Chambers Review
Provided by Chambers
Dispute Resolution: Commercial - UK
What the Team is Known For
4 Stone Buildings marshals considerable litigation experience and has long experience of appearing in landmark disputes. Recent examples include Dargamo Holdings Limited v Avonwick Holdings Limited, an appeal arising from a dispute involving allegations of deceit and issues of causation, as well as the high-profile Carillion director disqualification proceedings. Its members also continued to appear in Autonomy Corporation v Michael Lynch, a very large-scale fraud case. A commentator notes: “4 Stone Buildings has brilliant barristers at every level of call and can field an excellent team for even the most complex matters.”
David Goddard is the senior clerk.
Strengths
Senior Clerk David Goddard is the benchmark by which you judge all clerks. He's looked up to by all and is an absolute gentleman with it.
The 4 Stone Chambers clerking is superb. The clerks really get to know us and are very empathetic and understanding of the pressures on us.
The clerks are very amenable and highly practical. They will always do what they can to accommodate you, even at short notice.
You can trust in each of the clerking team, irrespective of who picks up the phone. First Junior Clerk Ben Lashmar is terrific. Available and very accommodating, he removes hurdles from your path.
Notable practitioners
He really is in a league of his own.
Jonathan is especially good with geopolitically sensitive cases. He is a super silk.
Jonathan is an extraordinary advocate, who is one of the stars of the Commercial Chancery Bar. He is supreme in his advocacy skills and a wonderful appellate barrister.
Jonathan is a very clear advocate, who's respected by the bench. He's among the top appellate advocates at the Bar.
Jonathan is absolutely brilliant. His advocacy is just superb – he can turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.
Richard is very good on his feet, extremely sensible and trusted by judges. His advocacy is very strong.
Richard is remarkably bright, to the point and succinct in his advice.
John is fantastic at cross-examining.
Clients have huge amounts of respect for John's strategic insight and wisdom. He delivers advice in a practical way with regard for their needs.
Sharif's advocacy is fantastic. A very skilful and incisive cross-examiner, he builds great rapport with judges and tribunals.
Sharif has a background in business and banking, which really comes across in what he brings to the table. He is very in tune with the client's requirements and brings a commercial mindset to bear.
Sharif is very impressive on his feet and in his writing.
He is a brilliant cross-examiner, who is fierce in court and very sharp.
He strikes the balance brilliantly between putting forward the case on a sound legal footing, whilst also understanding the commercial factors at play for the client.
He is a very clever and measured practitioner.
He has a very strategic and analytical mindset.
Sensible, pragmatic and hard-working.
Tom is a very effective practitioner, with great commercial insight and both technical and practical capability. His warm demeanour also makes him very pleasant to work with.
He is very bright and has a great feeling for what is going to change a judge’s mind.
He is a super-impressive technical lawyer.
He is just a very smart barrister, who punches well above his weight.
He's bright, very hard-working and someone with very good judgement.
Nicola is exceptionally user-friendly and approachable. Her advice consistently strikes the right balance, considering as it does both the commercial realities of the case and the client’s objectives.
She's technically excellent and incredibly bright as well. She has an ability to focus not only on the larger picture but also on the finer details in a matter.
Very clear and very practical.