Garden Court Chambers
UK Bar Guide 2025
About
Heads of Chambers: Rajiv Menon KC, Stephen Simblet KC, Grace Brown
Director of Clerking: Colin Cook
Deputy Director of Clerking: Lisa O'Leary
Senior Crime Team Practice Managers: Tommy Bentley & Rebecca Meads
Senior Civil Liberties & Housing Practice Manager: Tim Hempsted
Civil Liberties & Housing Practice Manager: Joe Fraser
Senior Public Law and Social Welfare Practice Manager: Gavin John
Family Practice Manager: Kevin McCarthy
Immigration Practice Manager: Harriet Massie
THE CHAMBERS
Garden Court Chambers is a number one ranked barristers’ chambers committed to fighting injustice, defending human rights and upholding the rule of law. We advise solicitors, members of the public, organisations and businesses across the UK and around the world.
Our motto, ‘Do right, fear no one’, embodies our longstanding ethos: we are dedicated to fighting your corner, no matter how powerful the opponent.
Garden Court has a proud history of winning ground-breaking cases of constitutional importance. Our legal challenges have overturned great injustices in many landmark decisions.
Equally, our barristers fight hard for clients in countless cases that don’t hit the headlines, but are nonetheless vital for defending the rights of those we represent.
We are the largest barristers’ chambers in London with over 200 leading barristers, including 30 KCs. We offer clients an unrivalled breadth and depth of inter-disciplinary expertise.
Awards
Between 2015 and 2024, Garden Court’s awards include:
- Outstanding Contribution to Diversity & Inclusion, Finalist, Chambers Bar Awards 2024
- Family Law Silk of the Year, Finalist, Family Law Awards 2024
- Immigration Set of the Year, Winners, Legal 500 Bar Awards 2024
- Court of Protection Set of the Year, Winners, Legal 500 Bar Awards 2024
- Public Law Junior of the Year, Winner, Legal 500 Bar Awards 2024
- Clerk of the Year, Winner, Legal 500 Bar Awards 2024
- Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards (Winners in 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2019 and 2015 and finalists in 2017 and 2016)
- LGBTQ+ Champion of the Year Winner & shortlisted in DE&I: Rising Star of the Year, Legal 500 UK ESG Awards 2024
- John Collins Pro Bono Excellence Award & Young Pro Bono Barrister of the Year, Finalists, Bar Pro Bono Awards 2024
- Advocate of the Year (Highly Commended) & shortlisted for ‘Woman of the Year’, 'Race Equality Initiative of the Year' & 'Social Mobility Initiative of the Year', Women & Diversity Awards 2024
- 'Outstanding in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion' and 'Social Mobility Award', Winners in both categories,Women, Influence & Power in Law Awards 2024
- Immigration Set of the Year, Winners, Legal 500 Bar Awards 2023
- Human Rights Law Award, Winner, Forty Under 40 Awards 2023
- Halsbury Rule of Law Award, Highly Commended, LexisNexis Awards 2023
- Family Law Barrister of the Year, Finalist, Family Law Awards 2023
- Barrister of the Year, Finalist, Inspirational Women in Law Awards 2023
- Crime Set of the Year, Legal 500 Bar Awards (Finalists 2023, 2016 and 2017, winners 2015)
- Public Law Set of the Year, Winners, Legal 500 Awards 2022
- Outstanding Contribution to Diversity & Inclusion, Finalist, Chambers Bar Awards 2022
- BSN Lawyer of the Year, Winner, UK Diversity Legal Awards 2021
- Human Rights and Public Law Silk of the Year, Finalist, Chambers Bar Awards 2021 and 2019
- Crime Set of the Year, Finalists, Chambers Bar Awards 2021
- Outstanding Contribution to Diversity & Inclusion, Winners, Chambers Bar Awards 2020 and 2019
- Silk of the Year, Winner, Women in Law Awards 2020
- Crime Silk of the Year, Legal 500 Bar Awards 2019
- Public Law Set of the Year, Finalists, Legal 500 Awards 2017
- Human Rights and Public Law Set of the Year, Winners, Chambers UK Bar Awards 2016
- Outstanding Achievement Award, Winners, Modern Law Awards 2016
Types of work undertaken: Administrative and public law; civil liberties and human rights (claims against the police and public authorities; immigration detention civil claims; inquests and inquiries, and prison law); social welfare; Court of Protection; community care law, criminal defence; education; employment and discrimination law; environmental law; extradition law; family law (Children law, financial remedies and international family law); fraud; housing law; immigration law (asylum and human rights, business and private); mental health law; planning law; property law; protest rights, regulatory law; Romani Gypsy and Traveller rights; welfare benefits, children's rights law, commercial & business ethics.
Garden Court International provides advice, representation and training to clients worldwide on best practice in criminal law and procedure, international human rights and humanitarian law.
Garden Court Mediation provides an alternative dispute resolution service in all types of civil disputes.
Many Garden Court Chambers’ barristers are eligible to accept work directly from lay clients as part of the public access scheme.
- Laurie Fransman KC (1979) (KC-2000)
- Henry Blaxland KC (1978) (KC-2002)
- Icah Peart KC (1978) (KC-2002)
- Michael Turner KC (1981) (KC-2002)
- James Scobie KC (1984) (KC-2010)
- Rajiv Menon KC (1993) (KC-2011)
- Peter Wilcock KC (1988) (KC-2012)
- Stephanie Harrison KC (1991) (KC-2013)
- Marc Willers KC (1987) (KC-2014)
- Leslie Thomas KC (1988) (KC-2014)
- Michael Ivers KC (1991) (KC-2016)
- Clare Wade KC (1990) (KC-2018)
- Sonali Naik KC (1991) (KC-2018)
- Amanda Weston KC (1995) (KC-2018)
- David Emanuel KC (1996) (KC-2019)
- Keir Monteith KC (1994) (KC-2019)
- Hossein Zahir KC (2005) (KC-2019)
- Stephen Simblet KC (1991) (KC-2020)
- Allison Munroe KC (1992) (KC-2020)
- Anya Lewis KC (1997) (KC-2021)
- Sam Robinson KC (2002) (KC-2021)
- Nicola Braganza KC (1992) (KC-2022)
- Mark Gatley KC (1993) (KC-2022)
- Liz Davies KC (1994) (KC-2022)
- Duran Seddon KC (1994) (KC-2023)
- Edward Grieves KC (1995) (KC-2023)
- Irena Sabic KC (2002) (KC-2023)
- Joanne Cecil KC (2005) (KC-2024)
- Greg Ó Ceallaigh KC (2006) (KC-2024)
- Michael House (1972)
- Marguerite Russell (1972)
- Sarah Forster (1976)
- Patrick Roche (1977)
- Lalith de Kauwe (1978)
- Kathryn Cronin (1980)
- Michael Hall (1983)
- Stephen Cottle (1984)
- Nerida Harford-Bell (1984)
- Peter Jorro (1986)
- Amanda Meusz (1986)
- Christopher Williams (1988)
- Piers Mostyn (1989)
- Alistair Polson (1989)
- Alex Taylor-Camara (1989)
- Rebecca Chapman (1990)
- Edward Fitzpatrick (1990)
- Bethan Harris (1990)
- Carol Hawley (1990)
- Maggie Jones (1990)
- Malek Wan Daud (1991)
- Helen Curtis (1992)
- Valerie Easty (1992)
- Henry Drayton (1993)
- Kevin Gannon (1993)
- Abigail Holt (1993)
- Rajeev Thacker (1993)
- Navita Atreya (1994)
- David Jones (1994)
- Laura Williams (2017) (Solicitor: 1994)
- Amina Ahmed (1995)
- Grace Brown (1995)
- Gregor Ferguson (1995)
- Louise Hooper (1997)
- Patrick Lewis (1997)
- Sharon Love (1997)
- Roger Pezzani (1997)
- Lorna Cservenka (2021) (Solicitor: 1997)
- Jacqueline Vallejo (1997)
- Nick Wrack (1997)
- Adrian Berry (1998)
- Gordon Lee (1998)
- Katherine Marks (1998)
- Adrian Marshall Williams (1998)
- Helen Butcher (1999)
- Emma Favata (1999)
- Hugh Mullan (2019) (Solicitor: 1999)
- Hannah Rought-Brooks (1999)
- Ruby Selva (1999)
- Ronan Toal (1999)
- Bojana Asanovic (2000)
- Courtenay Barklem (2016) (Solicitor: 2000)
- Minka Braun (2000)
- Ed Elliott (2000)
- Catherine O’Donnell (2000)
- Sam Parham (2000)
- Marina Sergides (2000)
- Christian Wasunna (2000)
- Felicity Williams (2000)
- Kate Aubrey-Johnson (2001)
- Tim Baldwin (2001)
- Elizabeth Lambert (2001)
- Desmond Rutledge (2001)
- Sadat Sayeed (2001)
- Stella Harris (2002)
- Victoria Meads (2002)
- Maha Sardar (2002)
- Colin Yeo (2002)
- Jodie Blackstock (2003)
- Alex Rose (2003)
- Abigail Smith (2003)
- Bansi Soni (2003)
- Tom Wainwright (2003)
- Andrew Eaton (2004)
- Anna Hefford (2004)
- Daniel Jameson (2004)
- Olamide Ogunrinade (2004)
- Mark Symes (2004)
- William Tautz (2004)
- Lucie Wibberley (2005)
- Victoria Burgess (2006)
- Sarah Hemingway (2006)
- Stephen Lue (2006)
- Jennifer Twite (2006)
- Alex Grigg (2007)
- Kirsten Heaven (2007)
- Giles Newell (2007)
- Richard Reynolds (2007)
- Lee Sergent (2016) (Solicitor: 2007)
- Shahida Begum (2008)
- Will Bulman (2008)
- Helen Foot (2008)
- David Renton (2008)
- Hannah Wyatt (2008)
- Lyndsey Sambrooks-Wright (2008)
- Ali Bandegani (2009)
- Raza Halim (2009)
- Thalia Maragh (2009)
- Paul Powlesland (2009)
- Jacob Bindman (2010)
- Paul Clark (2010)
- Emma Fenn (2010)
- Russell Fraser (2010)
- Michael Goold (2010)
- Owen Greenhall (2010)
- Connor Johnston (2010)
- Gráinne Mellon (2010)
- Gerwyn Wise (2010)
- Alia Akram (2011)
- Emma Fitzsimons (2011)
- James Holmes (2011)
- Bijan Hoshi (2011)
- Taimour Lay (2011)
- Maria Moodie (2011)
- Catherine Oborne (2011)
- Michael Etienne (2012)
- Una Morris (2012)
- David Sellwood (2012)
- Nick Bano (2013)
- Sophie Caseley (2013)
- Stephen Clark (2013)
- Tom Copeland (2013)
- Natasha Shotunde (2013)
- Susan Wright (2013)
- Audrey Cherryl Mogan (2014)
- Ubah Dirie (2014)
- Sebastian Elgueta (2014)
- Eleanor Sibley (2014)
- Matthew Ahluwalia (2015)
- Twanieka Alcindor (2015)
- Shina Animashaun (2015)
- Ricky Blennerhassett (2015)
- Meredoc McMinn (2015)
- Jennifer Grehan (2016)
- Zehrah Hasan (2016)
- Franck Magennis (2016)
- Luke McLean (2017)
- Angharad Monk (2017)
- Ollie Persey (2017)
- Catherine Rose (2017)
- Oscar Davies (2018)
- Steven Galliver-Andrew (2018)
- Ella Gunn (2018)
- Nadia O’Mara (2018)
- Elena Papamichael (2021) (Solicitor: 2018)
- Gerard Pitt (2018)
- Navida Quadi (2018)
- Rachel Schon (2018)
- Tommy Seagull (2018)
- Acland Bryant (2019)
- Eva Doerr (2019)
- Maaha Elahi (2019)
- Rehab Jaffer (2019)
- Fatima Jichi (2019)
- Tim Jones (2019)
- Georgie Rea (2019)
- Isaac Ricca-Robinson (2020)
- Mark Robinson (2020)
- Alex Schymyck (2020)
- Will Hanson (2021)
- Harry Harris (2021)
- Hannah Lynes (2021)
- Josephine Fathers (2022)
- Alex Ryle (2022)
- Stephen Kamlish KC (1979) (KC-2003) *
- Peter Weatherby KC (1992) (KC-2012) *
- Anna Morris KC (2006) (KC-2023) *
- Richard Harvey (1971) *
- David Watkinson (1972) *
- Elizabeth Woodcraft (1980) *
- Mary McKeone (1986) *
- Sorrel Dixon (1987)*
- Alex Sharpe (1988) *
- Nicos Trimikliniotis (1993) *
- Dr Mary Malecka (1994) *
- Shereener Browne (1996) *
- Dr Susie Alegre (1997) *
- Paul Troop (1998) *
- Femi Omere (1999) *
- Kamran Choudhry (2001) *
- Sareta Ashraph (2002) *
- Smitah Shah (2002) *
- Leto Cariolou (2007) *
- Jo Wilding (2007) *
- James Mehigan (2008) *
- Dr Terry McGuinness (2009)*
- Dr Hannah Tonkin (2013) *
- Adrienne Copithorne (2018) *
- Dr Peter Dunne *
- Margaret Doyle *
- Professor Dimitrios Giannoulopoulos *
- * Associate Tenant
Ranked Offices
Provided by Garden Court Chambers
- London57-60 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, Greater London, UK, WC2A 3LJ
- Web: www.gardencourtchambers.co.uk
- Tel: (020) 7993 7600
- Fax: (020) 7993 7700
- View ranked office
Garden Court Chambers rankings