William Heckscher
‘William is excellent, always professional, and well prepared. He is a strong advocate, intellectual, reassuring and empathetic, and inspires confidence both for clients and the court.'
Albion Chambers is highly praised as a 'go-to' family law set in Bristol, and it is home to 'family law expert' Fiona Farquhar , who has a strong grounding in fabricated or fictious illness cases, as well as historical sexual abuse cases. Sarah Pope is 'fearless on her feet' and highly skilled in care proceedings concerning the death of a child, child poisoning, and sexual abuse. Hayley Griffiths 'has a particular skill representing vulnerable parents', and she also frequently represents local authorities, grandparents, and guardians a range of public law proceedings, including adoption and child arrangement orders, as well as secure accommodation orders. Gemma Borkowski boasts particular expertise in private children law proceedings, and is especially adept in cases surrounding issues of relocation, as well as cases involving allegations of controlling and coercive behaviour. Alice Darian is another name to note as a 'highly knowledgeable and a formidable advocate' that exclusively practices in public children law, and often handling cases with complex medical and forensic evidence on behalf of local authorities, parents, and children.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'Albion Chambers are a leading set in the South West, and Julie Hathway, Michael Harding and Joanne Banfield from the family clerking team are particular assets to the set. Albion go above and beyond to provide representation for hearings, even where these are at short notice.'
- 'Michael Harding, as the head of the family clerks, exemplifies the outstanding qualities that make this set a go-to choice for legal representation. His leadership has clearly fostered a culture of excellence and client-centred service throughout the team.'
Lawyers
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.
Sarah Pope
‘Sarah is an extremely robust advocate who will fight hard for her client. She is extremely experienced in dealing with complex private children law matters and will give clear advice.'
Fiona Farquhar
Her advocacy is extremely high quality, and she is tenacious and always clear and detailed.'
Gemma Borkowski
‘Gemma is extremely knowledgeable and her attention to detail is impeccable. Her advocacy skills are incredible, she combines the ability of being gentle, kind and understanding with the client and being robust when cross-examining the other side, and she can quickly think on her feet and adapt her cross-examination to reflect the answers given.'
Alice Darian
‘Alice is a real class act who is years ahead of her call. Alice is an exceptional barrister who will always fight hard on behalf of her client, and she is solid, robust and extremely persuasive on her feet.’
Hayley Griffiths
‘Hayley is very user friendly and popular with clients and she has a particular skill representing vulnerable parents. Hayley is an excellent advocate who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to any case, and she is always well prepared and will go the extra mile for her clients who warm to her immediately.'
Joanna Lucas
‘Joanna is clear and pragmatic in her advice, she thinks laterally around any issue, and delivers advice in a way that clients are able to understand and follow. Her communication with her instructing solicitor is prompt, helpful and creates a constructive dialogue which assists in providing the client with the most cohesive representation.'
Jonathan Wilkinson
Yasmine El-Nazer
‘Yasmine is an incredibly supportive barrister, as she is fully engaged in your case, responsive to calls and emails and works collaboratively to provide clients with the best service from their legal team. As an advocate, Yasmine is confident, persuasive, knows when to be firm and also when to take a more delicate approach.'
Libby Harris
'Libby is an exceptionally strong advocate who is calm under pressure but is able to articulate herself very well when on her feet and is an effective and strong advocate. She prides herself with a great level of empathy, she is very well respected not only with clients but with other barristers and lawyers, and she is a very safe pair of hands and is very pragmatic in terms of resolving issues before the court.'
Caroline Middleton
‘Caroline has superb client handling skills. She is able to manage the most difficult and challenging clients, and has seemingly endless patience, she adopts a pragmatic approach to resolving cases and works hard to find a workable resolution, and her advocacy is clear, calm and persuasive.'
Emma Roberts
'Emma, having previously worked as a solicitor, is very strong in relation to client care and understanding the timescales that solicitors can work to. Her previous experience of working in-house for a local authority also makes her a strong advocate in public law matters.'
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.