Legal Personality

Job title: Silk, 3 Verulam Buildings
Qualifications: Call 1979; QC 1997
Core areas of practice: Commercial litigation, corporate insolvency and banking. 

How do you see the year 2011 for practice at the Bar? 

I know the position of the publicly funded Bar is difficult and is likely to remain so for some time. The position of the specialist Bar, however, is quite different. There is likely to be considerable growth in most specialist fields, in particular commercial, chancery, technology and construction. Asset price deflation, recession and market volatility inevitably lead to a substantial increase in disputes between businesses. 

Lord Bingham of Cornhill, who died in September 2010, possessed intellectual qualities of a rare kind, writes Lord Justice Sedley 

No reader of Counsel needs to be reminded of the remarkable career trajectory of Tom Bingham, from Queen’s Bench judge and Lord Justice of Appeal through the offices of Master of the Rolls and Lord Chief Justice to the (anomalously inferior) post of Senior Law Lord. What may have been forgotten is that the last of these posts was created for him by Derry Irvine. 

Position: Barrister
Chambers: 3-4 South Square 

You’ve worked on all the leading cross-border insolvency cases. Which ones have engaged you the most?

I really enjoy legally and factually difficult cases and I’m as happy to work for a large client as for a smaller client. Recent cases of particular interest include Stanford (the first case on the Cross Border Insolvency Regulation) for the US receiver against the Antiguan liquidators. The interaction between the two sets of office holders caused a lot of difficulty. 

Position: Barrister
Chambers: Brick Court Chambers 

Chris McWatters believes that the FLBA Chairman will need all his diplomatic wizardry to deal with the fizzing brew of change facing the Family Bar 

Name: Julie Cave
Position: Managing Director
Company: Credit Management (Law) Ltd 

Richard Jones QC meets the President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Professor Terence Stephenson 

David Wurtzel meets Dominic Grieve QC MP 

While his colleagues have been emphasising how different they will be from the Labour Minister who came before them, the new Attorney General, Dominic Grieve QC MP, prefers to see the development of the law officers’ role as “seamless”. When we met in his Victoria Street office in late July, he explained that he looked back to his Tory predecessors, Patrick Mayhew and Nicholas Lyell. 

Name: Lee Tyler
Position: Senior Clerk
Chambers:  2 Temple Gardens 

David Wurtzel meets Adam Sampson, the Chief Ombudsman and Chief Executive of the Legal Ombudsman, the new scheme established by the Office of Legal Complaints to handle consumer legal complaints