Appointments and awards

“Solicitors praise the forward drive in modernity, commercialism and professionalism”
Chambers & Partners

We would like to thank our instructing solicitors and other clients for their support which has helped us to secure a number of appointments and awards over the last few years.

ApPointments

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Neil Davy and Emma Sutton as King’s Counsel in March 2023. Since 2016, our silk team has increased from 9 to 26 (including 8 women) and we have recruited 32 new tenants, enabling us to extend and diversify the service we provide to our clients.

Nageena Khalique KC, Katie Gollop KC and Sarah Clarke KC all sit  as Deputy High Court Judges.

In September 2022 Edward Pleeth was appointed to the Attorney General’s Panel of Counsel (A Panel).  James Berry and Frances McClenaghan are on the B Panel and C Panel respectively. Sir Robert Francis KC was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Medicine from St George’s Medical School, an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the University of Exeter and Honorary Fellowships from both the Royal College of Pathologists and the Royal College of Surgeons.

George Thomas, Alexander dos Santos and Rachel Spearing  have been appointed to List B of Specialist Regulatory Advocates for the Health and Safety Executive, Environmental Agency, Office for Rail and Road, CQC and Office for Nuclear Regulation.

Nine of our members sit as Assistant Coroners: Simon Fox KC, Bridget Dolan KC, Michael Walsh, Rachel Spearing, Sebastian Naughton, Briony Ballard, Amy Street, Andrew Perfect and Hannah Hinton.

Sarah Clarke KC and Hannah Hinton sit on the Serious Fraud Office panel of counsel. Hannah also sits on the Independent Safeguarding Panels for UK Athletics and the Football Regulatory Authority. Rachel Spearing has been appointed to the independent Judicial Panel for the British Horseracing Authority.

Emma Sutton KC is a fee-paid Employment Judge of the Employment Tribunals (England and Wales). Rhys Hadden sits part-time as a Judge of the First-tier Tribunal. They have both also been appointed by the Welsh Government to its “A Panel” of Junior Counsel for Public Law.

Nageena Khalique KC is an Expert Adviser for the NICE Centre for Guidelines and was the Chair of the committee responsible for the drafting of guidelines “Safeguarding Adults in Care Homes”, published in 2020.

Awards and other plaudits

The collective efforts of our barristers and staff have been recognised as follows:

We are the current holders of the Client Award for Innovation and Communication, The Legal 500.

In addition numerous members of Chambers and staff have won individual awards including Bridget Dolan QC and Michael Mylonas QC as Barrister of the Year at The Lawyer Awards. Other recent examples include:

  • Sarah Clarke KC (Women and Diversity In Law Awards, Responsible Leader Award 2023)
  • Sir Robert Francis KC (Chambers & Partners, Lifetime Achievement Award 2022)
  • Mark Harries KC (Advocate Awards, Pro Bono KC of the Year 2022)
  • Tom O’Connor (Advocate Awards, Pro Bono Chambers’ Professional of the Year 2022)
  • Neil Davy (Chambers & Partners, Clinical Negligence Junior of the Year 2021)
  • Elliot Gold (Chambers & Partners, Professional Discipline Junior of Year 2021)
  • James Berry (Chambers & Partners, Professional Discipline Junior of Year 2020)
  • Catherine Calder (Women in Law Awards, Legal Innovator 2020)
  • Christopher Johnston QC (Chambers & Partners, Clinical Negligence Silk of the Year 2019)
  • Michael Mylonas QC   (Lexis Nexis Legal Personality of the Year 2019).

We were shortlisted for twelve awards at The Legal 500 Bar Awards with Christopher Johnston KC winning Clinical Negligence Silk of the Year 2022:

Set nominations

  • Set of the Year
  • Clinical Negligence Set of Year
  • Professional Discipline and Regulatory Law Set of the Year
  • Public Law Set of the Year

Individual nominations

Staff nominations

  • Catherine Calder
    Chambers CEO of the Year
  • Marketing and Front of House Team of the Year

However, we are far from complacent. We continue to seek to improve and we invest in improving: please find further details about this here.