Legal Personality

Job title
Barrister, 11KBW

11KBW advises on all areas of civil practice with particular depth of experience in public law having acted, inter alia, in the leading case on the right to free elections. Along with its reputation in education law, chambers brings its expertise to bear in EU Competition and regularly advises central government, local authorities and individuals.

Job titles
CEO and Head of Clerking Services Devereux

Devereux Chambers covers the professional markets in insurance and reinsurance, employment law, tax, finance, sports, energy, telecommunications and education. It has a large and successful team advising and representing those engaged in cases involving personal injury, clinical negligence and health and safety and offers arbitration and mediation services.

Job title
Senior Clerk
14 Gray’s Inn Square

14 Gray’s Inn Square is predominantly a family law set with a strong reputation for representation in all aspects of family law, dealing with both children and financial proceedings. The set also undertakes work in civil law and administrative law proceedings including education, housing, immigration and mental health.

What are you doing to try to keep your members ahead of the curve with all the public funding cuts being made?

Job titles
Head of Chambers and Silk 2KBW

2KBW is primarily a criminal set of chambers with a Western Circuit heritage. Increasingly members are working in other areas particularly London, the South East and the Midlands including a significant group of civil practitioners, dealing with general common law as well as some more specialised areas of civil law.

Job titles
Chief Executive and Senior Civil Clerk, 9 Gough Square Chambers

A leading common law set based in London but appearing in courts throughout England and Wales and abroad. Key practice areas are personal injury, clinical negligence, professional negligence, fraud and serious crime, family, police law, employment and property.

Job title
Head of Chambers, 12 Gray's Inn Square

Qualifications
Admitted as a Solicitor in 1966. Appointed Silk 1997

CV
Chosen as one of the UK's "go to people" for international arbitration and was involved in the drafting of the 1996 Arbitration Act.  12 Gray's Inn Square starts practising as of 15 April and is one of the first examples of an alternative business structure (ABS) at the Bar.  

What differences have you found between being a tax solicitor and a tax barrister?

The differences are slight. Tax solicitors receive questions from clients or fellow members of their firms resulting in meetings and notes of advice. These mirror, effectively, instructions, conferences and opinions. Solicitors are probably inclined to be more commercial because, inevitably, they are aware of the importance of a transaction and the need to find a solution rather than just giving a view.

Job title - Barrister, Atkin Chambers
Qualifications - Call 1989
CV - Core areas of practice: Litigation and arbitration, domestic and international, in the construction, civil engineering, energy, oil and gas sectors 

You practice from a specialist set of fewer than 40 members. What do you think are the advantages? 

For me, it is important to belong to a small set where all of us specialise. Atkin Chambers has expanded organically largely by recruiting pupils. I would expect rapid or large expansion would dilute our expertise, and be perceived as such. 

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.