39 Essex Chambers

Heads of Chambers: Charlie Cory-Wright KC & Richard Harwood OBE KC

Chief Executive Officer & Director of Clerking: Lindsay Scott

Tenants: 214

THE CHAMBERS 39 Essex Chambers is a long established set with 57 Kings Counsel and 158 juniors. With offices in London, Manchester, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, the set offers substantial expertise in almost every aspect of civil liability, commercial, construction and engineering, commercial fraud, financial services, costs and litigation funding, aviation, energy, planning, environmental and property, personal injury and clinical negligence, public, regulatory and disciplinary law, shipping and alternative dispute resolution. Members of Chambers have vast experience in all courts and tribunals, in planning and other public inquiries and domestic and international arbitrations. Members have participated in many significant investigations before Parliamentary Select Committees, and Chambers has 28 members on the Attorney General’s Panel of Counsel, who are instructed on behalf of the Crown. Members also undertake pro bono work for public interest organisations.

WORK UNDERTAKEN 

Administrative & Public: Judicial review and public law, (including civil liberties and human rights); education; local authorities; health trusts; mental health; community care; court of protection; housing; immigration; VAT and excise.

Commercial: Insurance and reinsurance, commodities and derivatives, funding disputes, banking, mergers and acquisitions, goods, insolvency, company law, financial services, shipping, professional negligence and professional indemnity work for auditors, legal advisors and international commercial arbitration.

Construction & Engineering: Litigation and related claims (including professional negligence and indemnity work); acting for employers; contractors; subcontractors and professional advisors. Members act as advocates, mediators and arbitrators in the United Kingdom, the EU and worldwide.

Costs: Members of Chambers appear in every court and tribunal where costs issues arise. Members also carry out advisory work on potential funding arrangements and in drafting cost documentation including CFAs, CCFA and legal expenses insurance policies.

Employment: An emphasis is on public law-related work, discrimination, restrictive covenants, wrongful dismissal and breach of fiduciary duties.

Energy: Unique ability to cover corporate, construction, and engineering projects, as well as environmental, planning, public and regulatory work in the electricity, nuclear, oil and gas and renewable sectors.

Entertainment & Sports: Entertainment and media-related work includes performers’ contracts, passingoff, breach of confidence, film and management agreements, and broadcasting regulations. Sports-related work includes public liability of sports clubs for acts of their players, employer’s liability, disciplinary tribunals, disputes concerning control of clubs, transfer fee disputes, EU free movement and other employment issues.

European: EU law before domestic and EU courts, including competition, discrimination and equality law, public procurement, free movement, state aids and milk quotas.

Human Rights: Members regularly appear in domestic Human Rights Act cases and also have extensive experience as advocates before the European Court of Human Rights and in courts overseas. Members have appeared in leading cases with a human rights dimension in diverse fields including: civil liberties, commercial law, healthcare, housing, immigration, local government, mental health, community care, planning, police and prisoners.

Personal Injury & Clinical Negligence: Sea, air and crowd disasters; group actions; industrial disease; sports injuries; injuries of maximum severity; pharmaceuticals; product liability and high profile and complex matters, ranging from sensitive consent-to-treatment cases to those involving serious disability and death.

Planning, Environmental & Property: Compulsory purchase, contaminated land, civil liability, environmental regulation, EU law and human rights, health and safety and product liability, insurance, international environmental law, licensing, marine environment, parliamentary affairs, planning law, nuisance and rating.

Public Inquiries: Members of Chambers have been instructed in most of the major public inquiries over the past ten years, including BSE, the King’s Cross fire and more recently, the Bristol Royal Infirmary, Victoria Climbié, the Saville Inquiry, the Hutton Inquiry, Hillsborough, the Leveson Inquiry and the Bristol Review.

Regulatory & Disciplinary: Appearing in tribunals and hearings; carrying out advisory work across the entire medical sphere; appearing before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (and in challenges to interventions by the Law Society); social care; education; financial services; broadcasting; communications and media; sport; transport, health and safety; buildings and housing; local government standards and licensing.

INTERNATIONAL 39 Essex Chambers has a number of members who have been called to the Bars of various international and offshore jurisdictions including California, France, Hong Kong, New South Wales, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago and the British Virgin Islands. Chambers also has experience of acting in disputes in various foreign jurisdictions including Western and Central Europe, Africa, the USA, India, China and Hong Kong SAR, Malaysia, Singapore, the Middle East and the Caribbean.