Chancery: Commercial
UK Bar Guide 2025 : London (Bar)
Band 1
Email address
[email protected]Contact number
(020) 7242 6105Chambers Review
Serle Court is “a really top set home to some of the best people in the industry”. The set has an enviable bench of senior and junior barristers, and is regularly called upon to undertake the most complex cases in the market, such as Wong v Grand View, an USD18 billion case and the largest piece of litigation in Bermuda's history. Examples of recent work handled include Trina Solar, a Cayman Islands case concerning the de-listing of a Chinese controlled solar panel business from the New York Stock Exchange via the Cayman Islands merger provisions. Members of the set also appeared in MWB Management, a £25 million claim brought by MWB Management against its former directors for alleged breach of duty.
Nicholas Hockney and Daniel Wheeler are the practice directors.
Strengths
Provided by Chambers
"The clerks are flexible and very good to their clients. They are very reasonable and very friendly."
"The clerks are always responsive, constructive and helpful. Nick Hockney and Dan Wheeler are very supportive and understanding of the cost pressures we face as solicitors."
"The clerks led by Nick Hockney are excellent. They are always on hand to solve issues and ensure that work is delivered to clients on time."
"The clerks are flexible and very good to their clients. They are very reasonable and very friendly."
"The clerks are always responsive, constructive and helpful. Nick Hockney and Dan Wheeler are very supportive and understanding of the cost pressures we face as solicitors."
"The clerks led by Nick Hockney are excellent. They are always on hand to solve issues and ensure that work is delivered to clients on time."
Notable Practitioners
"Philip has supreme intellect. He is very understated but brilliant."
"Philip has a very gentle, avuncular style but is a really piercing, forensic advocate when he needs to be."
"He is a very elegant advocate."
"Adil is a fantastic junior. He is unbelievably hard-working and the product he produces is of a very, very high quality. He is highly tenacious and just absolutely excellent."
"Adil has outstanding analytical abilities and is a very clear thinker on complex matters."
"He is unbelievably bright, great at working in a team, uber responsive and someone who really gets stuck in. He is a star of the future."
"Elizabeth is somebody you can trust with your life. She is caring, kind and spectacular, and the embodiment of what's good about a barrister."
"Philip is a master of litigation, who just knows how everything all fits together. He gives concise advice that works when tested."
"A skilful and forceful advocate, he is ferociously bright and very dependable. He's one of the top chancery KCs of his generation."
"Philip is fierce, both intellectually and in court."
"Dakis is brilliant. He is intellectually excellent on the black letter law and his oral advocacy is engaging."
"Dakis is an incredibly strong advocate who handles the courtroom and clients with the same high degree of skill and grace."
"He is very good. Very formidable as an advocate, he's very sharp in his thinking and also a pleasure to work with."
"Daniel is incredibly thorough, can see points people don't think of and is quite quietly spoken and understated."
"He is an oracle of all things shareholder dispute. He is a great intellect whilst remaining a persuasive advocate."
"Daniel is my go-to leading counsel for shareholder disputes. He is also an effective advocate and a great cross-examiner."
"David is hyper analytical, very clever, very insightful and very industrious."
"David is down to earth, industrious, precise and helpful."
"Hugh is incredibly good at factual analysis. He shows very good attention to detail and is very effective at cross-examination."
"Hugh is bright, commercial, calm and really responsive."
"James is extremely competent and highly versatile. He spans the Chancery and commercial divide brilliantly."
"He is extremely bright and has a very good, understated but powerful advocacy style. He's both effective and persuasive."
"James has a good strategic mind and his written work is clear."
"He stands shoulder to shoulder with the solicitor and is really good with the clientfrom an emotional intelligence perspective."
"John is technically excellent and a real pleasure to deal with."
"Jonathan offers exceptional clarity of analysis. He is a tenacious advocate whose reputation speaks for itself – he's one of the pre-eminent Chancery advocates in the market."
"Jonathan is a very strong advocate, who is particularly effective in fending off attacks from opponents and maintaining the confidence of the court. He has laser focus."
"Jonathan is very clever and is a very pugnacious advocate."
"Rupert is an extremely polished and persuasive advocate, who is measured and effective. He is an extremely charming personality, who knows the law and procedure really well."
"Rupert is very smooth. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of cases and always has something interesting to say."
"Rupert is a cerebral barrister, who is incredibly impressive."
"Dan is exceptionally intelligent and shows very good commercial judgement. He is a very fine advocate, who knows the law extremely well and how to apply it."
"Dan is an excellent advocate. He is very persuasive but also great at analysing large amounts of information and distilling them into key issues."
"Dan is fantastic. He is really perceptive and fights the client's corner well. He's a brilliant lawyer, who is very creative."
"David's written advocacy is particularly good."
"He is an incredibly smart individual, who wipes the floor with the other side's experts and presents his case with absolute clarity."
"Dominic is highly capable and a very good advocate. He's quick and sharp-witted, and can absorb a huge amount of detail incredibly quickly."
"Dominic is a really skilled tactician and an impressive advocate."
"Dominic is an absolute stickler for details, who is one of a kind. He's a lawyer of fierce intellect."
"Gareth is thoughtful and structured in his thinking, and always ready to get stuck into a case."
"He is incredibly knowledgeable and knows the law inside out. He delivers his advice in a way that is easy to understand, and is particularly expert on law in foreign jurisdictions."
"Gareth is bright, hard-working and personable."
"He is one of the brightest silks out there and is very good at complex and often unique disputes."
"He is phenomenal and his ability to work from first principles is exceptional. His legal analysis is great and he always cuts through to the main points."
"Giles is very down to earth, very responsive, excellent with clients and not afraid to give decisive advice."
"Lance is extremely well prepared and always makes himself available. He works very hard and is both extremely knowledgeable and highly intellectually bright."
"An excellent, highly diligent advocate, who is always meticulously prepared."
"He brings real energy into court and is able to charm the judge. His written work is extremely thorough and clients understand him and react well to him."
"A very smooth and polished performer. He is a formidable opponent, who gives absolutely as good as he gets."
"Matthew is very commercially astute and thinks several steps ahead about how things will pan out. He provides outside-the-box thinking and is always very well prepared."
"Paul is incredibly intellectual and works highly efficiently. He turns papers around very quickly and offers clear, decisive advice."
"Paul is a superstar. He is brilliant, gifted and delightful to work with. A great operator, who is good with clients and very clever."
"He has a great breadth of expertise and experience. His written work is second to none and his efficiency in producing work is incredible."
"Simon is thorough and great to work with. His advocacy is very good, and by turns he can be measured or feisty as the situation demands."
"Sophie produces excellent and timely drafting, and further provides consistently well-reasoned and practical advice."
"Justin is smooth and persuasive. He is brilliant and his advocacy is really impressive."
"Justin is excellent. He is very responsive and very user-friendly."
"He is an outstanding senior junior, who is very user-friendly and very efficient. The quality of his written work is very high."
"Oliver is bright, thoughtful and efficient."
"Oliver is very clever, hard-working and personable."
"Stephanie is a very smart barrister, who handles all questions very well and is great on strategy."
"Stephanie is fantastic to work with. She has a great mind and is always eager to assist."
"Tim is very clever and very good on his feet – he has the ear of the court."