Pump Court Chambers > London, England > Set Profile
Pump Court Chambers Offices

Pump Court Chambers
3 PUMP COURT, TEMPLE
LONDON
EC4Y 7AJ
England
Pump Court Chambers > The Legal 500 Rankings
Western Circuit > Crime (general and fraud) Tier 1
At Pump Court Chambers in Winchester, the ‘very strong crime team‘ is led by the ‘robust‘ James Newton-Price KC, who is noted for his strength in handling cases of serious sexual offences, multi-handed fraud and homicide. Sarah Jones KC led Ellie Fargin in prosecuting a man who was received a life sentence for child destruction and grievous bodily harm after attacking his girlfriend, who subsequently suffered a miscarriage. The ‘very conscientious‘ Peter Asteris prosecutes and defends in cases of complex sexual offences, and is sought after for his expertise in representing vulnerable clients. Multi-handed drugs and fraud conspiracies have been prominent in Mark Ruffell‘s recent caseload. In November 2021 Rebecca Fairbairn joined from Drystone Chambers.Leading Silks
Leading Juniors
Testimonials
Set
‘A well-established set with an excellent reputation.’
‘All members are outstanding advocates and liked by both clients and judges.’
‘A strong set.’
‘A strong criminal team.’
Clerking
‘The clerks at Pump Court Chambers are helpful and adaptable. Ben Harfield and James May always pull out the stops when it comes to listing and making sure all last minute matters are covered.’
‘The clerking team are friendly and approachable.’
Western Circuit > Family and children law Tier 1
Pump Court Chambers ‘offers superb strength in depth in family law‘ and has ‘real talent at all levels of seniority‘. Penny Howe KC, who heads the public and private children law teams, is ‘a robust cross-examiner‘ and counts serious cases of fabricated and induced illness, violent and sexual abuse among her areas of expertise. Caroline Hartley is regularly instructed in cases involving allegations of sexual abuse, serious injuries, salt poisoning and physical and emotional abuse. The ‘very articulate and intelligent‘ Edward Boydell leads the family finance team, and is sought after for his experience in handling high-net-worth financial remedy cases.Rising Stars: Child Law (Public and Private)
Leading Silks: Child Law (Public and Private)
Leading Silks: Divorce and Financial Remedy
Leading Juniors: Child Law (Public and Private)
Leading Juniors: Divorce and Financial Remedy
Testimonials
Set
‘A user-friendly set.’
‘Pump Court is a fantastic set of chambers.’
‘Pump Court has a strong family team.’
‘Very friendly and approachable set.’
‘Excellent strength in depth.’
Clerking
‘Sean Gentleman and James Collier are a joy to work with.’
Western Circuit > Employment Tier 2
Pump Court Chambers is ‘strong in the employment law field‘, and houses a team which maintains a presence in Winchester and London. Heather Platt garners praise for her ‘commercial pragmatism and technical knowledge‘; she successfully represented the claimant in Richards v Brocade Communications UK, a long-running unfair dismissal case. Daniella Gilbert has established strength in handling cases involving whistleblowing, discrimination, unfair dismissal, restrictive covenants and TUPE matters. Naomi Gyane is ‘an expert in her field‘ and is sought after for her expertise in handling discrimination, harassment and victimisation claims. Tim Dracass ‘has a strong ability to get to the crux of issues in complicated cases‘. In July 2021 Gary Self was appointed a judge of the Employment Tribunals.Leading Juniors
Testimonials
Set
‘An excellent set with talented and bright counsel.’
‘Attentive and pro-active with experience in all areas of employment law.’
‘Great depth of experience and knowledge in its members.’
‘Pump Court Chambers is a great set. The level and expertise of barristers is second to none and the strength in depth is remarkable.’
Clerking
‘Jonathan Cue is extremely helpful and responsive.’
‘Strong clerking team who always make themselves available.’
South Eastern Circuit > Family and children law Tier 3
Pump Court Chambers' office in Canterbury (following its absorption of Stour Chambers in April 2023) is a ‘very experienced set’ that is ‘well known and respected in all courts’. The team is experienced in handling complex multi-day cases and matters of matrimonial and family finance. Simon Johnson specialises in childcare proceedings and is ‘well known for his strong advocacy skills’ and ‘providing detailed and insightful statements’. Adam Clegg has more than two decades experience in family law. Elizabeth Spence is experienced in handling cases involving high-value or complex asset structures, allegations of financial misconduct, and inherited assets. Stuart Snow is ‘an extremely well prepared and thorough advocate who has a good rapport with clients’.Leading Juniors: Child Law (Public and Private)
Leading Juniors: Divorce and Financial Remedy
Testimonials
Set
‘The set is very experienced, well known and respected in local courts.’
‘Chambers offer a range of highly regarded counsel at junior and senior levels.’
‘Chambers provides good support and help. It offers training programmes. There is a good selection of counsel who can step in if required.’
‘Stour Chambers is a highly professional set. It provides the right representation to the client whenever possible and always pleases clients and those instructing them.’
‘The Chambers is very approachable and friendly. It is always quick to respond to emails and will endeavour to juggle diaries if possible.’
‘Extremely strong family set. Good availability/choice of counsel. Training courses are well-presented and a good way to keep up to date with current law and any changes.’
‘The chambers is very good at providing counsel, even at short notice. The barristers are skilled and punctual.’
Work highlights
Western Circuit > Business and regulatory crime (including health and safety)
Leading Juniors
Western Circuit > Commercial litigation
Western Circuit > Personal injury
Leading Juniors
Wales and Chester Circuit > Chancery, probate, and tax
Leading Juniors
Wales and Chester Circuit > Family and children law
Leading Juniors: Divorce and Financial Remedy
London Bar > Inquests and inquiries
Leading Juniors
London Bar > Children law (including public and private law)
Leading Juniors
Regional Bar > Western Circuit > Family and children law
Pump Court Chambers ‘offers superb strength in depth in family law‘ and has ‘real talent at all levels of seniority‘. Penny Howe KC, who heads the public and private children law teams, is ‘a robust cross-examiner‘ and counts serious cases of fabricated and induced illness, violent and sexual abuse among her areas of expertise. Caroline Hartley is regularly instructed in cases involving allegations of sexual abuse, serious injuries, salt poisoning and physical and emotional abuse. The ‘very articulate and intelligent‘ Edward Boydell leads the family finance team, and is sought after for his experience in handling high-net-worth financial remedy cases.Rising Stars: Child Law (Public and Private)
Leading Silks: Child Law (Public and Private)
Leading Silks: Divorce and Financial Remedy
Leading Juniors: Child Law (Public and Private)
Leading Juniors: Divorce and Financial Remedy
Testimonials
Set
‘A user-friendly set.’
‘Pump Court is a fantastic set of chambers.’
‘Pump Court has a strong family team.’
‘Very friendly and approachable set.’
‘Excellent strength in depth.’
Clerking
‘Sean Gentleman and James Collier are a joy to work with.’
Regional Bar > Western Circuit > Crime (general and fraud)
At Pump Court Chambers in Winchester, the ‘very strong crime team‘ is led by the ‘robust‘ James Newton-Price KC, who is noted for his strength in handling cases of serious sexual offences, multi-handed fraud and homicide. Sarah Jones KC led Ellie Fargin in prosecuting a man who was received a life sentence for child destruction and grievous bodily harm after attacking his girlfriend, who subsequently suffered a miscarriage. The ‘very conscientious‘ Peter Asteris prosecutes and defends in cases of complex sexual offences, and is sought after for his expertise in representing vulnerable clients. Multi-handed drugs and fraud conspiracies have been prominent in Mark Ruffell‘s recent caseload. In November 2021 Rebecca Fairbairn joined from Drystone Chambers.Leading Silks
Leading Juniors
Testimonials
Set
‘A well-established set with an excellent reputation.’
‘All members are outstanding advocates and liked by both clients and judges.’
‘A strong set.’
‘A strong criminal team.’
Clerking
‘The clerks at Pump Court Chambers are helpful and adaptable. Ben Harfield and James May always pull out the stops when it comes to listing and making sure all last minute matters are covered.’
‘The clerking team are friendly and approachable.’
Regional Bar > Western Circuit > Business and regulatory crime (including health and safety)
Leading Juniors
Regional Bar > Western Circuit > Employment
Pump Court Chambers is ‘strong in the employment law field‘, and houses a team which maintains a presence in Winchester and London. Heather Platt garners praise for her ‘commercial pragmatism and technical knowledge‘; she successfully represented the claimant in Richards v Brocade Communications UK, a long-running unfair dismissal case. Daniella Gilbert has established strength in handling cases involving whistleblowing, discrimination, unfair dismissal, restrictive covenants and TUPE matters. Naomi Gyane is ‘an expert in her field‘ and is sought after for her expertise in handling discrimination, harassment and victimisation claims. Tim Dracass ‘has a strong ability to get to the crux of issues in complicated cases‘. In July 2021 Gary Self was appointed a judge of the Employment Tribunals.Leading Juniors
Testimonials
Set
‘An excellent set with talented and bright counsel.’
‘Attentive and pro-active with experience in all areas of employment law.’
‘Great depth of experience and knowledge in its members.’
‘Pump Court Chambers is a great set. The level and expertise of barristers is second to none and the strength in depth is remarkable.’
Clerking
‘Jonathan Cue is extremely helpful and responsive.’
‘Strong clerking team who always make themselves available.’
Regional Bar > Western Circuit > Commercial litigation
Regional Bar > Western Circuit > Personal injury
Leading Juniors
Regional Bar > Wales and Chester Circuit > Chancery, probate, and tax
Leading Juniors
Regional Bar > Wales and Chester Circuit > Family and children law
Leading Juniors: Divorce and Financial Remedy
Pump Court Chambers > Set Profile
Established 75 years ago, Pump Court Chambers is a large and well-established common law set specialising in family, civil, criminal and international law, as well as forms of non-court dispute resolution such as commercial arbitration, family arbitration, mediation and private FDRs.
The set: Chambers has 104 barristers, including seven silks, based across its three offices in London, Winchester and Swindon. Each centre is staffed by an experienced clerking team which is known for providing a consistently high service. Although based in London and on the Western Circuit, the work done by the set’s barristers extends throughout the UK and abroad. Members of chambers appear in all levels of courts and offer the highest quality advocacy and advisory services. Many sit as part-time judges in a variety of courts and tribunals, and it has a proud record of having provided numerous accomplished and highly respected judges to the Circuit Bench and other senior judicial posts.
The set is highly regarded by its peers for the depth of its expertise across the full range of contentious legal services. Clients believe that what really sets chambers apart is its attitude to client service – barristers have an unstuffy approach, a ‘can do’ attitude and the ability to give clear advice that makes sense. Chambers is committed to professional excellence and always works to the highest ethical standards.
Types of work undertaken
Civil: The team, made up of over 40 practising members including two silks continues to growth in strength. Chambers has particular expertise in all areas of business and commercial, employment, inheritance, property, personal injury and clinical negligence, professional negligence, regulatory and transport law.
The team also undertakes a large amount of professional negligence work, with a number of practitioners acting as legal assessors and representatives for the General Medical Council and other professional bodies.
Family: With over 60 members including three KCs, Pump Court Chambers has one of the largest specialist family law teams at the Bar. The team practises in four main areas: family finance, court of protection, children public law and children private law. To meet the growing need for a non-court-based resolution service for family finance cases, the team also provides services in family arbitration, mediation and private FDRs. The family finance team undertakes a wide spectrum of work, from complex high-net-worth ‘big money’ cases to actions with more modest assets and incomes. The private children law team specialises in residence and contact disputes and applications for permission to remove children from the jurisdiction. The team also has extensive experience in dealing with child abduction cases with international dimensions and matters involving serious domestic and sexual abuse. In public law it advises and represents local authorities, parents and guardians in all areas of children work, including applications for care and supervision orders, applications for placement and adoption orders, applications under the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court, and disputes where local authorities have been joined as parties to applications for judicial review.
International: Oba Nsugbe KC, SAN is widely acknowledged as one of the UK’s and Nigeria’s leading barristers and commercial arbitrators. He has a broad international practice with a particular interest in Africa. He is qualified as a barrister and a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. He advises the Nigerian federal government, several state governments and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, as well as having appeared as an expert witness in several UK cases involving Nigerian law. In addition, he routinely works in other overseas jurisdictions such as Germany, the Cayman Islands, Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe. He is frequently involved in multi-jurisdictional cases. Anthony Akiwumi is admitted as an attorney of the Cayman Islands and has practised in this jurisdiction since 1997. He has an excellent command of the issues arising in the context of an increasingly regulated offshore environment. In 2002 Anthony was part of the team that successfully represented the Cayman Islands in its presentations to the OECD/FATF, resulting ultimately in the removal of the Cayman Islands from the list of non-co-operating jurisdictions. Jason Nickless enjoys cases with an international flavour and has advised clients both on- and offshore. He has been called to the Bar in the British Virgin Islands and appeared there before the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, where he was involved in two appeals dealing with the interrelationship between insolvency rules and arbitration clauses. He has dealt with a number of cases involving African mobile telephone companies. He regularly advises on conflict of law matters both inside and outside the EC jurisdictions. Naima Asif has spent significant time in Pakistan gaining experience in cases involving forced/child marriage, domestic/honour based violence, stranded spouse, international child abduction and Islamic law. Naima is regularly instructed to provide expert advice on Pakistani law and Islamic law.
Regulatory: Our regulatory and disciplinary barristers represents businesses and professionals in disputes over their adherence to or application of the standards and rules that govern and guide their operation.
These disputes often run in parallel with proceedings involving commercial, employment or criminal litigation. Our regulatory and disciplinary team are adept at handling these complex, multi-dimensional cases to ensure that our clients receive the best-possible representation on each aspect of the dispute.
Businesses and professions are more closely regulated than ever before and failure – or even the suggestion of a failure – to comply with the relevant regulations and standards can have very significant, even career-ending, financial and reputational consequences. So, it is vital when proceedings are initiated against a business or professional that they access expert representation as quickly as possible, especially where matters progress to a tribunal.
Criminal: Pump Court Chambers’ criminal advocates enjoy an outstanding reputation. Over the last 20 years more than 15 of the group have become circuit judges. In the same period 15 members of chambers have been appointed as King’s Counsel. From these solid foundations chambers has developed into one of the most modern and forward-thinking sets. The team is made up of four silks and 22 junior tenants.
Alternative dispute resolution: Chambers offers a range of services to assist parties to resolve their issues in a modern, focused and cost-effective manner. These services include commercial arbitration, civil and family mediation, family arbitration under the IFLA scheme and private FDRs.
Main Contacts
Department | Name | Telephone | |
---|---|---|---|
Senior Clerk | Tony Atkins | t.atkins@pumpcourtchambers.com | 0207 427 7080 |
Senior Criminal Clerk | Tony George | t.george@pumpcourtchambers.com | 01962 833202 |
Senior Civil Clerk | Jonathan Cue | j.cue@pumpcourtchambers.com | 020 7353 0711 |
Senior Family Clerk | Sean Gentleman | s.gentleman@pumpcourtchambers.com | 0207 427 7084 |
First Family Junior / Family ADR Clerk | James Collier | j.collier@pumpcourtchambers.com | 0207 427 7082 |
Senior Employment / First Civil Junior Clerk | Dean Cunniff | d.cunniff@pumpcourtchambers.com | 0207 427 7086 |
Regulatory & Civil Clerk | Tom Wood | t.wood@pumpcourtchambers.com | 0207 353 0711 |
Languages
Chinese (Mandarin and dialects) Hindu Urdu French German Italian Portuguese Spanish and various Nigerian languagesClient Testimonial
CLIENT: Partner, UK Law Firm
TESTIMONIAL: “I have be instructing Pump Court ever since I qualified in 2005 and I continue to do so now in my capacity as Head of the Family Team. It is fair to say that they are my go to Chambers and first choice for the majority of my cases. In addition, I have encouraged new members in the department to instruct Pump Court given their positive experiences, they continue to do so without my encouragement”.
CLIENT: Partner, UK Law Firm
TESTIMONIAL: What stands out about Pump Court Chambers is the ability to offer consistently, and at the right price, the right barrister for the right job, whether that is a half day final hearing dealing with a child arrangements dispute, or a complex financial dispute, or a complex financial case involving overseas assets, family trusts, farming assets and whatever else. For a large team such as ours, it is essential that our breadth and diversity of experience is reflected in chambers and it is.
CLIENT: Partner, UK Law Firm
TESTIMONIAL: We have almost exclusively used them since 2001, both at other practices and at my current firm. At the time I took over a matter from another firm and the client wished to retain the same Counsel who was at Pump Court Chambers. I was instantly impressed with the service of the clerks, and the client focused approach that was different from the regional set that we were using.
CLIENT: Partner, UK Law Firm
TESTIMONIAL: The Clerks’ service is excellent. The team are led by example by Tony Atkins the Senior Clerk who has taken the foundations of great client service and developed this to the next level since he has been in charge. Tony is loyal and supportive of his instructing solicitors. He will do whatever he can to make counsel available or to resolve any minor issues. His approach is commercial and innovative to the running of a barrister’s set as he never takes solicitors instructions for granted. He appreciates that solicitors have a choice of sets and that Pump court must remain competitive on service and fees.
CLIENT: Partner, UK Law Firm
TESTIMONIAL: My own experiences of Pump Court Chambers have ensured that I have recommended them to my own team and also to other areas of the Firm. In building and developing that relationship, Tony (the Senior Clerk) has been instrumental in supporting networking opportunities between us with members of his clerking team and Counsel, showing the value that they place on their instructing Solicitors and nurturing that relationship further, with more instructions from Solicitors within other areas of the Firm.
- Western Circuit > Crime (general and fraud)
- Western Circuit > Family and children law
Top Tier Set Rankings
- Western Circuit > Employment
Set Rankings
- Western Circuit > Business and regulatory crime (including health and safety)
- Western Circuit > Commercial litigation
- Western Circuit > Personal injury
- Wales and Chester Circuit > Chancery, probate, and tax
- Wales and Chester Circuit > Family and children law
- Inquests and inquiries
- Children law (including public and private law)
- Regional Bar > Western Circuit > Family and children law
- Regional Bar > Western Circuit > Crime (general and fraud)
- Regional Bar > Western Circuit > Business and regulatory crime (including health and safety)
- Regional Bar > Western Circuit > Employment
- Regional Bar > Western Circuit > Commercial litigation
- Regional Bar > Western Circuit > Personal injury
- Regional Bar > Wales and Chester Circuit > Chancery, probate, and tax
- Regional Bar > Wales and Chester Circuit > Family and children law