Set Profile > Blackstone Chambers > London, England

Clerks:

Blackstone’s clerks are the most professional that I have dealt with. For Adam Sloane nothing is ever too much, nor too late in the day. The team as a whole is incredibly responsive and works hard to collaborate with their instructing solicitors.

Clerking is exceptional with particular mention to Derek Sutton who is always responsible and accommodating and who clearly knows the strengths and skillsets that the barristers have to offer. He is extremely good at making the right connections between barristers, solicitors and clients.

Gary Oliver as senior clerk is brilliant. Helpful, endlessly patient and willing to work through the difficulties of finding the right barrister for the right job. I cannot speak highly enough of him.

I have always found the clerking service at Blackstone to be very helpful. Dean Tolman in particular is one of the most accommodating and supportive clerks I have come across.

I usually deal with Adam Fuschillo who has a good knowledge of the strengths of the barristers in chambers and is very responsive in dealing with calls/emails.

I work primarily with Derek Sutton and the service he provides is excellent. Their quotes are sensible and they always conduct business fairly. If a particular barrister is not available to take an instruction, Derek expertly suggests another individual who would be a good fit for the matter. He is rarely wrong.

Impressive and responsive. Lewis Walker in particular is proactive, responsive and goes the extra mile.

Impressive set of clerks. Always on hand to help the best way they can. Danny Compton in particular is very easy to work with and has an inherent understanding of urgency.

In my experience they tend to work more as a team, which is very helpful as there is always coverage, they know what is going on, and they can always be trusted to say very clearly and quickly whether something can be done or not. This is massively important, because a clerk who just fills up their barristers’ diaries without planning ahead and being honest about other commitments etc often does adversely impact the quality of work (as we do see in other leading sets).

In particular Adam Sloane is a delight to work with. He is a highly accomplished Clerk who’s professional standards are second to none. He clearly has an extensive knowledge of the Barristers at the Chambers and is a shining star within the organisation.

Lewis Walker and Adam Sloane are both very good indeed. As above, the quality and user-friendliness of the clerking at Blackstone set it apart from any other Chambers.

Lewis Walker is a fantastic clerk, the strength and depth of his knowledge of barrister expertise is exceptional.

Lewis is very personable and it is extremely easy to build up a great working relationship.

Marc Armstrong is always ready and willing to assist with whatever is required, is fast working and quick to respond.

Service is excellent and the clerks deserve particular mention for their diligence. The clerks have worked diligently to ensure that there is a secure Chinese wall in place for this case with dedicated clerks to different parties. The clerks are all well aware of the importance of this. Derek Sutton is particularly strong in customer service, open, honest and always willing to help. Adam Fuschillo is also to be commended for his availability and reliability, he will go above and beyond to assist.

Sophie Floyd in particular is always responsive, resourceful and willing to help.

The Chambers has an exceptional group of clerks who have the ability to work with both lawyers and clients to reflect properly the parties’ commercial objectives. I should particularly comment that Derek Sutton remains an absolute superstar of the clerks who is always willing to “go the extra mile” to support both me and the team generally.

The clerks /chambers organise some very interesting and useful events and are stand outs in events focussing on women in law and organising events that might appeal to women as well as men.

The clerks are excellent, particularly Adam Fuschillo and Lewis Walker. They are always responsive, efficient and keen to help. Nothing is too much trouble. They are also flexible and very reasonable over fees and fee structures. They are a great advertisement for the set.

Derek Sutton is an excellent clerk. He is responsive, understands the needs of clients and is fantastic to deal with. he is very good at finding the right barrister to fit the work required.

The clerks are very good at providing the right barrister for each job. The service is exceptional and work is turned around almost instantly. Lewis Walker is an absolute gem who understands the realities of litigation and is always helpful whether it be about costs or timing.

I deal extensively with Billy Brian, who is excellent. Billy will always make time to speak to me directly over the phone whenever I have a new instruction (including occasions when he has been on holiday), and he bends over backwards to find options for me if our preferred barristers aren’t available. Billy’s knowledge of his barristers’ experience and strength is great and he is always able to find someone suitable to assist.

Marc Armstrong in the clerks room is an absolute legend. Always willing to go the extra mile and take a proactive, commercial approach.

The clerks’ room is very responsive and the clerks are always able to tailor recommendations to particular needs and requirements. Gary Oliver in particular is always ready and available to make practical recommendations and to discuss client needs in any given matter.

The clerks’ room of Blackstone Chambers is the strongest that I have come across, they are competitive on price, and always willing to discuss better ways to provide the service you are seeking.

They are helpful. Billy Brian is a star clerk: he is smooth, sophisticated, subtle, polite, sensible, excellent manners to deal with clients and barristers. He originally clerked Lord Sumption (when at Brick Court). So, although relatively young, this is a clerk who is clearly destined to go far.

Tom’s clerks have always been on hand to assist and have provided an exceptional service. Danny Compton and Sophie Floyd, in particular, have been fantastic.

Set:

A go-to chambers for tricky sensitive or high profile public law issues or litigation. A number of leading individuals, approachable and friendly and responsive.

A great employment set, very approachable team, knowledge is exceptional and clerks are really helpful.

A stand out set in the civil fraud space, with some real heavy hitters and real strength at silk, senior junior and junior levels.

A top set with a diverse range of commercial expertise. I am always confident using their juniors as sole counsel even with limited call – they get better exposure than at other sets.

A top user-friendly set. Excellent counsel, events and seminars. Especially for commercial disputes with a media/IP angle.

A user-friendly set with excellent barristers. Their events and seminars are always useful and well attended.

A very diverse set in financial and public law. Difficult to name anyone whom I would not be happy to instruct on a public law matter.

All barristers that we have worked with at Blackstone Chambers have been of the highest calibre. They are all extremely professional, completely on top of the law and all of those I have worked with have been very capable of explaining the law in a client-friendly manner.

An excellent set, Blackstone is our first choice for fraud matters.

As a financial regulatory practitioner, it is the go-to set. There are good barristers at other sets but no one has the same strength in depth.

They regularly circulate informative and insightful alters which are particularly good. Their charitable initiatives are glorious.

As always, a very impressive set. Particularly impressive in the consistent quality of their advocates both at silk and junior level. Their barristers are very user-friendly and client-focused.

Blackstone are clearly a top set in the field of public law, with particular strength in media-related work

Blackstone are the best chambers we use by some distance. Their quality, strength in depth of barristers and experience is unrivalled. They are the go-to set without a doubt.

As well as having some key people who are known specialists in their areas, Blackstone is also able to field a decent depth and breadth of other talents that are waiting in the wings and stand ready to lend their support at often very short notice.

Blackstone Chambers are a fantastic set of barristers who have strength in depth across the board. In relation to aviation particularly they have a number of barristers who are at the head of their field with really impressive experience. At the junior end, I find that Blackstone barristers are always ready to lend a hand and are typically very enthusiastic about the cases we involve them in.

Blackstone Chambers are a formidable set in fraud, asset tracing and shareholder disputes. They always have available excellent counsel who immediately make you feel comfortable that you are extremely safe and capable hands.

They have a vast array of talented barristers who are all at the top of their game. Where a chosen barrister is unavailable, I have never been disappointed by alternative counsel recommended by the clerking team. They provide a good programme of know how through emails and bulletins, together with social events for networking.

Blackstone Chambers has an exceptionally strong reputation across a very wide range of practice areas. It is unusual both in terms of the breadth of expertise offered by members of chambers (ranging from employment, to commercial and competition law, to public, human rights and international law) and the depth of the quality of its members. There are few high profile civil cases that do not involve at least one barrister from Blackstone.

Blackstone Chambers is an exceptionally good Chambers with a large strength-in-depth, and almost all of their Barristers provided added value, are responsive, and stand strong comparison to their peers.

Blackstone Chambers is my go-to set for high value or complex matters. There is a remarkable range of specialities amongst the barristers at Chambers. The silks are of exceptionally high quality and the vast majority of the juniors are extraordinarily accomplished (even at the very junior end)

Blackstone Chambers is our go-to set for EU and competition law claims as they have some of the most impressive barristers in this area. As a result of their stellar reputation, availability can be an issue but this is very often mitigated by the breadth of their offering.

Blackstone Chambers is without a doubt the best set in England. There is enormous strength and depth in these chambers in many areas and the quality is of the highest calibre. All the Blackstone barristers I have worked with have been friendly, reliable and outstanding in the quality of their advice. It is my choice for media employment disputes as these tend to cross over into other areas of law and you can rely on these barristers to have exceptional wide-ranging experience.

Blackstone have an exceptional employment practice, and are regularly sought out by the top firms for difficult, sensitive cases where the best Counsel are needed. With a strong roster of top employment Silks, they also have top rate juniors and I know that they are currently recruiting at the junior end to further increase that strength-in-depth.

Blackstone have unparalleled strength in depth around public law and especially the relationship between EU/international protections and UK domestic legislation.

Blackstone is a real centre of excellence for human rights cases. They have a phenomenal depth of knowledge in this sphere both at senior and junior levels.

Blackstone is able to offer extremely strong counsel across a range of practice areas and levels. Counsel availability is generally good. The set has also provided helpful training to our Litigation team at our offices.

Blackstone is about the strongest black letter employment law set, I think. Particularly good for restrictive covenant work and other contractual disputes.

Blackstone is an excellent set, and always one that I consider when seeking to the instruct counsel. It has barristers with wide range of experience and expertise. Its training programme is timely and tackles tricky issues.

The front of house team work really hard to look after you, which makes a real difference to the experience especially for the lay client for whom it is all immensely stressful! The front of house team’s contribution is significant – and underrated in its positive impact.

Blackstone remain the stand-out set for big ticket sports instructions

Blackstones are excellent all around and offer both depth and breadth of Counsel available for instruction on Commercial Litigation matters.