt offers advice that is strategic, practical and realistic.

Ryan Kohli

Administrative and public law: Ryan has extensive experience representing government departments and local authorities in public law proceedings including a leading case on the meaning of “clearly unfounded” in the asylum context. Examples include R (on the application of FR Albania) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWCA Civ 605. Landlord and tenant (including social housing): Ryan has been involved in significant cases in the social housing sphere on the application of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and s. 15 of the Equality Act 2010. Examples include Paragon Asra Housing Limited v Neville [2018] EWCA Civ 1712; Hackney LBC v Haque [2017] EWCA Civ 4 and Thurrock Borough Council v West [2012] EWCA Civ 1435. Planning: He regularly represents clients in significant planning cases including those concerning air quality and the interpretation of the General Permitted Development Order. Recent examples of his work include: appearing on behalf of the Secretary of State in R (on the application of Durham and Hartlepool) v SSLUHC [2023] EWHC 1394 (Admin) which concerned the jurisdiction of planning inspectors to determine solar farm appeals which are, or might amount to, a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project; representing Cheltenham Borough Council in what is thought to have been the first planning appeal in which planning permission was refused for a major housing scheme solely on climate change grounds.

Natasha Peter

Natasha Peter is a versatile commercial and civil law practitioner. Clients appreciate her ability to provide pragmatic, results-driven strategic and legal advice, her incisive drafting of factually and legally complex written submissions, and her effective oral advocacy. Natasha has experience of acting for the private and public sector in a broad range of fields, including agency and distribution, commodities, construction, consumer goods, environmental, financial services, infrastructure, joint ventures, licensing, mergers and acquisitions, natural resources, nuclear, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, power, public procurement, renewable energies, sale of goods, technology, telecommunications and transport. A hallmark of her approach is her combination of creative problem-solving with logical, persuasive drafting and careful attention to detail. This blend of skills has led to notable successes – for example, the widely publicised grant, at first instance, of an interim injunction to prevent the Bell Hotel from being used to accommodation asylum seekers in Epping Forest District Council v Somani Hotels Ltd (led by Philip Coppel KC). An established arbitration practitioner who has acted in disputes conducted under all the major arbitration rules (including LCIA, ICC, DIAC, ICSID and ad hoc arbitration under the UNCITRAL Rules), Natasha regularly sits as an arbitrator and as a construction adjudicator. She is also a Crown Court Recorder and a Deputy District Judge on the South-Eastern Circuit. Natasha has been listed in Best Lawyers for Arbitration and Mediation since 2023. She is a dual Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (International Arbitration and Adjudication). She is also a visiting lecturer at the Paris II Panthéon-Assas University, where she teaches drafting and written advocacy skills, and regularly publishes articles and gives seminars on topics relating to commercial/ contract law, international arbitration and alternative dispute resolution, including as a contributor to Atkins Court Forms on “Bonds“. Natasha has a particular interest in renewable energy and environmental law, and is a member of Cornerstone Climate, Chambers’ cross-disciplinary practice group for climate litigation and advice.

Sarah Salmon

Sarah Salmon specialises in local government, housing, and property law. She has represented public bodies (including the police), charities, local authorities, housing associations, individuals and companies in her specialist areas. In relation to housing, Sarah’s caseload includes all aspects of housing management, possession, homelessness and allocations, Equality Act 2010 duties, welfare benefits, anti-social behaviour, unlawful eviction and housing conditions. Recent housing work Sarah Salmon’s recent advisory work has included: \tthe allocation of social housing and reviewing an allocation scheme; \tissues associated with homelessness applications and how an authority provides temporary accommodation pursuant to duties under Part 7, Housing Act 1996; \tproposed adaptations of a property and the interaction between an authority’s policy and a disabled facilities grant under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996; \treviewing a reasonable adjustment policy for a social landlord; and, \tEU Settled Status and the impact on a possession claim. She has also successfully acted in a number of appeals including those under section 204, Housing Act 1996 appeals and an appeal by a local authority against the dismissal of a possession claim based on allegations of subletting.