Doughty Street Chambers

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

• 'The support staff are second to none. Always incredibly helpful, responsive, and very friendly. Cynthia Francis, customer experience manager, is fantastic and the driving force behind the public face of DSC.' 
• 'The clerks are extremely responsive and helpful, particularly Grace Walton.'
• 'The clerks at Doughty Street are at the top of their game. Super helpful and responsive.'
• 'The clerks are excellent and helpful in making sure that timescales are met and papers turned around in good time.' 
• 'Doughty Street has the widest collective of high quality claimant inquest and civil claim barristers of any set. They cover the full range of expertise and are my go to set when looking to instruct counsel in these areas.'
• 'Doughty Street Chambers deserve their reputation as leaders in their field. They offer a huge range of highly qualified and dedicated barristers who are brilliant in the work they do.' 
• 'Doughty Street have a wide selection of some of the best barristers in police law.' 
• 'The set is one of the leading sets in claimant police law. It has considerable strength in depth and a wealth of experience at every 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.

1

Nicholas Bowen KC

‘Nicholas has a huge depth of knowledge in the field of police and wider public authority claims, and is the go-to counsel in the field. He is a hugely respected, a fierce yet persuasive advocate, with the ear of the court.’

2

Jude Bunting KC

Jude is ferociously clever and dangerously charming. A behemoth of the police law Bar, he is second to none when it comes to representing claimants. He is very creative, quickly wins the ear of his tribunal and should never be underestimated.'

2

Stephen Cragg KC

'Stephen has encyclopaedic knowledge of his area, with sound judgement and skill in his presentation.'

2

Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC

'Caoilfhionn is incredibly knowledgeable and experienced in this area of law. She is creative, thinks outside the box and brings arguments and points to submissions that others simply would not think of.'

3

Jamie Burton KC

'Jamie is a really gifted courtroom advocate, equally adept at making legal submissions and cross examining witnesses.'

3

Maya Sikand KC

‘Maya is an all around exceptional barrister. She is a straight talking legal power house. Her advocacy is exceptional, as is her litigation strategy and attention to detail. When you have Maya on your team you know your clients are in exceptional hands. ’

3

Adam Straw KC

'Adam is excellent: one of the best claimant silks out there. He has a beautifully understated style, never pushing too far but gaining the ear of the court with his reasonable and well-focused submissions. A really stylish advocate.' 

2023 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.

1

Fiona Murphy KC

‘Fiona is a powerful advocate with a huge knowledge of the law, tenacious and determined. One of the stand-out individuals in actions against the police practice.’

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.

1

Nick Brown

1

David Lemer

‘David is analytical, practical, strategic and brings a creative energy to his cases. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of police and public law, with a fabulous work ethic and fierce intellect.’

1

Nick Stanage

'Nick is tenacious and straight talking. He gets to the heart of the issue quickly and incisively and juries like his style. '

1

Tom Stoate

Tom is extremely adept and thorough in his work and a pleasure to instruct. He is very detailed in his approach and leaves no stone unturned. He is an excellent and proficient trial advocate.' 

2

Alison Gerry

'Alison is an excellent jury advocate. She is able to cut to the key points within huge amounts of material, while keeping the jury engaged. Her cross-examination is particularly powerful and she is also excellent with clients.'

2

Sam Jacobs

‘Sam is a go to barrister for actions against the police. He has forensic knowledge of the law, he is responsive and reliable and brilliant with clients.‘

2

Angela Patrick

2

Pippa Woodrow

Pippa is a go-to barrister for her work on behalf of survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. She is passionate but pragmatic and has a brilliant eye for detail.'

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.

1

Frederick Powell

Frederick has an incredible eye for detail and leaves no stone unturned. He is very quick to respond and can turn around very complex and detailed pleadings in an impressively short amount of time.’