Ben Cooper KC
Ben is calm and a pleasure to work with. His knowledge of this complex area of law is second to none.'
Old Square Chambers’ members regularly act across a wide range of employment cases, with work in high-profile and confidential investigations increasing. Oliver Segal KC and Stuart Brittenden KC successfully represented union workers in the Supreme Court in Tesco Stores Ltd v USDAW, a long-running dispute regarding its use of a "fire and rehire" strategy to remove a pay protection from pre-2007 employees. Ben Cooper KC and Spencer Keen have recently acted in the widely-publicised For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers case regarding the definition of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2024, a very significant case that will continue to have an ongoing impact in the wider employment law sphere. Cooper KC - for the barrister - and Ijeoma Omambala KC (for the defendant campaign group) are on opposite sides of Bailey v Stonewall Equality Ltd, a case involves issues of the provisions for instructing, causing or inducing discrimination.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'The clerks provide excellent service that is always of the highest standard. William Meade, in particular, is an excellent senior clerk and very personable.'
- 'Evie Cocker substantially is a brilliant communicator, and is quick to provide options while allowing for time to take client approval on available Counsel.'
- 'Jordan Bater is always extremely helpful and friendly, as well as pragmatic and knowledgeable.'
- 'Old Square always provides a really brilliant service all round. Senior Clerk Will Meade is amazing-he is super quick, a really knowledgeable person and intuitive on choice of suitable Counsel. He takes initiative, is a problem solver and does it all with great charm and warmth, which is essential in pressurised situations. All of the clerks are in the same mould - quick, exceptionally helpful and really well-organised.'
- 'Old Square offers many skilled barristers covering a wide variety of expertise and varying levels of experience. Their Silks are some of the best at what they do and renowned by Employment Judges and lawyers, but equally strong are their juniors, who offer brilliant advocacy and support throughout.'
- 'Old Square Chambers are an absolutely excellent set at both junior and senior Counsel level. They are headed by some of the most stellar and talented silks in the UK Employment and Discrimination Bar and have great strength and wide-ranging expertise at junior level.'
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.
Michael Ford KC
Michael is hands down the most intelligent and successful UK Employment law barrister. He can turn his hand to anything and catches the undivided attention of appeal judges.’
Lord Hendy KC
Katharine Newton KC
Katharine is an excellent advocate. She is tenacious, sharp, and all over the detail.'
Oliver Segal KC
Oliver is an effective and tenacious barrister, with formidable knowledge of the field.'
Ben Collins KC
Betsan Criddle KC
Betsan is a great combination of being extremely user-friendly, is tactically highly astute, and she has an incisive knowledge of the law. Her advocacy is tenacious and is backed up by a forensic knowledge of the papers.'
Mark Sutton KC
Mark is always approachable, calm and considered, and his advice is clear and sensible.'
Simon Cheetham KC
Eleena Misra KC
‘Eleena has a unique ability to identify the key legal issues with any claim regardless of the factual complexity and her advocacy skills are exceptional.’
Nadia Motraghi KC
‘Nadia is an exceptional advocate who inspires confidence. Her attention to detail is second to none, and her passion for her work is without reservation. ‘
Ijeoma Omambala KC
Ijeoma has excellent employment law expertise and is a strong tactician.'
Deshpal Panesar KC
Deshpal provides game-changing cross-examination with razor sharp focus.'
Rebecca Tuck KC
Rebecca remains calm and focused in the face of the pressure and is a skilled advocate who has achieved excellent results.'
2024 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.
Stuart Brittenden KC
Stuart is an exceptional advocate, and he is incredibly good with clients. His legal knowledge is encyclopaedic and second to none.'
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.
Melanie Tether
Melanie is the best junior barrister at the employment bar. Superb written advocacy and strong oral advocacy.'
Louise Chudleigh
‘Louise is exceptionally hard-working with good instincts.’
Jack Mitchell
Jack is extremely thorough and leaves no stone unturned. He is able to get to grips with the nuances of a case very quickly and is polite but determined and persuasive on his feet.'
Paras Gorasia
‘Paras has a talent for distilling complex facts and reams of material into a clearly focused and evidenced argument. He is insightful on a personal level and extremely knowledgeable of the law, skilled at its analysis and application.'
Robert Moretto
Madeline Stanley
Madeline is excellent. She is a safe pair of hands, excellent technically, and her advocacy is strong and clear.'
Spencer Keen
Spencer has exceptional attention to detail and has a polite yet direct approach to his advocacy.'
Tom Kirk
Tom is very calm and considered and able to cut through a complex web of issues to draw out the key issues.'
Nicola Newbegin
Nicola provides empathetic client care and fervent advocacy.'
Laura Gould
Laura is a very capable and confident barrister. She is well respected for her knowledge and expertise whilst giving commercially sensible and pragmatic advice.'
Rosalie Snocken
As an advocate, Rosalie fights passionately and relentlessly for her client. She has a great eye for technical detail beyond the legal arguments and clients can trust that she will fight their corner unwavering resolve.’
Darshan Patel
‘Excellent advocacy and works incredibly hard.'
Robin White
Robin is tenacious. She has a wealth of experience, which she uses to secure the best outcomes for her client. Her cross-examination is clinical and leaves no place to hide.'
Rad Kohanzad
Rad is always calm under pressure. His technical knowledge is first-rate, and he is very good with clients and judges alike.’
Laith Dilaimi
Laith is a wonderful combination of being a superb advocate and brilliant advisor, providing authoritative, and skilful advice.'
Adam Ross
Adam is a brilliant lawyer and advocate. His attention to detail and ability to understand and feedback on complex claims within a very short time-frame is highly impressive. His style of advocacy is particularly impressive - he is commanding yet polite, and his cross-examination is a joy to watch.'
Serena Crawshay-Williams
‘Serena is quietly confident with strong advocacy skills.’
Christopher Edwards
‘Christopher is client focussed with exceptional technical skills. His advocacy skills are very strong and adaptable to any case at hand.’
Oliver Isaacs
‘Oliver is very responsive, good with clients and provides considered advice.’
James Chegwidden
‘James is a persuasive, modest and level-headed advocate.’
Benjamin Jones
Ben is very impressive as an advocate. He is able to refute and rebut opposing counsel at every turn because of his legal expertise and advocacy skills. He is a sophisticated tactician in court and is incredibly knowledgeable on all relevant law including the finer points.’
Rachel Owusu-Agyei
Rachel is very calm and gets to the heart of the matter very quickly. She is excellent in Court and presents her arguments in a persuasive manner.'
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.
Alex Shellum
‘Alex has a sharp legal mind and a confident and authoritative advocacy style which leads to successful outcomes.’