Farrhat Arshad
Garden Court North
Year of call: 1998. Like many London-based criminal juniors, Oxford and LSE
graduate Farrhat Arshad became frustrated at the lack of big cases coming
her way. So, employing inverse Dick Whittington tactics, she upped sticks to
Garden Court North, a civil liberties set in Manchester. The move has
clearly worked. Since arriving up north, the “skilful and feisty” Arshad has
found the streets paved with the kind of high profile cases that she could
only dream of as a young barrister in the capital. Highlights include acting
for Linda Walker, the teacher who fired an air pistol at a group of youths;
successfully defending a woman accused of falsely imprisoning her
daughter-in-law; and representing Fathers for Justice members in appeals
against their convictions. Arshad also regularly undertakes crime-related
judicial review work, prison law hearings and civil actions against the
police. She is currently acting for a defendant in one of the biggest ever
cannabis importation cases in the UK.
Kelyn Bacon
Brick Court
Year of call: 1998. Only seven years out of pupillage, Brick Court European
law specialist Kelyn Bacon is already a Luxembourg regular, appearing in the
European Court of First Instance on nine separate occasions. Praised for her
clear, unfussy style, the Oxford and European University Institute graduate
is increasingly being sought out to act unaccompanied on major cases.
Earlier this year, she appeared unled in support of Microsoft in its dispute
with the European Commission, widely regarded to be the biggest competition
case of the decade. “The fact that she was chosen for such a case says it
all,” explains Ian Moyler, her senior clerk. On the domestic front, Bacon
also has a thriving commercial, public and competition practice. Recently,
she appeared for Adidas in a dispute with the lawn tennis association over
the size of its famous three stripe logo on shirts. And she is acting as
part of the team representing Sky in an action over abuse of its position in
the pay-TV market brought by Virgin Media.
Joanne Clement
11 King's Bench Walk
Year of call: 2002. Joanne Clement’s journey from Ferndale Comprehensive
school in Rhondda-Cyon-Taff to leading junior barrister has taken her to
Oxford (where she obtained first class honours and a distinction in the
BCL), to the House of Lords (where she worked as a judicial assistant to the
law lords for a year) and even New Zealand (where she assisted in the New
Zealand Supreme Court). Clement has established herself at the head of the
pack of up-and-coming public and employment law specialists with appearances
in high-profile judicial reviews such as the junior doctors' challenge to
the MTAS recruitment system, and representing the Welsh Assembly over its
decision to slaughter "Shambo" the sacred bull. She also acted on behalf of
the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in the House of Lords over the
question of witness anonymity in public inquiries.
William Edwards
3 Verulam Buildings
Year of call: 2002. “A totally unflappable bloke who handles pressure
brilliantly.” That's how Nicholas Hill, the senior clerk at 3 Verulam
Buildings, describes William Edwards. “He’s got this calmness and maturity
that you rarely see in barristers his age," Hill continues. "When he gets a
late brief with very little time to prepare, he just trusts himself to do
what he can in the circumstances.” This cool style has seen Edwards
called upon to assist in some heavyweight banking cases: recently, he acted
for the Central Bank of Ecuador in a Privy Council appeal to the Court of
Appeal of the Bahamas. He also successfully defended Abbey National against
an action brought under the Data Protection Act. Alongside his litigation
work, the Cambridge graduate is developing a flourishing advisory practice.
At the moment he is assisting a company with disclosure of documents under
the Freedom of Information Act and advising another large organisation on
its regulatory structure.
Shaheed Fatima
Blackstone Chambers
Year of call: 2001. Most young barristers only get to read about the kind of
glamorous international human rights cases that Shaheed Fatima has spent the
last few years regularly instructed on. Among a range of high profile
involvements, the Blackstone junior, who wears the Muslim hijab, was part of
the team that represented the families of Iraqi civilians who died in
British custody in Basra. She has also acted in a European Court of Human
Rights case concerning the displacement of Greeks from northern Cyprus.
Accessible but determined, Fatima - who was educated at Glasgow, Oxford and
Harvard - has also published a book on the use of international law in
domestic courts. At present, she is acting in two cases pending before the
House of Lords. She is representing Justice and Liberty over the
applicability of various international treaties to internment by British
armed forces in Iraq; and assisting Animal Defenders International on the
legality of prohibition of political advertising on television.
James Goldsmith
One Essex Court
Year of call: 2002. It must be difficult to keep your feet on the ground if
you're James Goldsmith, but colleagues praise him as a "down to earth team
player". It seems the One Essex court junior - the son of former
Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith, QC - has the human touch to go with the
formidable intelligence and good looks. Specialising in privilege,
confidentiality and conflict of interest, Goldsmith has carved out a
burgeoning reputation through appearances as junior counsel in a series of
major commercial disputes: obtaining an injunction preventing Freshfields
from acting for Phillip Green in the Marks and Spencers takeover, for
example, and successfully representing the US Justice Department in an
application relating to a multi-billion dollar claim against several tobacco
companies. The Westminster- and Cambridge-educated barrister is preparing to
act in a civil case involving the world’s largest hazelnut fraud, and also
working on another case involving a shareholder dispute over alleged secret
profits made in breach of fiduciary duty.
Colleen Hanley
20 Essex Street
Year of call: 2003. When it comes to competition law, Colleen Hanley is well
ahead of the - er - competition. The 20 Essex Street junior has recently
appeared in a range of major European Commission cases and advised the
Competition Commission on the Sportech-Vernons merger. She is currently
undertaking a six-week Inner Temple Pegasus scholarship in the antitrust
department of Morgan Lewis, a Washington law firm. Alongside competition
law, the “vivacious and charming” European University Institute and Oxford
graduate (where she scored the second highest first in her year) has
expertise in shipping and human rights law. She was recently involved in
advising a ship operating company on a toxic waste disaster in the Ivory
Coast, for which she was able to draw upon her experiences working in-house
with the United Nations Environment Programme in Geneva and the Nordisk
Shipowners’ Defence Club in Oslo. She also played a key role as junior
counsel in a House of Lords case relating to the inadmissibility of evidence
obtained by torture. For that she bagged The Lawyer magazine’s Pro Bono
Activity of the Year award in the process.
Jonathan Hilliard
Wilberforce Chambers
Year of call: 2003. First-class Oxbridge degrees are no big deal at the top
end of the Bar. So to stand out academically you’ve got to do something
seriously special. Like finish top in your year, in both undergraduate and
postgraduate degrees. Jonathan Hilliard’s remarkable double isn’t the only
thing that sets him out from the junior Chancery barrister crowd. The
Wilberforce Chambers tenant also has great people skills and an ability to
put complex ideas into straightforward language, according to colleagues. In
other words, he has it all. No wonder he's in demand. Of late, he has acted
alongside Brian Green, QC, in the world’s biggest ever arbitration: a
dispute relating to re-nationalisation of the Russian Oil industry, valued
at $50 billion. He also assisted in a large pensions case dealing with equal
treatment for men and women policy holders. However, it looks like he may
have met his match - currently Hilliard is acting for Leeds United, the beleaguered
football club, in its bid to have a fifteen point penalty imposed by the
league overturned.
David Mumford
Maitland Chambers
Year of call: 2000. In 2005, ex-Equitable Life managing director Roy Ranson,
finding himself up against the wall, hired 29-year-old David Mumford to
represent him as the insurance company waged a £3.3 billion action against
its former board. Acting along against some of the most senior silks in the
country, Mumford emerged victorious, with a senior solicitor on the case
describing him as "the best brain in the room". Cue the music and credits:
this was like real life Hollywood. Mumford converted to law after reading
classics at Oxford, picking up an impressive haul of academic prizes and
scholarships on the way. After a string of top-drawer performances, the
Maitland Chambers commercial and chancery junior now has the big City firms
battling it out for his services. Lately, he has been junior counsel for
PricewaterhouseCoopers in a professional negligence claim worth tens of
millions of pounds, and preparing to appear in a breach of trust case due to
start early next year.
Jessica Stephens
Keating Chambers
Year of call: 2001. After graduating from the University of Western Australia,
Jessica Stephens followed the Antipodean trail and headed to the UK to look
for bar work. Sorry, that should be Bar work. Armed with a first class
honours degree and a CV boasting a stint as a judicial assistant in the
Federal Court of Australia, it didn’t take long for English-born Stephens to
net a pupillage at Keating Chambers, a specialist construction set. Six
years later, there are few more popular construction juniors around.
Recently, she acted in an international arbitration dispute involving Hong
Kong’s Chek Lap Kok international airport, and assisted Canary Wharf
Contractors on various claims arising from the collapse of a tower crane. A
big hit with clients, Stephens is also writing her second book for the Royal
Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
