Set Profile > Six Pump Court > Maidstone, England
Six Pump Court Offices
Six Pump Court
6-8 MILL STREET
MAIDSTONE
ME15 6XH
England
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Six Pump Court > The Legal 500 Rankings
Crime (general and fraud) Tier 1
Among the leading sets on the circuit, members of Six Pump Court are particularly active in Kent, defending and prosecuting in some of the most prolific and serious criminal cases. By way of example, Richard Barraclough QC achieved prosecuted four defendants, all of whom were convicted of a pre-meditated drug-related murder in Maidstone after a two month trial. Oliver Saxby QC successfully prosecuted the mother of a baby who drowned while unsupervised in a bath for gross negligence manslaughter.
Leading Silks
Leading Juniors
Employment Tier 1
Six Pump Court is home to Gordon William Menzies and Grace Cullen, who both have substantial practices in the South Eastern Circuit. Menzies represented the employee in Heskett v Ministry of Justice, an Employment Appeal Tribunal case concerning changes to pay banding brought in as part of the 2011 public sector pay restraint, with at issue the extent to which cost can be taken into account as part of the justification for alleged indirect age discrimination.
Leading Juniors
Consumer Tier 2
Six Pump Court is a 'very helpful and efficient' set with a broad spectrum of cases across the consumer law field. The 'really smart barristers' are particularly sought after for their 'prominence in health and safety' and food law, and their 'in-depth knowledge' of the corresponding regulation. David Travers QC acted in a significant liability case for an online retailer, while Mark Watson QC defended Tesco, Iceland, and Nandos in different claims involving food safety and hygiene claims. Also of note, Pascal Bates' recent work included the representation of an overseas importer accused of breaches of consumer protection laws.
Leading Silks
Leading Juniors
Environment Tier 2
Six Pump Court is 'one of the leading specialist environmental sets in the country for criminal work' and one clients remarks that it is 'an approachable and practical set, whose members will go the extra mile for their clients'. Members handle a broad range of environmental matters, handling cases in the High Court, Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court, while also representing industry and regulators at public inquiries and statutory appeals. In civil proceedings, members have particular expertise in statutory nuisance and environmental torts. Stephen Hockman QC pursued an application for judicial review of a decision restricting the right to fish for salmon in the River Severn. Specialist environmental regulatory junior Christopher Badger frequently handles high-profile cases on behalf of the Environment Agency. The set is 'excellently organised and very pleasant to deal with and the clerks are efficient and always very helpful'.
Leading Silks
2019 Silks
Leading Juniors
Health and safety Tier 2
Six Pump Court 'has great strength in depth in health and safety cases at all levels'. In recent work of note, Mark Watson QC successfully represented the defendant in R v Squibb Group Limited, an appeal against a sentence concerning the exposure to asbestos; the case involved issues of the importance of expert evidence in assessing the likelihood of harm under the Sentencing Guideline for Health and Safety Offences. Additionally, Stephen Hockman QC led David Hercock before the Court of Appeal for the appellant in Faltec Europe Limited v Health and Safety Executive, concerning the reduction of a fine for health and safety offences; the case drew upon the precedent set by the judgment in R v Squibb Group Limited.
Leading Silks
Leading Juniors
Licensing
Leading Juniors
Family and children law Tier 3
Six Pump Court is home to children law specialist Caroline Topping, who appears in public law cases involving allegations of serious physical abuse and non-accidental injury to children, and Grant Armstrong who acts in all types of family matters, primarily involving children and often exceptionally vulnerable ones.
Leading Juniors: Child Law (Public and Private)
Inquests and inquiries
Leading Silks
Personal injury, industrial disease and insurance fraud
Personal injury - Leading Juniors
Crime Tier 4
Six Pump Court is well known for its strength in handling serious prosecution work, notably, cases of sexual offending and homicide. In recent news, Richard Barraclough QC and Danny Moore prosecuted four defendants charged with pre-meditated murder concerning an ongoing conflict over the control of illegal drug supplies in Maidstone; all four were convicted. In another high-profile matter, 'modern and forward-thinking silk' Oliver Saxby QC prosecuted in the "Maids Moreton Murder" trial, where Benjamin Field, a 28-year-old churchwarden, was convicted of the murder of 69-year-old Peter Farquhar.
Leading Silks
Leading Juniors
Employment
Leading Juniors
Costs
Leading Juniors
Planning Tier 4
'Traditional and friendly' set Six Pump Court has both silks and juniors doing a range of planning work, with criminal and regulatory expertise to add to its enforcement arsenal on top more conventional planning work. William Upton QC represents Swale Borough Council in a call-in appeal of its decision to refuse permission for 675 homes in Sittingbourne, citing among other reasons the council's declaration of a "climate emergency". Giles Atkinson represented the local authority in LB Haringey v SSHCLG and Muir, reinstating an enforcement notice against uPVC windows in a conservation area, with at issue if the new windows constituted a development.
Leading Silks
2019 Silks
Leading Juniors
Set overviews: England and Wales
Six Pump Court has an established presence across the South East, with chambers based in London and its annexe in Maidstone. Members practice across eleven key areas, such as crime, planning, commercial, family and regulatory law, to name a few. In recent news, Steven Walker QC and Przemysław Krzywosz have joined as associate tenants, Anthony Connerty has been appointed to the Arbitration and Mediation Pools of the Court of Arbitration for Art, Nicholas Ostrowski has been appointed to the Attorney General's Panel of Counsel, and Simon Taylor has been appointed a Recorder, assigned to the South Eastern Circuit.
Clerks:
Testimonials
Clerks:
Ryan Barrow, Richard Constable and Mike Hearn are excellent. They have good connections with the courts.
The best clerking team in Temple without doubt. Nothing is too much trouble. Always an absolute pleasure to deal with. They develop superb relationships with their instructing solicitors. They are very well led by Richard Constable but every one of them are formed in his image and give the same level of exceptional service.
The clerks led by Richard Constable, have consistently been praised by our clients for providing a very high level of service. Richard, in particular, will not rest unless he can solve a clients problem.
The clerking team go out of their way to provide a service that can only be described as excellent.
We deal with Ryan Barrow and have always found him very helpful.
The clerks are excellent headed by Richard Constable and assisted by Ryan Barrow. I have found them knowledgeable and always available if assistance is required.
Set:
6 Pump Court are the Thinking Man’s Chambers. They offer an attractive array of counsel whose expertise are the best in their fields. They are an approachable and practical set, who will go the extra mile for their professional clients. They are organised, resourceful and always willing to assist.
6 Pump Court is an excellent chambers with significant experience and understanding of environmental and planning law.
A wonderful set at all levels of call. With a second to none clerking team. It is packed with talent and marks itself by having a group of barristers who are very effective at the work they do (whether advocacy or advice) in a totally unstuffy and unaffected way.
An exceptional set in the areas in which they operate with a very good group of individual barristers at all levels of call. A deserved reputation for being a go to set for health and safety environmental and planning matters. That they also still do “real” crime is a real asset to their all round skill set.
Chambers is blessed with real heavyweight practitioners. It has a depth of leading juniors who remain at the very top of their game. Most practitioners prosecute and defend and so bring judgement and experience to the table.
Chambers is excellently organised and very pleasant to deal with. They have an impressive breadth and depth of legal expertise. The clerks are efficient and always very helpful.
Highly efficient with a good work ethic towards all parties. A very well respected set.
Professional, highly efficient and reassuring. The Clerks are approachable, friendly, professional and put our clients at ease. A very good Chambers to deal with.
The chambers are traditional and friendly, lacking the corporate and impersonal feel of some chambers.
This barrister’s chambers is consistently underrated as a criminal set. It has a rich pool of very experienced and committed advocates and probably the best clerks in the Temple and beyond.
The chambers ethos is one of approachability and efficiency, with the clerks being particularly attuned to the needs of their client base.
Regional Bar > South Eastern Circuit > Crime (general and fraud) Tier 1
Among the leading sets on the circuit, members of Six Pump Court are particularly active in Kent, defending and prosecuting in some of the most prolific and serious criminal cases. By way of example, Richard Barraclough QC achieved prosecuted four defendants, all of whom were convicted of a pre-meditated drug-related murder in Maidstone after a two month trial. Oliver Saxby QC successfully prosecuted the mother of a baby who drowned while unsupervised in a bath for gross negligence manslaughter.
Leading Silks
Leading Juniors
Six Pump Court > Set Profile
This is one of the leading common law sets in London and the south east, with particular specialist expertise in civil and commercial, criminal, employment, family, inquests and inquiries, licensing personal injury, public, planning and environmental, and regulatory law.
The set: Chambers was founded in the 1920s and whilst originally recognised as a specialist criminal, civil and family set, has evolved to become one of the strongest sets in environmental, local government, planning, health and safety and all forms of regulatory law as well.
The profile of chambers and the quality of work continues to be maintained at a very high level. Six Pump Court has an ethos of approachability and friendliness, as well as strong administration that delivers solutions. It offers a first-class team of advocates and advisers.
Types of work undertaken:
Regulatory and competition law: chambers prosecutes and defends regulatory criminal offences particularly health and safety (including the construction, energy and transport sectors), food, consumer protection/trading standards, licensing, intellectual property protection, environmental protection, and planning enforcement. All financial litigation including fraud, confiscation, corporate governance and financial conduct.
Public: members undertake a full range of judicial review and related advisory work, often with a planning/environmental or regulatory subject matter.
Planning and environmental: members appear for and against regulators and public authorities. Proceedings include public inquiries and regulatory criminal proceedings. The team has established a particular niche in relation to work on the interface between environmental, planning and human rights law.
Personal injury: chambers covers all aspects of personal injury for both claimants and defendants. Cases include employers liability, RTA, clinical negligence and professional negligence arising out of the conduct of claims. Claims at all levels of value are conducted from the earliest stages through to trial including settlement through ADR.
Inquests: members appear for the full range of interested persons (including regulators, employers, site operators and families) at inquests and inquiries, tackling the wider issues raised by article 2 inquests and reports to prevent future deaths.
Family: members of the family team advise and appear in the private and public law arenas. In private cases dealing with financial and child care applications, including removal from the jurisdiction. The expertise in matrimonial finance extends to corporate, agricultural and high-value matters, including overseas trusts.
Employment: the team covers all aspects of employment law and provide a service that is available from advising on the formation of company disciplinary and grievance procedures through to representing at Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal.
Criminal: the team has a proven track record in the whole range of criminal work from pre-charge advice onwards, both for the prosecution and the defence. It undertakes publicly and privately funded work and encourages direct access instructions where appropriate. Members represent individuals and corporations (and officers thereof) in proceedings brought against them; and also undertakes private prosecutions brought by business and local authorities, as well as by the orthodox prosecuting agencies.
Civil and commercial: commercial disputes (including arbitration), professional negligence, and landlord and tenant work. The work is split between claimants and defendants and undertaken, inter alia, on behalf of a range of substantial insurers, public companies, local authorities and government departments.
For more information visit www.6pumpcourt.co.uk.
Languages spoken: French, German, Russian and Japanese.
Main Contacts
| Department | Name | Telephone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior clerk | Richard Constable | ||
| Members of Chambers | HOCKMAN QC, Stephen (1970) | ||
| Members of Chambers | GRIFFITHS QC, Robert (1974) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BARRACLOUGH QC, Richard (1980) | ||
| Members of Chambers | TRAVERS QC, David (1981) | ||
| Members of Chambers | SAXBY QC, Oliver (1992) | ||
| Members of Chambers | WRIGHT QC, Richard (1998) | ||
| Members of Chambers | CONNERTY, Anthony (1974) | ||
| Members of Chambers | ARMSTRONG, Grant (1978) | ||
| Members of Chambers | MORGAN, Charles (1978) | ||
| Members of Chambers | HARRIS, Mark (1980) | ||
| Members of Chambers | WILLIAMS, Anne (1980) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BALDOCK, Nicholas (1983) | ||
| Members of Chambers | TAYLOR, Paul (1985) | ||
| Members of Chambers | THOMAS, Megan (1987) | ||
| Members of Chambers | WIGNALL, Gordon (1987) | ||
| Members of Chambers | FORBES, Peter (1990) | ||
| Members of Chambers | O'HIGGINS, John (1990) | ||
| Members of Chambers | UPTON QC, William (1990) | ||
| Members of Chambers | THOMAS, Ian (1993) | ||
| Members of Chambers | HOGBEN, Paul (1993) | ||
| Members of Chambers | WATSON QC, Mark (1994) | ||
| Members of Chambers | ELLIN, Nina (1994) | ||
| Members of Chambers | MOORE, Danny (1994) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BATES, Pascal (1994) | ||
| Members of Chambers | WHITEHURST, Ian (1994) | ||
| Members of Chambers | ALCOCK, Peter (1995) | ||
| Members of Chambers | STERN, Thomas (1995) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BEARD, Mark (1996) | ||
| Members of Chambers | DONNELLY, Catherine (1997) | ||
| Members of Chambers | ROBINSON, Tanya (1997) | ||
| Members of Chambers | TAYLOR, Simon (1997) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BANWELL, Richard (1998) | ||
| Members of Chambers | MENZIES, Gordon William (1998) | ||
| Members of Chambers | FITZGERALD, John (1998) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BENNETT, Lee (1998) | ||
| Members of Chambers | DUNN, Tom (1998) | ||
| Members of Chambers | LUTTMAN, Lucy (2001) | ||
| Members of Chambers | HERCOCK, David (2001) | ||
| Members of Chambers | ATKINSON, Giles (2002) | ||
| Members of Chambers | JESSOP, Stuart (2002) | ||
| Members of Chambers | STEVENSON, Daniel (2002) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BADGER, Christopher (2002) | ||
| Members of Chambers | CULLEN, Grace (2005) | ||
| Members of Chambers | KHAN, Thaiza (2006) | ||
| Members of Chambers | IRWIN, Ben (2006) | ||
| Members of Chambers | STRACHAN, Nicola (2006) | ||
| Members of Chambers | CROWDY, Isabella (2008) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BRAND, Kieran (2007) | ||
| Members of Chambers | REES PHILLIPS, Ian (2009) | ||
| Members of Chambers | OSTROWSKI, Nicholas (2009) | ||
| Members of Chambers | PHILLIPS, Laura (2009) | ||
| Members of Chambers | WILLIAMS, Fiona (2009) | ||
| Members of Chambers | EVANS, Craig (2010) | ||
| Members of Chambers | KANDOLA, Emin (2015) | ||
| Members of Chambers | HAUSDORFF, Natasha (2016) | ||
| Members of Chambers | DAVIES, Mark (2017) | ||
| Members of Chambers | McBARNETT, William (2017) | ||
| Members of Chambers | BYRD, Noémi (2004)* | ||
| Members of Chambers | CROWDY, Isabella (2007) | ||
| Members of Chambers | DOBBIE, Alice (2007)* | ||
| Members of Chambers | HOTHAM, William (2009)* | ||
| Members of Chambers | McGRENERA QC, Noelle (1978)* | ||
| Members of Chambers | REES PHILLIPS, Ian (2009) | ||
| Members of Chambers | WALKER QC, STEVEN (2008)* | ||
| Members of Chambers | WOOD, Simon (2001)* | ||
| Members of Chambers | REED, Kristiina (2013)* | ||
| Members of Chambers | ROKAD, Angelica (2014) | ||
| Members of Chambers | MORAN QC, Andrew (1976)* | ||
| Members of Chambers | HUMPHREYS QC, Richard (1986) |
Top Tier Set Rankings
Set Rankings
- London Bar Consumer
- London Bar Environment
- London Bar Health and safety
- London Bar Licensing
- Regional Bar Family and children law
- London Bar Inquests and inquiries
- London Bar Personal injury, industrial disease and insurance fraud
- London Bar Crime
- London Bar Employment
- London Bar Costs
- London Bar Planning
- London Bar Set overviews: England and Wales