Award winning barristers’ chambers continues growth plans following arrival of new head of Clerking in 2022

Clerksroom Chambers, the leading national barristers’ chambers has recruited six new full member barristers taking the number of barristers in the chambers to 196 including seven KCs.

The new barrister joiners have followed the appointment of Matthew Wildish to the newly created position of Director of Clerking in June 2022 to work closely with the Clerksroom senior management team on the strategic development of the fast-growing chambers.

Matthew joined from 3 Paper Buildings (3PB) and four of the new barristers at Clerksroom (Stephen Harvey KC, Marc Brittain, Arthur Blake and Joseph Giret KC) are also tenants at 3PB.)

The latest new joiners are:

Stephen Harvey KC (called to the Bar 1979, QC 2006), Stephen specialises in Professional Regulation, Public & Administrative Law, Criminal Law – Dangerous Dogs Act Claims, Driving Offences and Assault.

Stephen has spent the last 15 years developing a direct access practice for professional clients and has expanded into the regulatory, compliance and professional disciplinary fields.  He has interests in witness familiarisation training and in lecturing on a variety of legal topics, particularly in relation to the role of the expert witness.

Prior to that, he was at the Attorney-General’s Chambers, where he spent 16 years prosecuting and defending serious criminal cases of all types. Before that he had a general common law practice which he developed into a heavyweight criminal practice.

Stephen is qualified to accept instructions directly from members of the public and professional clients under the Direct Public Access scheme. He is one of the few members of the bar authorised to conduct litigation and receives instructions from throughout the UK and abroad.

Memberships include Associate-The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, The Criminal Bar Association, The Proceeds of Crime Lawyers Association, The British Academy of Forensic Sciences and The Public Access Bar Association.

Dr Peter Feldschrieber (called to the Bar in 2000) has joined from 4 New Square and is dually qualified in law as a Barrister (LLB) and in medicine as a Clinical Pharmacologist and Pharmaceutical Physician MB BS FFPM.

Peter specialises in medical and healthcare law, including medical products liability, pharmaceutical and medical devices regulatory law, clinical negligence, and personal injury and medically related employment litigation.

He is a former Senior Medical Assessor and Special Litigation Coordinator to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, Department of Health. Prior to joining the MHRA, he held senior management positions in Glaxo, Boehringer, and as Medical Director Europe for Procter and Gamble.

Marc Brittain (called to the Bar in 1983). Marc is an experienced commercial and chancery practitioner whose broad litigation and advisory work covers most areas of the law normally litigated in the Chancery and Queens Bench Division, including company law and partnership, shareholder disputes, corporate and personal insolvency and breach of contract.

Marc has also developed a practice acting for lenders and in particular short-term bridging lenders and mortgage/civil fraud-related disputes. He recently acted for defendants in a number of complicated ‘land banking’ claims brought in the Chancery Division by the Financial Services Authority.

Arthur Blake (called to the Bar in 1988) Arthur has comprehensive experience in all areas of common law with particular emphasis on judicial review in the field of immigration and prison law. He also has extensive experience in criminal appeals.

He has regularly appeared in the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords.

Arthur also has extensive international experience- between 2005 and 2010 he acted exclusively for the former Qatari Secretary of State for Art Culture and Heritage, Sheikh Saud Bin Mohammed Bin Ali Al-Thani and was responsible for conducting negotiations between the Attorney General of Qatar and the Sheikh in respect of a multi-million-pound dispute.

Arthur has also acted in numerous cases before professional body disciplinary tribunals.

He was appointed as a fee-paid Immigration judge in 1995.

Joseph Giret KC (called to the Bar 1985, QC 2010). Joseph has 35 years of experience and is described in Court as an “Iron fist in a velvet glove”. His practice is a blend of advisory, drafting and court appearances through litigation. He is qualified under the Direct Public Access scheme and can accept instructions directly from members of the public and professional clients.

Joseph is recognised by the Legal 500 as a leading commercial silk. He is a specialist commercial law barrister with an emphasis on insolvency law and company law with particular experience advising and representing clients in a wide range of high-value commercial disputes, breach of contract, trademark disputes and franchise agreements. His experience also extends to advising and representing legal and financial professionals in liability claims.

Joseph enjoys a formidable reputation for his civil and commercial expertise, which includes Business and Commercial/Chancery Commercial/Company and Partnership disputes, Intellectual Property, Professional Discipline & Professional Negligence, Civil and Criminal Fraud investigations, Allegations including FCA instituted proceedings, Alternative Dispute Resolution and Mediation and Sports disputes of every type and nature.

He is a member of the Bar Council, the Association of Regulatory & Disciplinary Lawyers, the British Association of Sports Lawyers, the London Common Law and Commercial Bar Association, the Civil Mediation Council and the Society of Mediators

Sandra Murgatroyd (called to the Bar in 2022) is a dual-qualified barrister and solicitor with over twenty years of legal experience as a solicitor. Prior to coming to the Bar, Sandra was the founder and sole practitioner of a law firm and represented clients for privately paying criminal matters, property, family and primarily wills and probate matters. She has experience in drafting wills, will trusts and lasting powers of attorney and taking clients’ instructions in probate matters and dealing with the administration of their estate.

Sandra also has considerable experience in criminal cases- she was a Senior Crown Prosecutor employed by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and prosecuted cases ranging from motoring offences to burglary and robbery. Sandra also has experience in cases involving vulnerable victims in domestic violence-related offences and dealing with young persons in youth matters.

Director of Clerking Matthew Wildish said, “Clerksroom has been built from a standing start 21 years ago into an award-winning national chambers* and the leading provider of barristers & mediators in England & Wales, conducting on average over 1400 final hearings each month.

We believe this success lies in blending the traditional chambers model and the Bar’s unique independence with outstanding client care and innovative use of IT. We are not held back by the traditional chambers structure so we can innovate and find new ways of providing greater access to justice.”

He continued, “We have invested in the best technology and bespoke software development so that the depth of support we provide to our barristers together with our low overheads enable us to compete for the best talent against traditional chambers in the London court scene who have much high levels of rent and other liabilities.

At Clerksroom, we operate under a simple SLA where a Barrister takes on none of the liabilities.”

“I am delighted at how many new barristers have decided to join us at Clerksroom since my arrival last year. I believe Clerksroom offers the way forward, providing barristers and mediation services to lay and professional clients 24/7/365 both through traditional solicitor routes but also directly to the public through our growing public access services.

We are growing fast and will have other new appointments to announce shortly.”

*Clerksroom won the Most Innovative Firm of the Year award at the 2022 British Legal Technology Awards “which recognises law firms, barristers’ chambers, in-house legal departments or ALSPs that are driving the future of the delivery of legal services” .