Terra Firma Chambers

Terra Firma Chambers was established in January 2008 with the purpose of providing specialised services in the areas of property, planning, commercial and public law, and it is the first port of call in these areas. The chambers contains 47 counsel, including 17 King's Counsel. Many of the chambers' members are widely recognised as leading practitioners at the Scottish Bar, and several are also members of leading chambers at the English Bar.

The stable: All counsel share a common aim of providing professional services of the highest quality and standards. Advice is given in both contentious and non-contentious matters. As well as representing clients in litigation, chambers also undertakes various types of alternative dispute resolution work, including arbitrations and mediations.

Chambers is also committed to providing top-quality, approachable and efficient clerking services. The clerking staff are pleased to discuss the needs of client in order to identify the most suitable counsel for them. They will also discuss estimates of fees in advance and suitable fee arrangements for individual pieces of work. The clerking staff will liaise with agents and counsel to help ensure that all information necessary is provided at all stages. The chambers also accepts work from accredited professional bodies and the clerking staff will give advice to anyone wanting to know how to instruct counsel under the Direct Access Rules.

The members of Terra Firma Chambers are committed to equal opportunities and do not discriminate on grounds of gender, race, national or social origin, sexual orientation, religion, disability or age.

Types of work undertaken: The members of Terra Firma Chambers carry out the whole gamut of work related to property, planning, commercial and public law. The principal areas of specialist work undertaken are in administrative and constitutional law, agriculture and crofting, bankruptcy and diligence, building and construction, charities, commercial law, contract, conveyancing, environmental law, executries and succession, housing, landlord and tenant, licensing, local government, oil and gas, planning, professional negligence, property, public procurement, regulatory crime and fraud, taxation, trust law, unjustified enrichment, and valuation and rating.

Members of chambers appear regularly in courts and tribunals at all levels, and in particular in the Supreme Court, the Court of Session, the sheriff courts, the Scottish Land Court and the Lands Tribunal for Scotland. Members are also regularly instructed for public inquiries, arbitrations, disciplinary tribunals and local authority hearings. Several members hold appointments as a part-time judge, part-time sheriffs or as part-time tribunal judges.

A number of the members of Terra Firma Chambers have particular experience and knowledge of arbitration proceedings, with several members holding qualifications from the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Members' experience includes acting as arbitrator, teaching, drafting parts of the Arbitration (Scotland) Act 2010 and authoring leading texts on the 2010 Act.

Chambers' members include leading practitioners in agricultural and crofting law, planning and environmental law, local government, all aspects of licensing law, tax, and trust law. Many of the members are well-known for their work in judicial review, statutory review and statutory appeals. In addition, members have wide-ranging experience in commercial disputes, having appeared in the commercial courts in the Court of Session and the Sheriff Courts, but also having been involved in a wide variety of commercial property disputes and arbitrations.

Because many of the areas of law in which chambers' members specialise are also regulated by the European Union and the Human Rights Act 1988, members are also well-placed to advise on the EU and ECHR aspects of any issue.

The chambers also provides in-house CPD events for solicitors. Members are involved in teaching on their specialist subjects at several of Scotland's leading universities.