One Essex Court

Head of Chambers:Lord Grabiner KC

Senior Clerk:Darren Burrows

Tenants:130

THE CHAMBERSOne Essex Court is a pre-eminent commercial set of barristers’ chambers in London. Members provide specialist legal advice, support and advocacy services worldwide, and the barristers’ expertise covers all areas of arbitration, litigation, regulation and dispute resolution.

THE SETThe work here embraces all aspects of domestic and international trade, business, commerce and finance. Barristers at One Essex Court are recognised specialist legal counsel in the many diverse fields of commercial law, also regularly accepting nominations as arbitrators, mediators and experts.

WORK UNDERTAKENThe principal areas of practice are banking and financial services; commercial litigation; civil fraud and investigations; company, insolvency and restructuring disputes; competition and related EU law; energy and natural resources; infrastructure and construction project disputes; insurance and reinsurance claims; intellectual property; media, entertainment and broadcasting disputes, including sports law; professional liability; public law; and tax and revenue law.

Chambers is comprised of 130 practitioners, who regularly appear before the domestic courts and tribunals, dealing with short County Court applications to major trials in the High Court and appeals before the Court of Appeal, the Privy Council and the UK Supreme Court. Barristers here also appear in a wide range of foreign jurisdictions, particularly in the Caribbean (including Cayman, BVI, Bermuda and Bahamas) and the Far East, principally Hong Kong and Singapore. Those who practise as international arbitrators are regularly appointed to panels with both domestic and overseas arbitral seats. One Essex Court also maintains a Singapore office at Maxwell Chambers, which is able to provide support and assistance to clients in the surrounding regions.

In addition to English law, some barristers here are also able to advise on matters affected by the laws of Ukraine, Russia, Cyprus, Kenya, Zambia, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

Barristers at One Essex Court aim to offer practical and innovative advice, whilst balancing all the commercial considerations. They appreciate the value of both prompt action and thoroughness, and are able to provide some of the most experienced, skilled and forceful advocacy available anywhere at the Bar.

Professional clients instructing barristers at One Essex Court are principally solicitors and in-house legal departments, but members of the public, and commercial and non-commercial organisations are now able to instruct barristers directly on most civil matters.

The recent high-profile and varied work undertaken by members here has included:Hewlett-Packard/Autonomy v. Lynch & Anr.;SKAT v Solo Capital Partners; BTI v. Sequana; Republic of Mozambique v. Credit Suisse International & Ors; Privatbank v. Kolomoisky & Ors.; Various Claimants v. G4S plc; Municipio de Mariana & ors v BHP Plc & BHP Ltd; ENRC v (1) Dechert LLP (2) David Neil Gerrard; PJSC NBT v Mints; Philipp v. Barclays Bank & Ors.; Qatar Airways Grp v. Airbus; 1MDB v. IPIC; Phones4U v EE and others; The ECU Group Plc v HSBC Bank UK Plc; Deutsche Bank AG v. Lehman Brothers (in admin); Convoy Collateral Ltd v Broad Idea International Ltd; Tesco v Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers.

Barristers at One Essex Court are drawn from the very best candidates coming to the Commercial Bar each year. Indeed, the ability of the set to continually attract the most talented pupils year-on-year, is a fundamental reason for chambers’ enduring position at the very top of the market. The selection process is naturally focused on intellectual excellence, but prospective pupils and tenants must also exhibit other valuable characteristics which, through a constant process of feedback from clients, we understand are equally valued.

The Clerks’ Room at One Essex Court is universally regarded as one of the elite operations at the Bar, with an unrivalled reputation for honesty, transparency and flexibility. Divided into teams to provide a dedicated service to distinct groups, clients can be assured of receiving diverse and appropriate recommendations, and where counsel for opposing parties are based in Chambers, the structure ensures that confidentiality is respected and maintained through robust information barriers.

One Essex Court operates a strict ‘no double booking’ policy. The availability of counsel is not ‘hedged’, risking diary clashes and potentially depriving clients of their chosen counsel. Appropriate preparation time is reserved prior to all hearings and time is set aside at the end of a booking to allow for any overrun. This cornerstone of Chambers approach to the booking of work has long provided clients with unrivalled levels of service, reassurance and certainty.

Barristers at One Essex Court regularly provide presentations and seminars to clients on a wide range of disputes topics, often supporting in-house training programmes. These can be tailored to meet a particular client need.