Set Profile > St John's Chambers > Bristol, England

Clerks:

A very efficient and in depth service. Luke Hodgson is extremely proficient and helpful at all times.

Adam and Hugh are fantastic clerks and always work hard to ensure barristers meet deadlines requested, even when these can be quite last minute.

Adam Marston is very helpful, sensible and experienced.

All the clerks do a good job but in particular, I think Elaine Jewell Moore is friendly, helpful and an excellent clerk.

An effective team, particularly Hugh Maguire who is always prompt, professional and incredibly helpful.

Brilliant – Annette is a true powerhouse, as is Derek and Adam is an up and coming star.

Clerking is outstanding – particularly Annette Bushell.

Clerks are efficient. I mainly deal with Paul Bennett who is always very responsive.

Clerks are helpful and approachable.

Clerks are quick to respond and helpful.

Adam Marston really stands out.

Clerks are responsive and commercially minded. Unlike some London chambers where you get the feeling you are being held to ransom, they will work with you.

Clerks are very efficient, especially Hugh Maguire. Team of clerks well managed by Annette Bushell.

Clerks are very friendly and have been keen to engage with me socially

Clerks in Chambers are excellent, reliable, always respond quickly, no miscommunications or delays in response- Hugh and Adam are the clerks I mainly deal with but there is always someone who can help – which is very reassuring.

Clerks really available and commercial. They make it easy to get hold of people. Rob Bocock, Paul Bennett, Elizabeth Champion and Simon Lyons all excellent.

Clerks’ room is commercially minded and the clerks ensure that it is easy to get hold of people. They are quick to respond. Everyone from the Practice manager down makes it their business to make it easy to use this set.

Elaine is lovely and helpful. Luke is very practice-focused and no nonsense.

Elaine Jewel is always there to help, and is always cheerful even in times of great stress.

Elaine Jewell-Moore in particular is fantastic. She is warm, friendly and accommodating.

The team is headed up by Derek Jenkins who is very well respected in Bristol.

Elaine Jewell-Moore is a particularly helpful clerk.

Elizabeth Champion is excellent- very responsive and good to work with.

Excellent clerking team. Friendly and helpful. Regularly deal with Rob, Simon, Elizabeth and Paul.

Excellent clerks. Great flexibility. Great support. Not a push over but open to fee negotiation. Luke Hodgson rules with an iron fist in a kid glove. Always approachable, always willing to help. Elaine Jewell-Moor also extremely helpful and goes the extra mile.

Good, often speak to Hugh Maguire who is always helpful and on the ball/aware of what you are talking about!

Hugh Maguire and Adam Marston are excellent. The clerks are friendly, helpful, and provide a very good service.

Hugh Maguire and Adam Martson are very easy to work with

Hugh Maguire clerks Rob and he has always been very approachable.

Hugh Maguire is brilliant. Gets to know the cases so he can get what I need and fast.

I find the Clerks at St Johns to be competent and polite.

I have dealt with Simon Lyons and Paul Bennett in the main – I have found them both to be very friendly and efficient.

In my experience, the service has always been very good.

Lizzie Champion and Rob Bocock are the clerks i deal with. They are most knowledgeable and always provide a first rate service – no job is too small or too much trouble.

Luke Hodgson in particular, is very approachable and goes above and beyond to try to accommodate changes in the listing of hearings, and access to the barristers of choice.

Luke is amazing as a clerk, he is intuitive and gets things done efficiently. Elaine is equally adept at managing expectations and working magic to get the right barristers available for the right clients.

Matthew to a degree does his own clerking-probably due to his solicitor background. Unlike some counsel, he does not have an “ivory tower” attitude.

Most of my dealings have been with the Practice Team Leader Paul Bennett who I find very helpful. Enquiries are always dealt with promptly.

Paul Bennett and Rob Bocock are always on hand to answer queries and pick up instructions. The clerking team as a whole works well together so there is a seamless service even if a particular clerk is unavailable.

Paul Bennett is a fantastic asset to their clerking team. He is helpful and friendly and makes everything run more smoothly.

Paul Bennett is my go to clerk at St John’s. He always responds and will try to accommodate requests as regards fees.

Paul Bennett, Rob Bocock and Simon Lyons are all extremely responsive, sensible and pragmatic.

Please see above. Annette Bushell is always particularly helpful and approachable.

Rob Bocock and Paul Bennett are excellent and are more prone to pick up the phone to discuss requirements than email which is the default of most other chambers

Rob Bocock has been a long-standing and particularly helpful clerk.

Robert Bocock is fantastic. Paul Bennett is an excellent Clerk.

Simon Lyons and Rob Bocock are both very responsive and easy to get hold of.

Simon Lyons and Rob Bocock are nothing short of brilliant when it comes to service. They are both responsive and really do their best for you.

Simon Lyons is an exceptional clerk who should take credit for many of the solicitor / counsel relationships. Understanding in his approach and not afraid to tackle difficult conversations when necessary.

Simon Lyons. Good clerk. Always friendly and happy to help reliable

Special mention to Luke and Elaine for their client service and always helpful, problem solving approach.

St John’s have a great clerking team which make it easy to arrange cons and get instructions to Counsel. They are happy to work electronically, which is essential nowadays.

St John’s is a modern set with very good reliable clerking. Calls and emails are always dealt with promptly.

The Chancery Clerks are available when needed as well as being friendly and professional. They are very responsive and quick to provide fee estimates; accurate when doing so.

The clerk service is excellent. If your preferred counsel is not available they will move work around or ensure that you are informed if there are prospects of cover. Annette Bushell and Adam Marston stand out.

The clerking at St.John’s has always been very good. In particular Paul Bennett is always extremely helpful and responds to enquiries quickly.

The clerking is good with the team led by the ever excellent Derek Jenkins.

The clerking staff are always happy to assist and provide a very good service.

The clerking team is excellent, very efficient and very friendly.

The clerking team is great and makes securing counsel an easy process – clear transparency on fees.

The clerks are all helpful and approachable. They respond quickly and are proactive in resolving any issues that arise. For the most part I have dealt with Annette Bushell for many years and Adam Marston more recently and I find them both charming and helpful.

The clerks are always friendly and able to assist with enquiries. I have contact with Simon Lyons and Paul Bennett – both of whom are professional and friendly and quick to turn around enquiries and information when required.

The clerks are always helpful and able to keep you informed of any difficulties and provide alternatives when other cases unexpectedly run over.

The Clerks are always helpful. They are friendly and in my opinion this sets them apart from many other sets.

The clerks are always very friendly and helpful; again they are an essential part of the excellent service delivered by this set of Chambers

The clerks are efficient and helpful

The clerks are excellent and always try to accommodate my needs, no matter how demanding I appear. Annette and Adam stand out amongst a very good group of clerks.

The clerks are excellent. In particular, Marcus was meant to do a conference with me on one of my cases. He was in a trial in the week before and his clerk contacted me to inform me that the trial was likely to overrun and if it did so it would affect the conference. However if this did happen they would try and rearrange as soon as possible. This gave me the opportunity to prepare my experts and client rather than things being done last minute. In the end his trial did overrun but we were all prepared for this and the clerk (Hugh Maguire) went out of his way to rearrange asap.

The clerks are excellent. They are very quick to respond and offer various options in terms of cost and seniority of counsel. I deal predominantly with Paul Bennett who is completely on the ball.

The clerks are exceptional. Very helpful and flexible on brief fees and respond to emails promptly.

The Clerks are extremely helpful and friendly in their approach.

The clerks are very helpful and do their upmost to accommodate any request.

The Clerks are very helpful and quick to respond.

The clerks at St John’s Chambers are exceptional and you could not ask them to be more helpful and accommodating. They will always find a barrister for the case even at short notice and are very happy to chat through a case and recommend the best barrister for the claim. I particularly highly regard Hugh, Adam and Annette who are the clinical negligence clerks and who are always willing to help and they provide a first rate service.

The clerks have always provided a professional service.

The clerks on the care side of the team work well and are efficient and helpful.

The clerks room is superbe, offering a swift and proactive service. I am particularly impressed by Paul Bennett.

The clerks run the team well, are in control of all diaries and try their best to accommodate tight deadlines. In particular, Hugh Maguire has been exceptionally helpful and diligent when providing short-notice assistance and is quick to offer solutions.

The clerks work hard to support counsel. They respond promptly and are extremely well organised. This enables a fluent working relationship.

The clerksroom are extremely responsive and nothing is ever too much trouble. Annette Bushell leads the clinical negligence team strongly and the clerks Adam and Hugh really understand the issues in the cases and are keen to help to ensure cases progress smoothly.

The PI clerks are universally excellent and helpful. If not available on the telephone they will return messages promptly.

The PI clerks have real strength in depth with my two main contacts being Hugh Maguire and Adam Marston. Both are unflappable and always available.

The team at St John’s is very effective and always available to assist wherever required.

Their clerks are great. Get on really well with them.

We have had many dealing with Paul Bennett and Rob Bocock, both have been exceptionally helpful and well organised.

We have had many dealings with Paul Bennett and Rob Bocock, both have been exceptionally helpful and well organised.

You always get a first-class service from the St John’s Chambers team – and , importantly, at realistic and proportionate prices .

Set:

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A good local set with a well deserved reputation for clinical negligence due to its longstanding contribution in this area. As a rule, the barristers are all affable yet highly professional and take their work very seriously whatever the case. They offer an impressive array of training events for local lawyers and are the ‘go to’ for many lawyers in the South West.

A sound local set, useful in providing cover for Inquests and matters of moderate to mid range value.

A strong set with excellent practitioners covering a wider range of areas

A very good set particularly in property, land nuisance and regulatory work. The barristers are always prepared to travel and look at things on the ground with the client.

A very professional, efficient and amicable set. Clerks are excellent and willing to go that extra step to help.

A very professional, efficient and amicable set. The Clerks are excellent and willing to go above and beyond.

Always a good service

Always helpful and swift to reply to queries.

Always very happy with chambers. High quality barristers across the spectrum of contentious probate.

Andrew is the only barrister from this set with whom I do any meaningful volumes of work.

Availability is good and generally good quality of work.

Chambers are very efficient. I can usually secure counsel for both advices and hearings. Chambers offer numerous training facilities and have also supported our own client training sessions including mock trials and general training updates.

Counsel and his clerk are always helpful and available to pick up urhent matters as and when needed.

Excellent depth in this area, if counsel not available an excellent alternative can always be offered

Excellent on financial remedy and children.

Excellent set of chambers. Good quality throughout

Excellent set with great clerks.

Fantastic chambers across the board. Some excellent Juniors and fantastic senior Counsel. All incredibly down to earth and obliging. Very user friendly. A great bunch.

Formidably strong local set. London set service, but just around the corner from the office. Have come to the fore with assistance during Covid-19 lockdown. Everyone sings from the same hymn sheet and understand each others specialities.

From Leslie Blohm QC downwards, the agricultural team know their stuff and are committed to the sector. This includes travelling some distance to give talks and provide assistance and training to organisations such as the regional groups of the Agricultural Law Association, and regional law societies.

Good quality training programmes and Counsel (particularly Rob Mills and Marcus Coates-Walker) have been willing on many occasions to come to our firm and provide bespoke training.

Good range of counsel at all levels to cover hearings where counsel is not available

Good set with good reputation for chancery work. Oliver Wooding and Alex Troup are standout performers. There are a number of weak barristers there which water down the set somewhat.

Good set. I also work with Rob Mills who is an excellent barrister.

Good strength in depth and excellent clerking.

Great set for several areas of work with newer barristers, such as Charlie Newington Bridges rapidly gaining a strong reputation.

I find St John’s Chambers to be very easy to work with. The wide range of barristers means I am able to instruct someone with appropriate experience, even at short notice. I have attended a number of useful training sessions run by or in conjunction with the Chambers both in house and at conferences.

I have instructed St Johns Chambers since I was a trainee. Since then I have instructed them without fail. Annette Bushell is fantastic and Derek is lovely. If I need a advice on something particularly specialist there is always someone available. James Marwick for medical negligence and personal injury Andrew McLaughlin for personal injury and Emma Zeb for medical negligence, They are first on my list for training programmes and their affiliation with Headway. Availability is never an issue, I have spoken with counsel and for this example Mr Valentine during the evenings, weekends, holidays. Always on hand to advise.

I have never experienced any issues with instructing Counsel. The Clerks are always readily willing to recommend alternative suitable counsel in the event of unavailability.

I have been to a number of conferences run by Legal Networks Wales in which barristers from St Johns have spoken. They have been very helpful and informative in keeping up to date with case law and changes in legislation.

I have used many Counsel from St John’s Chambers over the years. There is usually an array of Counsel I can choose from but to name a few – Andrew McLaughlin, James Marwick, Darren Lewis, Jimmy Barber, Patrick West, Ben Handy, Rachel Russell. They run training programmes regularly aimed at handling the most complex cases to courses designed on a breadth of topics for the more junior fee earners.

I have used St Johns for many years. The clerks are very helpful. If Miss Elford is not available,(always a first choice), then they assist with the matching of the client with an alternative barrister I have been on many of their training courses which have been helpful and informative.

I have worked with Chambers for over 10 years and have always found members and clerks to be excellent to work with. They have strength in depth we have an excellent working relationship with chambers.

I like the set as a whole, they run some excellent training throughout the year and are strong supporters of Bristol lawyers.

I strongly recommend St Johns Chambers. I instruct several members of Chambers on a regular basis and find that the quality of their work is every bit as high as with specialist London based Chambers, yet at a more competitive cost.

I use St John’s Chambers a great deal for all my clinical negligence cases, They have a large number of very competent and experienced clinical negligence barristers all of whom I trust and find are brilliant. They provide excellent training courses.

I very much like working with St John’s Chambers. I have instructed a number of their Barristers over the last 9 years. They have a good range of Barristers to cover most matters and levels of experience. They usually have someone suitable available, even at the last minute, and then also run helpful and informative training courses. They are my “go-to” set for Commercial and Chancery work.

In my view St John’s Chambers are the go to set in the South West. They provide London quality advice to our region on our doorstep. Vanessa McKinlay leads the ever expanding clinical negligence and PI team at St John’s. There are some very impressive Juniors coming up through the ranks who are extremely competent and engaging.

In my view they are the strongest chancery set in the southwest. The quality of their counsel as a whole is excellent compared to other chambers

Lots of talented barristers covering niche cases involving the Animals Act 1971 for example.

Luke is a very knowledgeable and experienced senior clerk who is a pleasure to deal with.

Set contains a number of well respected personal injury practitioners.

Several outstanding litigators in the Chancery and Property teams

SJC run seminars on topical issues that are well attended. On the planning front they have a decent number of planning barristers although my instructions are limited to practice leading Peter Wadsley.

Solid set of family law barristers from most senior to most junior. Excellent support and collaboration provided to their up and coming juniors.

They work hard to ensure availability.

St Johns are always highly efficient to work with, and keen to help. I find them honest and commercial.

St Johns Chambers are my preferred chambers for the specialist work that I carry out. They offer a good range of training and do their utmost to always accommodate any request of counsel’s opinion or appearance.

St Johns Chambers are one of the fore-front chambers offering counsel for Public Childcare. The clerks are particularly helpful and will go above and beyond to find cover for hearings at short notice.

St Johns Chambers, easy to speak with, helpful clerks, good availability, good training – will send videos of seminars & folders/info packs if cannot attend etc

St Johns do have strength in depth when it comes to property, from QC to junior level. That does make them the strongest set in the Western Circuit.

St Johns has a good reputation in the contentious probate area. They are approachable and accommodating and always willing to get involved in training seminars etc. I always attend their contentious probate seminars, which are always well delivered and have excellent content.

St Johns has a very good spread of family law barristers with a range of styles to suit most cases

St Johns has a very strong Chancery team and excellent clerks. Their barristers are expert, approachable, down to earth and offer London expertise at regional rates.

St Johns have a number of excellent barristers across different practice areas. I tend to instruct Zoe Saunders, Lucy Reed (Children Act matters) and Charles Auld (Chancery)

St Johns is a friendly and helpful chambers. Matthew White and Andrew Mclaughlin are stand out counsel for personal injury work.

St Johns is my set of choice in the south west and further a field if they can accomodate.

St Johns is the only chambers I will use in the South West. They have a large panel of suitably qualified barristers, whether the case is worth £1000 or £1M.

St Johns’ care team is excellent. They are highly sought after which means they are not always available.

St John’s are very well respected in Bristol and the South West, used by our team across our offices. They have a range of specialisms and have assisted in cases involving children, complex finances and unmarried couples.

St John’s Chambers are a regional set with a number of experienced Chancery barristers and mediators. They are well known and respected on the western circuit. Although a regional set, they have a wealth of experience on par with London sets.

St John’s Chambers are a well run, excellent set of Chambers who deliver London-quality work, whilst based in the South West.

St John’s Chambers are one of the best around. There is a good range of Counsel and their training seminars are informative.

St John’s Chambers Bristol is an excellent set of Chambers with great strength in depth across all areas of specialism. They provide regular first class training course at very reasonable cost.

St John’s Chambers commands the South West market with exceptional breadth in most practice areas. Some heavy weight senior counsel but a growing group of juniors means they are able to assist 9 times out of 10.

St John’s Chambers have a strong team of Chancery Court Barristers who collectively have a wide range of experience coupled with their impressive depth of knowledge.

St John’s Chambers is a high quality set of chambers with Counsel with a wide range of skills. They are very easy to work with. Helpful and friendly. They offer regular training seminars and useful information on legal developments. They will remain one of my “go-to” sets.

St John’s Chambers is my go-to chambers in Bristol for construction advice. They provide good training on a broad range of topics, including those relating to construction. The back office staff are very approachable and helpful.

St John’s Chambers is my go-to set of chambers in Bristol. They have a broad range of experience and also expertise which ensures that you can get a great match for you client from all walks of life

St John’s Chambers is one of the leading Clinical Negligence sets in Bristol. Vanessa McKinlay is frequently instructed in clinical negligence claims, particularly for client’s based in the South West.

St John’s Chambers is the go to set in the South West for Clinical Negligence and Personal Injury. They have invested a lot in building up a strong base of quality Juniors and Senior Juniors who bring London quality advice to the Western Circuit on our doorstep.

St John’s Chambers is the only set I would consider approaching outside of London for construction and engineering disputes. I attended a very good event on mediation organised by St John’s.

St John’s Chambers offers a high quality service, with high quality Counsel.

St John’s Chambers tend to have more of a PI focus than claimant clinical negligence, although I have used Rob Mills previously who I know has a good reputation for this work.

St John’s has a good broad range of talent. Excellent responsive clerking. Good value and excellent training offering.

St John’s has an excellent range of talent especially dealing with children matters. Generally they always have counsel available if booked in sufficient time. I’ve not had any experience with them in respect of finances yet.

St John’s is an excellent set backed by good clerks.

St John’s Chambers are the leading regional set outside of London in the South of England. The Chambers have a wide range of barristers who are each specialists in their work areas. They also provide excellent, informative seminars which are widely recognised and well attended in the practice area.

St John’s Chambers are the leading regional set outside of London, in the South of England. The Chambers have a wide range of barristers who are each specialists in their work areas. They also provide excellent, informative seminars which are widely recognised and well attended in the industry.

St John’s Chambers is a leading regional heavy-weight. I have never had any inclination to pay London prices when I can get the same level of expertise and quality of service for considerably less and far closer to home.

St. Johns are a good local set who have some very strong barristers.

St. John’s Chambers are a very strong set and are a definite go-to set in both Bristol and the west country generally. Some members in the Family team are published in relation to particular aspects of family proceedings also so that they have become authorities in relation to those aspects.

St. John’s is undoubtedly the best set for contentious trusts and probate in the region. They have a number of very good specialists.

Strongest set in Bristol and very competitive with London.

The absolute go-to set for chancery and commercial in the southwest.

The Chambers is always very prepared, organised and professional.

The go-to set for traditional chancery work, both in the South West and arguably nationally: they give London a run for their money: London quality, without London fees.

The set as a whole are great. Very corporate approach to BD and marketing and clerking, and this results in a very slick process for solicitors.

The set is building in strength through the very good juniors coming through; aided by the excellent clerking team.

The set is large and generally will have someone who can cover a hearing even at short notice.

The set is reliably excellent. As good as any London set and often much better.

Their clin neg set is the best in Bristol. There is someone for every type of case, all of whom are at the tope of their game and present stiff competition for the London sets.

There is definitely strength in depth in this Chambers. They provide excellent seminars and knowledge transfer events. They will often have several options in terms of counsel if instructions need advice at short notice.

They are an excellent set of chambers that provide a high quality service to their clients.

They are in my opinion by far the best set in Bristol. Their clerks are very efficient and they offer excellent training as well.

They are now putting out weekly webinars which are very good

They do provide a “London” service here in the West Country and are a well rounded set, providing superb general and specialist training to all levels of solicitors both junior and senior and are always available to provide a second “ear” for tricky tactical situations.

They have an excellent pool of juniors who are frequently available on short notice, I use Marcus Coates-Walker and Robert Mills frequently, and both provide very high quality advice.

They have excellence within their ranks so even if my chosen Barrister is unavailable for a hearing, I know that matters will be dealt with appropriately.

They have real heavyweights such as Leslie Blohm QC, who has years of experience and in the case I referred to above added value due to his knowledge of the inquest rules and also aspects of criminal law which featured in the case. The juniors in the set are proactive – Charlie Newington-Bridges stepped in to pick up a hearing due to unavailability and very quickly got up to speed and was a confident advocate despite being called in at short notice. Juniors such as Natasha and Annie Sampson are trained well by the other members of chambers.

V good set broad range of skills and depth.

Very positive views on set as a whole. Excellent clerking, with good recommendations as to suitability of particular barristers, good strength in depth, best I have come across to date in Bristol.

Very prompt in responding; and always polite and helpful.