Chambers Review
Provided by Chambers
Chancery: Traditional - London (Bar)
What the Team is Known For
XXIV Old Buildings is an established and highly respected traditional chancery chambers. “They are brilliant and tend to be our go-to set for offshore work. The clerks know offshore very well and know the market and can engage at a sophisticated level in finding the right people,” observes one source. Another states that “it is a very good set, certainly up there in the top echelons of the market. They are really good overall and the clerking remains good.” Chambers is noted for its depth of expertise in offshore matters and its ability to tackle complex commercial cases. Recently, its members acted in the high-profile Wong v Grand View matter, which concerns a major Bermudian trust dispute.
Strengths
Their senior clerk is Paul Horsfield, who is great. He's a great clerk.
XXIV Old Buildings is my go-to for traditional chancery work. It is a Rolls-Royce for the area with an excellent clerking team.
Notable practitioners
Elspeth Talbot Rice KC has an exceptional reputation at the traditional chancery Bar and is noted for her skilful handling of large offshore matters. She is frequently sought after for the most complex, high-profile and high-value matters.
It is like having a Supreme Court judge on your side. Elspeth is a force of nature.
Elspeth Talbot Rice is a go-to KC. She is really very approachable and robust, and carries a lot of authority when speaking to the clients and opponents. She is hugely knowledgeable and experienced.
Elspeth is definitely the best at the English Bar, for me. She is on a different planet, an absolutely outstanding advocate.
Elspeth is super bright, she really knows her stuff and comes up with very clever arguments.
Andrew Holden is noted for his skilful handling of a wide variety of matters, including complex trusts, disputed wills and estates work. He attracts instructions in both UK-based and offshore cases, and is particularly well known for his handling of matters concerning protectors.
I rate Andrew highly as a junior. He has got an amazingly strong academic grasp of trust principles, and the quality of his paperwork is fantastic.
Andrew is phenomenally intelligent, and so, so good to work with. Clients really like him. He's got a really calm temperament and is a mixture of phenomenal intelligence and commerciality.
Andrew has got an amazing offshore practice; he is involved in a staggering amount of offshore litigation. He provides robust advice and can think outside the box with creative arguments.
Bajul Shah has an excellent reputation at the traditional chancery Bar, regularly assisting trustees and high net worth individuals on a wide range of matters. He is noted for his handling of offshore and cross-border matters.
He is extremely good at chancery work, he really has that knowledge of overlapping areas of fraud along with offshore issues. He has his own style and is a wonderful member of a team.
He is the most calming influence and incredibly persuasive. He uses his many years of experience to just disperse that knowledge and be incredibly influential. He is loved by judges.
Bajul Shah is an excellent lawyer. He is very client-friendly, careful and commercial and able to deal with the most complex disputes.
He is very collegiate and goes above and beyond to provide assistance where he can. He misses absolutely nothing, is very calm and measured and so lovely to deal with as well.
Edward Cumming is the definition of a hands-on barrister, very proactive and popular. He really leads the charge on cases and is tireless.
Edward Cumming is a great mix of commercial nous and intellect.
Elizabeth Weaver is an eminent junior with a broad traditional chancery practice, who is frequently instructed in high-value matters, including cross-border cases. She handles a wide array of work, including trust disputes.
She cuts through so much and gets to the right answer very quickly. She also presents that to clients in such a compassionate way. She is one of my favourite barristers in the area.
Elizabeth is absolutely first-class, very clear thinking. Her advocacy is excellent. She brings out the strengths in any case effectively, and is great at attacking weaknesses of the other party.
David Brownbill is incredibly approachable, thorough and knowledgeable on core trust issues. He is my go-to for complex cases as he is engaged and can bring together trust and tax issues well.
He is very thoughtful, learned and great for cases that need carefully thought-out strategy across jurisdictions.
Timothy Sherwin has a traditional chancery practice that sees him undertaking contentious trusts, probate and succession cases, as well as Court of Protection matters. He has appeared in a number of important cases of late, some of them stretching in value into the hundreds of millions of pounds.
He has got an incredibly bright future and is on the fast track to silk. He is so intelligent, commercial and pragmatic.
He is technically brilliant, a great strategist that thinks about every issue in a long-term, strategic way. He is incredibly knowledgeable in offshore trusts and Court of Protection issues.
Timothy Sherwin is very highly thought of in the contentious estates world and is building an incredible practice. He is very easy to work with and is an excellent barrister.
Adam Cloherty KC has a wide-ranging practice and is frequently instructed on wills, trusts and estates matters. He has established impressive expertise in cross-border funds and charities litigation, and is also known for his work handling financial services and insolvency disputes.
Adam Cloherty is just very bright, commercial and keeps his eye on the prize. He is very pragmatic and doesn't get caught up.
He is a very good lawyer - very likeable, smart and intelligent. He is a good barrister to go to for knotty issues because he has good judgement.
He has got a fantastic brain, a lovely style of advocacy and he is intellectually sound.
He has an incredible knowledge of the law and is an astute tactician, working hard to achieve the client's objectives. He will think outside the box, not just about the legal issues.
He is clever, works super hard and is always looking for a new angle. He is hugely logical.
Francis Tregear KC is a respected silk with a well-established traditional chancery practice. He is a recognised authority on offshore and overseas matters, and has been called to the Bar of the Eastern Caribbean. He has an impressive depth of experience in trust and estate matters, and is particularly noted for his expertise in contentious proceedings.
Francis Tregear is absolutely brilliant - understated, extremely clever and clients also absolutely love him.
He is very good, incredibly nice and sensible.
Francis is a smooth, charming operator. He has done a lot of offshore work and is a safe pair of hands.
James Fennemore has a broad practice which spans claims for the removal of trustees, offshore trust and estate disputes, claims under the Inheritance Act and proprietary estoppel claims.
James Fennemore has fantastic recall and memory, and is also great to work with and easy to speak with. Clients really trust him and he is someone that understands the details of case.
He is great with complicated trust issues and gets gold stars all around. He is very, very clever.
I was very impressed by James. He is a really excellent draftsman and has fantastic depth of knowledge of the trusts space.
His ability to spin lots of plates while being on top of the detail across it all is impeccable. His written work is excellent and his ability to think creatively about solutions is amazing.
Sarah Bayliss is an experienced junior with who handles domestic and international matters, including offshore cases. She advises fraud and company matters, in addition of trusts and estates work.
She has got excellent client rapport and is extremely practical and commercial. She thinks outside the box and always helps us engineer solutions balanced with a real dose of common sense.
Sarah Bayliss is very thorough, has a great sense of humour and is very pragmatic. You can phone her up to talk about the case, she is very user-friendly.
Sarah is a good all-rounder and a pleasure to work with. She is very good at contested probate disputes, particularly disputes involving complex pleadings and issues.
Harry Samuels advises clients on commercial and private client matters. His trusts and estates work includes Inheritance Act claims.
He is my go-to at the junior end. He is willing to get stuck in. He also has a good handle on strategy and always instils confidence. He works on a good mix of trusts, probate and company matters.
Harry works very hard and is very bright. He is definitely a star, he is going to go very far.
Harry is a brilliant advocate - he has the ear of the judge and constructs very persuasive arguments which he delivers very tenaciously. His written advice and drafting is of a very high standard.