Martin is a member of the executive committee and the treasurer of the Legal Practice Management Association
Martin was a solicitor in private practice for twenty-five years
experience & expertise
As Chambers’ Joint Chief Executive, Martin leads the staff team and is an integral part of the Senior Management Team that consists of Catherine Calder, Lee Johnson, the Senior Clerk, and himself. His remit combines operational management with strategic and business planning. His operational responsibility particularly encompasses financial management, regulatory compliance, quality assurance, HR and IT.
Martin has been involved in Chambers management and administration for nearly twenty years, during which time he has gained a wealth of experience in three different sets. Previously, he was a solicitor in private practice for some twenty-five years. During that time, he practised as a solicitor in the City and home counties specialising in contentious and non-contentious commercial work, ran his own practice for a time and was head of the litigation department of a ten-partner firm, dividing his time equally between fee-earning, management and marketing. Having gradually come to the realisation that he preferred management to fee-earning, he took the decision to change career direction and to seek a role in legal management.
He first secured the position of Chambers Development Manager with the set at 2 Harcourt Buildings that is now known as Henderson Chambers. After three years in that role, he moved to Coram Chambers, a family law set, where he was Chambers Administration Manager for some nine years. During his time there, he was heavily involved in the development and implementation of a comprehensive quality assurance regime for BarMark purposes and in Chambers’ purchase and the subsequent refurbishment of new premises for its occupation.
Martin has been with Serjeants’ Inn for over nine years, initially as Chambers Manager and more recently as Chambers’ Joint Chief Executive following the restructuring of the staff operation in 2017. Between 2011 and 2013, he was heavily involved in the planning and implementation of Chambers’ relocation from 3 Serjeants’ Inn to its present premises.
Martin is a member of the executive committee and the treasurer of the Legal Practice Management Association. When not working, he is a keen follower of rugby and cricket, albeit largely from a sedentary position now!
reflections
To my mind, the principal characteristics required to engender the respect required for effective management in chambers can be summarised as the three Ps, namely persuasiveness, patience and perseverance allied with the clear understanding that the function of Chambers’ management and administration is to provide the members of Chambers with the support that they need in order to be able to devote as much time and energy as possible to what they do best: the provision of timely and high quality advice and advocacy to their professional and lay clients.
“It is my great good fortune now to be fulfilling a role that I thoroughly enjoy and to be working with colleagues who I like and respect both on the Senior Management Team and throughout Chambers”
My substantial experience as a solicitor in private practice – much of it as an equity partner – certainly informs my understanding of the pressures under which members of Chambers and those who instruct them work. Market forces and regulatory developments are having and will continue to have a significant impact on the practice of law in Chambers’ principal areas of practice. We must be alert to the challenges and prepared to innovate to benefit from them.
I know from my own experience that, although initially intimidating, change can prove to be highly beneficial. Indeed, it is my great good fortune now to be fulfilling a role that I thoroughly enjoy and to be working with colleagues who I like and respect both on the Senior Management Team and throughout Chambers.