9 St John Street is delighted to announce thirty six members have been acknowledged in the Legal 500 2021

We are delighted to announce that thirty six members have been acknowledged as leaders within their chosen field of law in the 2021 edition of the Legal 500.

 

 

EMPLOYMENT

Leading Silks

Paul Gilroy QC - 9 St John Street: ‘Strengths: Very good manner in court. A very skilful and strategic advocate. Excellent team player. Very good value for money and client focussed. Incisive and very good at picking out the key points. Has an excellent presentation style. A skilled negotiator with strong commercial acumen. First class knowledge of everything football related.’

Leading Junior (Tier 1)

Edward Morgan - 9 St John Street: "Excellent with clients, a brilliant strategic and tactical mind; has the ability to think outside of the box and utilise innovative strategies to achieve the right result. Tenacious and inexhaustible. My number one go-to guy."

Assunta Del Priore - 9 St John Street: "Diligent, focused and great with clients."

Louise Quigley - 9 St John Street: "Louise Quigley demonstrates great attention to detail and can get to grips with complex cases very quickly. She is tenacious in court and good with clients in conference. Louise handled a difficult multi-day Employment Tribunal case for one of my corporate clients recently and the client was extremely impressed."

Amy Smith - 9 St John Street: "Strengths - extremely thorough and well prepared; clear and articulate in presenting a case; approachable, personable and can build trust with a client very quickly."

Rachel Wedderspoon - 9 St John Street: "Rachel is not afraid to give positive advice and will rarely sit on the fence. Aside from being highly adept in applying the law to the facts, and picking up the key issues quickly, Rachel does an excellent job in tailoring her tone and approach to inspire confidence in the client/witness. An excellent cross-examiner and completely unflappable."

Lena Amartey - 9 St John Street: "Impressive and always in demand for her ability to cut through issues, dynamic cross examination and strong submissions."

Carlo Breen - 9 St John Street: "Carlo is very knowledgeable and offers practicable advice. He is particularly very good at calming clients nerves. He shows empathy and support. A fantastic legal brain and hard-working."

David Campion - 9 St John Street: "David is able to grasp the full details of a case very quickly and to quickly analyse the pros and cons of the different approaches which are available. His knowledge of the Employment Tribunal process is second to none, which is hugely beneficial to clients and instructing solicitors in understanding how a claim and subsequent hearing is likely to unfold."

Nigel Grundy - 9 St John Street: "An extremely thorough and technical advocate."

James Hurd - 9 St John Street: "Recent work includes defending against disability discrimination and stress at work claims."

9 St John Street

'A first port of call when seeking counsel in employment matters' in Manchester, 9 St John Street's team covers the full spectrum of contentious and all aspects of non-contentious employment law work. Paul Gilroy QC is considered to be approachable, user-friendly, and incredibly knowledgeable in the world of sports and employment law. 'He balances technical expertise with a common-sense approach that clients really value'. Fielding a strong bench of junior counsel, the set is particularly well-connected in the public sector, with the 'tenacious and inexhaustible' Edward Morgan, in particular, handling a number of cases in the NHS context. In recent instructions of note, 'excellent cross-examiner' Rachel Wedderspoon represented a solicitor who brought a sex discrimination claim against her former firm, while 'fantastic advocate, who is great with clients' Louise Quigley represented a private sector respondent in an unusual case where the claimant alleges her dismissal was orchestrated as her husband, the company's CEO, was dismissed for fraud.

CLINICAL NEGLIGENCE

Leading Junior (Tier 1)

Kirsty McKinlay - 9 St John Street: "The attention to detail which she displays is exceptional. This is combined with a very friendly approach which is very much appreciated by Solicitors and Clients alike."

9 St John Street

With 'exceptional attention to detail' Kirsty McKinlay is head of the clinical negligence team at 9 St John Street. With a varied practice, McKinlay works on a number of different areas of clinical negligence, and the value of claims of which she has involvement range from lower-value multi-track with evidential complexities to significant high-value brain and spinal injury cases. Notable cases include a claim arising out of mis-prescription of Fentayl in July 2015 resulting in hypoxic brain injury.

FAMILY AND CHILDREN LAW

Leading Junior (Tier 2)

Emma Greenhalgh - 9 St John Street: "A thoughtful and empathetic advocate who always stands up for her clients."

Rachael Heppenstall - 9 St John Street: "Very professional. Extremely knowledgeable. Well respected. Helpful. Good presentation skills. Feel as if you are in safe hands."

Kalsoom Maqsood - 9 St John Street: "What always particularly impresses me about Kalsoom is her thorough preparation and how well she knows a case, which is reflected in her cross-examination. Kalsoom is an extremely diligent and personable lawyer, who I highly recommend."

9 St John Street

9 St John Street is highly regarded on the Northern Circuit for its wealth of expertise in all areas of matrimonial, finance, and children law. Sarah Kilvington's public law practice encompasses serious abuse of children – especially fabricated and induced illness, gender dysphoria in children, and complex sexual abuse; Rachel Heppenstall is highly experienced in cases involving serious non-accidental injury including infant death; Joanne Barnett regularly appears in family courts, including High Court, representing parents, grandparents, local authorities, the Official Solicitor, the National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS), and Children’s Guardian in complex cases, as well as those cases with an international element. Kalsoom Maqsood's practice includes fatal and catastrophic injury cases to children, sexual abuse, fabricated and induced illness, gender dysphoria, and cases involving significant harm from neglect.

PERSONAL INJURY

Leading Silks (Tier 1)

Christopher Kennedy QC - 9 St John Street: "Chris is renowned for his exceptional ability in handling catastrophic injury claims. He is incredibly detailed yet can see the bigger picture when it is called for."

Leading Juniors (Tier 1)

Mike Lemmy - 9 St John Street: "Excellent with clients and has a great grasp of the detail."

Matthew Snarr - 9 St John Street: "He is very able and clear. Completely unpompous with an easy manner with clients."

Leading Junior (Tier 2)

James Hurd - 9 St John Street: "Very solid, reliable and dependable barrister. Able to get to the point, advise clients without fuss and with considerable insight."

Ian Little - 9 St John Street: "As junior, Ian is unmatched."

Julie-Anne Luck - 9 St John Street: "Julie-Anne has great attention to detail, is thorough, excellent on the technical issues and gives clear and cogent advice. She is very approachable and a pleasure to work with."

Brian McCluggage - 9 St John Street: "Has a very good manner with clients and quickly gets to the nub of the claim."

Kirsty McKinlay - 9 St John Street: "She is very confident in conference and in addressing medical experts. She secures a good grasp of the case and issues in hand and manages to address these in a productive way. Her draft documents are very detailed."

Michael O'Neill - 9 St John Street: "Michael is meticulous and thorough in his approach. He is easily able to and has a really ability to engage clients and put across complex issues in a way which is easy to understand."

Leading Junior (Tier 3)

Philip De Berry - 9 St John Street: "Excellent grasp of particularly complex medical and causation issues in unusual cases. He is most impressive when advising in conference with vulnerable clients who are often suffering a significant traumatic injury."

Joseph Mulderig - 9 St John Street: "His forensic attention to detail, and tireless preparation of cases. He also has a very good manner with clients that puts them at ease immediately. he gets the nub of a case immediately. He is also an extremely capable advocate who without fails delivers excellent results. For a solicitor, the fact that he is easy to contact, and always able to give a common sense view of cases is priceless."

Zoë Thompson - 9 St John Street: "Zoë is a formidable advocate, tenacious and always well prepared with an eye for detail. Her written advices and pleadings are considered and are returned promptly within deadlines. From a defendant's perspective, she treats the money as her own and is fearless in cross-examination of claimants."

9 St John Street

Members at 9 St John Street accept instructions from claimants and defendants alike and act for trade unions, insurers, public bodies, and private clients. Members are specialists in catastrophic injury work, industrial disease claims, and low impact and fraudulent road traffic claims. Head of chambers Christopher Kennedy QC 'is renowned for his exceptional ability in handling catastrophic injury claims'. He is currently acting for the defendant in Bennion v Conway, a catastrophic spinal injury case that raises issues about the extent to which participants in sports with an element of danger have to be protected from risk. The set has a strong bench of leading juniors such as the 'very able' Matthew Snarr who has a caseload predominantly consisting of High Court cases with a value exceeding £500,000 and up to £10m; a former law firm partner, the 'thorough' Julie-Anne Luck has an established multi-track practice covering complex issues in road traffic accidents and employers' liability claims; Philip De Berry has a broad PI practice but with a niche in historical sexual abuse claims in which he 'navigates the sensitive issues very well.'; a 'great advocate', Zoë Thompson is head of the set's travel team and has experience of cases that involve dishonesty and/or credibility issues.

CHANCERY PROBATE AND TAX

Leading Juniors (Tier 1)

James Fryer-Spedding - 9 St John Street: "James is an excellent all rounder. His written work is detailed and well considered but he also has an excellent manner with clients. He relates well to them and can deliver difficult messages in an effective way. He works as a team, prepares papers on time and is also a persuasive advocate. He is my Chancery barrister of choice."

Richard Price - 9 St John Street: "Richard has a calming influence and explains complex issues to clients well. He is personable barrister and very strong when advising on contentious trust issues. Richard is also flexible when funding cases(both as counsel and mediator) which allows clients access to justice which otherwise would not be possible."

Leading Juniors (Tier 2)

Joanna Vicary - 9 St John Street: "Joanna is methodical and careful as an adviser, incisive as an advocate."

Andrew Clark - 9 St John Street: "He has technical expertise, ability to think rapidly on his feet, practical advice, rigorous attention to detail."

9 St John Street

A 'good set', 9 St John Street has 'a strong reputation' in the Chancery, probate, and tax arenas thanks to 'a large number of barristers that have acted on well-known cases' and a selection of 'up-and-coming juniors'. James Fryer-Spedding focuses on traditional business and property work, including inheritance disputes, real property litigation, and partnership dissolution; the 'technically excellent' Andrew Clark is a go-to for a range of contentious Chancery matters; Richard Price has acted in defence of several contentious probate claims of late. In the tax sphere, Joanna Vicary was instructed as sole counsel for HMRC in relation to four joined appeals in respect of the revenue's decisions that a company and its directors had acted in breach of the Money Laundering Regulations.

COMMERCIAL LITIGATION

Leading Juniors (Tier 1)

James Fryer-Spedding - 9 St John Street: "Puts clients at their ease, and has the great skill of breaking down complicated situations into their easily comprehensible constituent parts, and is a highly effective advocate."

Leading Juniors (Tier 2)

Andrew Clark - 9 St John Street: "Strengths – technical expertise, ability to think rapidly on his feet, practical advice, rigorous attention to detail."

9 St John Street

Clients go to 9 St John Street for its members 'professionalism, dedication, and technical excellence'. An 'excellent all-rounder', James Fryer-Spedding was successful in establishing fraud and obtaining a judgment with indemnity costs for the claimant in Bovinex Ltd v Lomas & Others, a dispute over the price of sheep exported from the UK to Germany by the claimant's agents; the defendant claimed it was entitled to set off against the liability to pay the price for their costs and an independent alleged debt. Also in chambers, Andrew Clark is instructed in a multi-claimant action brought by 351 borrowers against a high-cost short-term lender under the unfair relationship provisions of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

CRIME

Leading Silks (Tier 3)

Jaime Hamilton QC - 9 St John Street: "A committed and excellent silk with a strong presence in court."

Leading Juniors (Tier 2)

Vanessa Thomson - 9 St John Street: "Particularly sought-after for cases involving young or vulnerable witnesses."

Geoff Whelan - Kenworthy's Chambers: "Very conscientious and good with clients."

9 St John Street

A set with 'many excellent practitioners at all levels', 9 St John Street covers a range of matters on either sides of cases in the Northern circuit. Jaime Hamilton QC represented a man whose plea of guilty to the manslaughter of his grandmother was accepted; the defendant was of a condition that he was persistently deluded into believing his grandmother had been replaced by a witch. Unled, Vanessa Thomson represented a boy (aged 17 at trial and 15 at the time of the alleged offence) who was acquitted of the rape of a younger teenager in a youth court trial involving issues of telephone record evidence.

SPORT

Leading Silk

Paul Gilroy QC - 9 St John Street: "Paul is extremely experienced and knowledgeable in the sports law world, in particular in relation to football related disputes. He is personable, responsive and pragmatic."

9 St John Street

'A leading light in football manager disputes' both in the UK, Europe, and the USA, Africa, and Asia, 9 St John Street's Paul Gilroy QC  has a renowned sports law practice, covering advisory work, litigation, and all regulatory aspects of professional football, rugby's union and league, cricket, tennis, cycling, boxing, athletics, weightlifting, gymnastics, and table tennis. Recent instructions of note include Keith Grindley v Everton FC where he successfully represented the Premiership club in its defence of a £5.25m claim for loss of opportunity relating to the commission on its sale. Gilroy QC also successfully represented Jose Mourinho in FA disciplinary proceedings alleging the manager brought the game into disrepute by swearing on television. In addition, he was recently instructed as an expert witness on English law in Cardiff City v Nantes FC, an appeal from  FIFA to CAS regarding the decision on transfer of liability arising from the death of footballer Emiliano Sala in an aeroplane crash.

PROPERTY AND CONSTRUCTION

Richard Price - 9 St John Street: "Richard is a delight to work with. He always makes himself available should you want to discuss anything with him and has a real ability to connect with the client. He is technically excellent and willing to fight hard to achieve the desire outcome but also always has an eye on what is commercially the best outcome for the client."