The Members of Monckton Chambers are pleased to announce that in the recent round of appointments Conor McCarthy and Jack Williams have been appointed to the ‘C’ Panel.  Both appointments commence from 1st March for five years.

The Attorney General maintains four advisory panels of junior counsel to undertake civil and EU work for all government departments. There are three London panels (an A panel for senior juniors, a B panel for middle juniors, a C panel for junior juniors) and a regional panel.  In addition there are three Public International Law Panels.

In total 22 members of Monckton Chambers are on the AG’s panels:

A  Panel: Raymond Hill, Anneli Howard, Alan Bates, Ben Lask, Andrew Macnab, Peter Mantle, Brendan McGurk, Robert Palmer, Valentina Sloane, Rob Williams

B Panel: Eric Metcalfe, Azeem Suterwalla, Ewan West, Fiona Banks

C Panel: Anneliese Blackwood, Tarlochan Lall, Julianne Kerr Morrison, Conor McCarthy, Michael Armitage, Jack Williams

Public International Law B Panel: Anneli Howard, Thomas Sebastian

Public International Law C Panel: Nikolaus Grubeck 

For further information, see the Government Legal Department (GLD) website.

The Lawyer magazine has published its “Top 20 cases of 2019” revealing that “last year, public interest cases took centre stage in the English courts, with this set to intensify in the run-up to Brexit. The Lawyer Top 20 Cases 2019 also highlights new battles over patents, big-ticket competition claims and intense scrutiny over the UK’s regulators”

In all, ten QCs and 21 Juniors at Monckton Chambers were instructed, many of them in multiple cases, across seven of the cases highlighted by The Lawyer magazine as the “top cases” for 2019:

• N v Royal Bank of Scotland and National Crime Agency – High Court, Commercial Court, 28 January, five weeks.
  Monckton Chambers’ Philip Moser QC, Ewan West and Imogen Proud, for the interested party, the National Crime Agency, instructed by the NCA’s in-house legal department.
• Balmoral v Competition & Markets Authority – High Court, Commercial Court, 29 January, one day.
  Monckton Chambers’ Rob Williams and James Bourke for the defendant, the CMA, instructed by the CMA’s in-house legal department.
• Huawei v Conversant – High Court, Patents Court, March, June and November, two weeks each for March and June and three weeks in November.
  Monckton Chambers’ Daniel Beard QC for Huawei instructed by Allen & Overy; Kassie Smith QC and Ligia Osepciu for ZTE instructed by Bristows. All are instructing on competition issues the case.
• London Borough of Hillingdon & Ors v Secretary of State for Transport – High Court, Divisional Court, 4 March, 10 days.
  Monckton Chambers’ Robert Palmer and Alan Bates, for the defendant, Secretary of State for Transport , instructed by Government Legal Department lawyer Joe Sullivan; Monckton Chambers’ Gerry Facenna QC instructed by Heathrow Airport.
• Campaign Against Arms Trade & Ors v Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy – High Court, Commercial Court, 9 April, three days.
  Monckton Chambers’ Conor McCarthy for the Claimant NGO, Campaign Against Arms Trade, instructed by Rosa Curling of Leigh Day; Monckton Chambers’ Nikolaus Grubeck for the Interveners (Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International & Rights Watch (UK)) instructed by Sue Willman of Deighton Pierce Glynn and the NGOs’ in-house teams. Monckton Chambers’ Gerry Facenna and Julianne Kerr Morrison for the Interveners instructed by Gowling.
• Road Haulage Association or United Kingdom Trucks Claim, Royal Mail Group Limited, BT Group plc & Ors, Dawsongroup plc & Ors, Wolseley UK Limited & Ors, Suez Groupe SAS & Ors, Veolia Environnment S.A. & Ors, Ryder Limited & Another, Arla Foods and Adnams plc & Ors V Daimler, DAF, Iveco, MAN, Volvo/Renault and Scania – Competition Appeal Tribunal, 3 June, five days.
  For the second, third and fourth claimants, Royal Mail Group Limited, BT Group and Dawsongroup: Monckton Chambers’ Tim Ward QC, Ben Lask, Anneliese Blackwood and Robert Palmer instructed by Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner partner Edward Coulson.
  For the eighth claimant Ryder Limited: Monckton Chambers’ Mark Brealey QC and Fiona Banks, instructed by Ashurst.
  For the ninth claimant Arla Foods: Monckton Chambers’ Ronit Kreisberger instructed by Walker Morris.
  For the tenth claimant, Adnams Plc & Ors: Monckton Chambers’ Alan Bates and Jack Williams, instructed by Edwin Coe.
  For the first defendant, Daimler: Monckton Chambers’ Paul Harris QC, Ben Rayment, Michael Armitage and Alexandra Littlewood instructed by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan partner Boris Bronfentrinker.
  For the second defendant, DAF: Monckton Chambers’ Daniel Beard QC, Meredith Pickford QC, Nikolaus Grubeck, James Bourke, David Gregory, Thomas Sebastian and Rob Williams instructed by Travers Smith partner Caroline Edwards.
• The Secretary of State for Health and the NHS Business Services Authority v Servier Laboratories Limited, (2) Servier Research and Development Limited, (4) Les Laboratoires Servier SAS, (5) Servier SAS – High Court, Business and Property Court, 1 October, three weeks.
  For the first claimant, The Secretary of State for Health and the NHS Business Services Authority: Monckton Chambers’ Jon Turner QC and Philip Woolfe, instructed by Peters & Peters partners Jonathan Tickner and Jason Woodland and of counsel Emma Ruane.
  For the second claimant, the Scottish and Northern Irish Ministers: Monckton Chambers’ Daniel Beard QC, Julian Gregory, Alexandra Littlewood and Imogen Proud, instructed by RPC partner Catherine Percy.
  For the third claimant, the Welsh Ministers: Monckton Chambers’ Josh Holmes QC and Laura John, instructed by Geldards partner Paul Hopkins

Subscribers to The Lawyer premium content can read the full article here.

Monckton Chambers is very pleased to announce the appointment of Robert Palmer, Ronit Kreisberger and Valentina Sloane to Queen’s Counsel.

The official swearing-in ceremony will take place on Monday 11 March.

The joint Heads of Monckton Chambers Tim Ward QC and Philip Moser QC commented: “We are delighted with the three appointments, which reflect the candidates’ hard work and standing across four of Monckton Chambers’ principal practice areas: Competition, Public Law, VAT and Procurement.”

The members and staff of Chambers warmly congratulate Robert, Ronit and Valentina on their new appointments.

The full list of QC appointments, announced on the 10 January, can be viewed on the QCA website.

We welcome Ben Emmerson QC, who joins Monckton Chambers from Matrix Chambers.

Specialising in European human rights law, public international law and international criminal law, Ben Emmerson QC was the UN Special Rapporteur on Counter Terrorism and Human Rights from 2011 to 2017. He has 25 years of experience litigating before international courts and tribunals including the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. He is also a deputy High Court Judge, a Master of the Bench of Middle Temple and an Honorary Fellow of Mansfield College, Oxford.

Philip Moser QC, joint Head of Monckton Chambers, spoke for all the members in saying: “This is an exciting development for Monckton Chambers and members are pleased that Ben Emmerson QC, who has pioneered human rights law in the UK, has chosen to join Monckton’s human rights team. Ben’s arrival will further strengthen our set’s reputation for human rights law and provide an additional dimension to the wider Monckton practice, where we look forward to developing work at the intersection of commercial and public law.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Legal 500 Series, now in its 31st year, recognises the very best law firms, chambers, silks, in-house lawyers, business leaders and general counsel operating within the UK market through its annual awards. Based on months of research, which includes 70,000 interviews with in-house counsel, law firms and sets, has just been announced.

Monckton Chambers and its members have been nominated for awards in two of the practice areas: EU & Competition and Tax. The Set is nominated for both practice areas and five members are shortlisted for individual awards:

EU and Competition

• Set of the year
• Silk of the year: Tim Ward QC
• Silk of the year: Kassie Smith QC
• Junior of the year: Rob Williams

Tax

• Set of the year
• Junior of the year: Valentina Sloane 
• Junior of the year: Frank Mitchell

The results will be announced on the Legal 500 website on 3rd January 2019.

The shortlists for the Bar awards are available to view here.

The recently launched Chambers Bar UK 2019 ranks 50 individual Monckton barristers across 18 practice areas with many appearing in multiple categories.

Monckton Chambers is one of the most highly ranked sets in the UK as it has been recommended in eleven practice areas; in five of these, Monckton is recognised as a “Band One” leading set:

• Competition
• European Law
• Telecommunications
• Public Procurement
• Indirect Tax

The Set has also been ranked in a further six categories:

• Administrative and Public Law
• Civil Liberties & Human Rights
• Data Protection
• Sports Law
• Environment
• Community Care

Individual members were also recognised as “Leading Individuals” in a further six categories:

• Aviation
• Commercial Dispute Resolution
• Construction
• Education
• Immigration
• Local Government
• Public International Law

For further details visit the Chambers website.

In the recently launched The Legal 500 UK Bar 2018, 44 individual barristers from Monckton Chambers are listed across18 practice areas with many recommended in multiple categories.

Monckton Chambers has been recommended, once again, as a TOP-TIER set in the following practice areas:

• Competition
• Telecoms (regulatory)
• Public procurement
• Tax – VAT

The Set has also been ranked in a further five areas:

• Administrative and public law (including local government)
• Civil liberties and human rights (including actions against the police)
• European Law
• Data protection
• Sport

Individual members were also recognised as “Leading Individuals” in:

• Aviation
• Construction
• Education
• Environment
• Immigration (including business immigration)
• International arbitration: counsel
• Professional negligence
• Public international law
• Social housing

The annual legal directory further described the Set as follows:

“The reputation of Monckton Chambers’ barristers, ‘all of whom are of high quality and good to work with’, ‘makes it hard to look elsewhere’ when it comes EU law and competition law instructions. It is also ‘undoubtedly one of the strongest chambers for procurement and public law’. Members have ‘in-depth knowledge of human rights law as well as proceedings before European courts’. Solicitors ‘value the fact that juniors roll up their sleeves and get stuck in’, and that senior members are ‘not stuffy and able to work collaboratively and flexibly’. Under the guidance of senior clerk David Hockney, the ‘exceptional’ clerking team is ‘always on top of its brief’. Deputy senior clerk John Keegan is ‘a pleasure to deal with’. First junior Steven Duffett is ‘a real problem-solver when it comes to getting time with counsel’. Gemma Rawlinson is ‘fantastic’. And finally, more than one solicitor commented on how the set’s receptionist, Linda Antonioni, is ‘a joy’ to speak with.”

See full Monckton Chambers’ rankings here.

At last night’s awards ceremony at The London Hilton on Park Lane, Monckton Chambers and its members won three awards – Competition: Set and Silk; Tax: Junior.

Meredith Pickford QC won Silk of the Year for Competition and Valentina Sloane picked up the award for Junior of the Year in the Tax category. Monckton Chambers was also awarded Competition Set of the Year.

We were nominated for five awards in total with Anneli Howard in the shortlist for Competition Junior of the Year and Monckton Chambers named as one of six for Client Service Set of the Year.

The awards are based on research for the 2019 edition of Chambers UK Bar, to be published next week. These awards reflect a set’s pre-eminence in key practice areas. They also reflect notable achievements over the past 12 months including outstanding work, impressive strategic growth and excellence in client service.

Steve Broach has been nominated for Junior Pro Bono Barrister of the Year in the Bar Pro Bono Awards 2018. He has also been nominated as part of the group working on the Mencap Learning Disability Legal Network for the category of Pro Bono Innovation of the Year. The purpose of the Bar Pro Bono Awards, which is organised by the Bar Pro Bono Unit, is to thank and recognise outstanding contributions to pro bono work from across the profession. All nominees have dedicated a huge amount of time assisting others, have provided innovation and inspiration to others through their work, and have shown a commitment to the pro bono ethic.

This is the first year, since its inception in 1997, that the Bar Pro Bono Award has been expanded from just one award to nine separate categories. The judging panel, this year, includes the Lord Chief Justice, Chair of the Bar and the elusive Secret Barrister. The winners will be announced at the Awards evening on Wednesday 24th October. Read more about the awards here.

Monckton Chambers is delighted to announce that Ciar McAndrew and Harry Gillow, have accepted invitations to join Chambers following successful completion of pupillage.

Ciar is a graduate of Hertford College, Oxford and the Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas. She has worked at the Court of Appeal as Judicial Assistant to Lord Justice Briggs and as a Legal Fellow at JUSTICE.

Prior to coming to the Bar, Harry graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford, with a First Class degree in Classics and worked as a researcher in Parliament.

Ciar and Harry became tenants on 1st October 2018 having experienced a broad range of practice areas as part of pupillage.