James Goudie KC
Authority, clarity, expertise and responsiveness.’
11KBW remains a leading set in the education market and it houses barristers who advise and represent an array of clients across the full spectrum of education law issues. Aileen McColgan has extensive experience in the education sector, with a particular focus on advising and litigating in cases related to gender-questioning children, equality and contractual claims. Peter Oldham KC was counsel for the defendant in R (British Medical Association and Dr Karmakar) v Royal College of GPs, which involved a disability discrimination claim in relation to the college's exam resit policy. Zoe Gannon acted as junior counsel in The King (on the Application of Free Speech Union Limited) v Secretary of State for Education, which is a high profile judicial review case involving the decision of the Labour government to not commence the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, which was passed in the previous parliament. Tom Cross KC took silk in the 2025 round.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'The clerks are very responsive. Michael Smith in particular is extremely supportive.'
- 'The service from the clerks is always consistently excellent.'
- 'Excellent clerks'
- '11KBW are the leaders in their field!'
- '11 Kings Bench Walk has a strong set of Counsel is a range of areas, particularly education, employment and local government law, and information law.'
- '11KBW are our 'go-to' set for Education law. They have a great deal of strength in depth across all of the major sub-divisions including public law, regulatory, equality and human rights, and data protection.'
Lawyers
Leading Silks
KCs at the very top of their field, with a long-established record of market-defining cases, and widespread endorsement from clients and peers. All silks appointed in the last two rounds are listed further below.
Jonathan Auburn KC
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Joanne Clement KC
Jonathan Moffett KC
‘His client care skills are excellent and he is able to translate very complex legal issues into simple points’
Peter Oldham KC
‘Peter’s strengths are that he quickly gets to grip with and understands the objectives of his clients which are being sought, he hones in on the relevant legislative framework, and provides sensible outcome focussed advice in a way that our clients can understand.’
Andrew Sharland KC
Andrew is brilliant with people – even very difficult clients – also, very good at getting to the nub of any issue. Very down to earth and does not attempt to upstage instructing solicitors.‘
Aileen McColgan KC
2025 Silks
KCs at the very top of their field, with a long-established record of market-defining cases, and widespread endorsement from clients and peers. All silks appointed in the last two rounds are listed further below.
Tom Cross KC
Leading Juniors
Leading juniors are those with significant experience of key cases, strong market recognition from both peers and clients, and are seen as future candidates for silk.
Paul Greatorex
Katherine Eddy
Zoe Gannon
Hannah Slarks
‘ Hannah is very knowledgeable in her field. Her advice is clear and pragmatic, which clients really appreciate and her advocacy style is calm and precise, which appears to play very well to education law judges.’
Harini Iyengar
‘Harini is enormously experienced, very responsive and thorough.’
Ben Mitchell
Jane Oldham
Rising stars
Rising stars at the Bar are defined as barristers between four and eight years’ call who are seen as up-and-coming members of the Bar in their respective practice areas by clients and peers alike. They will already be instructed in high-profile, complex, and high-value contentious and non-contentious matters, working with and opposite more experienced leading counsel.