scales of justice Chambers
Offering Significant Legal Resources

This page was last updated on June 25th.
* indicates the sites which I think have the most extensive material.

  • Arden Chambers practise in four areas - Housing, Local Government, Property & Planning law. They have been voted the no 1 housing set for the last two years by Chambers & Partners UK Guide to the Legal Profession. They also have a number of barristers who undertake areas of public law. There are a series of "EFlashes" on the site, which are immediate responses to recent decision or legal developments. These can be sent direct to peoples' mailboxes or viewed on site.

  • 2 Bedford Row, the chambers of William Clegg QC, and previously of 3 Hare Court, is a specialist set of criminal law barristers, described in the Chambers Directory as "a leading set of specialist criminal practitioners at the forefront of defence and prosecution work in the South east and throughout the country as well as abroad". There are articles and case notes posted on the site (although not very up to date).

  • One Brick Court is a long established specialist barristers chambers based in the Temple, London. They are recognised as leaders in the fields of defamation, privacy and the law as it affects freedom of expression and the publication of false, damaging and intrusive information. There is a Media Law Update on the site, with reports of the latest cases and also articles written by members of chambers.

  • 4 Brick Court has an established reputation in Family Law and Immigration, Crime, Common Law, Employment and Licensing. There are a large number of articles on family law on the site and a monthly "update" on family law with summaries of recent cases, articles etc. One of the barristers, Jacqui Gilliatt has set up a blog on UK family law called Bloody relations ("Where there's a relative there's a bloody good argument to be had"). The site is also associated with a wiki called familylawfaqs which is still in its early stages and calling for others to contribute their knowledge as well as the original authors.

  • 1 Chancery Lane, the Chambers of Edward Faulks QC, is a leading civil common law set. Its practice areas are professional negligence, clinical negligence, personal injury, travel and property, contract and commercial, public and administrative and property. Members specialise in a number of fields including novel duty of care claims against public authorities, education negligence, claims involving police, human rights, conflicts of law, consumer law, health & safety, discrimination, social welfare law, undue influence claims and judicial review. There are presently 37 members of Chambers – 4 Queens Counsel and 33 juniors – several of whom also sit as Recorders and Arbitrators. Members of chambers are also qualified to act as Mediators. Articles, news items and briefings can be accessed on the 1 Chancery Lane website.

  • **One Crown Office Row, the Chambers of Philip Havers QC, is a long established leading civil set with particular strengths in clinical negligence (for which it is widely recognised as the leading set), other professional negligence, public, administrative and Human Rights Act law, judicial review, environmental law, personal injury, professional disciplinary, sports law, immigration and VAT. They provide a Human Rights Update on their site which is a database of 800 reports and commentaries on human rights dating back to 1998 with a weekly update co-ordinated by Chambers Academic Rosalind English. The cases are taken from domestic courts and the Strasbourg court involving human rights points that demonstrate the impact of the European Convention on domestic law and also explores the practical impact of these cases for practitioners. This resource is made available free for all to use (you have to register on site but it is not too intrusive). There is a good search engine and it is possible to sign up for a weekly update by email. For less experienced users, it includes a practical guide to the Convention and the Act; what are "Incorporated Rights", "Procedures and Remedies" and so on.

  • Crown Office Chambers is the largest civil common law set of chambers in London, with nearly 80 members. Areas of specialisation include construction and commercial work, insurance and reinsurance, contract, professional negligence, personal injury, health and safety, product liability and clinical negligence. There is a regular news section, a serious of regularly updated articles, and a section giving details of the seminars provided.

  • Devereux Chambers, a thriving and well-established set of 38 barristers, has a wide client base ranging from public companies, underwriters and brokers to local authorities, government departments, trades unions and individual litigants. There is a section of articles and case reports, particularly where members of chambers have been involved.

  • *Doughty Street Chambers web site offers information on Human Rights topics, including articles and comment on the act, European Convention material, international material, a news section, a good set of Human Rights links and information on the HRA Research Project (HRARP) which is an independent research initiative funded to monitor and evaluate the Human Rights Act 1998 and the enjoyment of human rights in the UK. They also offer an email updating service.

  • 5 Essex Court the Chambers of Simon Freeland QC, is recognized by the main legal directories as a leading set in police law and has a proud record of having been involved in nearly all of the police law landmark cases both in the domestic and the European courts. Members of Chambers haves also been involved in such high profile Public Inquiries as the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, the Marchioness Inquiry, the Hutton Inquiry, the Bichard Inquiry and the Morris Inquiry. Founded as a common law set in 1954 by the late Mr Justice Michael Eastham, 5 Essex Court became a civil set in October 2004. It specializes in police law, public law, employment and personal injury. There are case notes on the site from the cases in which members have acted (although not very up to date).

  • Farrars Building, the Chambers of Patrick Harrington QC, is a long established set of common law chambers working predominantly in the broad categorisation 'General Common Law'. Chambers is not formally divided into practice groups, but there are informal meetings of those practising in Personal Injury/Professional Negligence and Employment. There is a free update on employment topics which goes out to 2,000 subscribers every month and another on personal injury.

  • Fountain Court Chambers, the chambers of Anthony Boswood QC, is a long established and substantial set of commercial barristers' chambers, based in the Temple, London. There are 51 members of which 15 are silks. The site includes updates to a book published by Sweet and Maxwell called Commercial Court Procedure.

  • 8 Fountain Court, Birmingham is one of the smaller Common Law sets in Fountain Court with specialists in family work, personal injury, clinical negligence, commercial work and crime. There is a special immigration section with articles including an article on an introduction to immigration law and another on "Bundles - good practice guide". (Further articles have not however appeared).

  • *Garden Court Chambers have created a bank of specialist legal resources relevant to their practice areas (take "Resources" and then "legal Resources"). They have set up five major headings: Civil Legal Resources, Crime Legal Resources, Family Legal Resources, Housing Legal Resources and Immigration Legal Resources. Within each of these, they have set up around a dozen sub topics, for example, under Immigration Legal Resources, there are sections for Appeals & Judicial Review, Asylum & Refugee Law, Asylum Support (Community Care and Welfare Benefits), Deportation & Expulsion, and so on. They have then housed all of the resources (cases, relevant legislation and useful links) together under these headings. The site makes extensive use of the new Statute Law database, thus providing links to up-to-date versions of the legislation. The key reported cases cited in each section involving Garden Court Chambers make extensive use of BAILII. There are also links to the key official, government and European bodies relevant to each section as well as to Chambers' current awareness bulletins on Employment Law, Housing Law and Immigration Law and other internal reports and materials.

  • Garden Court North Chambers (The Chambers of Ian Macdonald QC), formed in 1996, is a progressive set of barristers with a strong commitment to publicly funded work and to offering representation to those disadvantaged by discrimination and inequality. The site offers a substantial number of case commentaries in their areas of work and also a series of news items on legal rulings and topics.

  • One Garden Court, Family Law Chambers, has 47 members. This is the largest set of Chambers in which all members specialise in family law. There are a number of articles on family law issues on the site (kept well up to date) as well as a pdf version of their newsletter which also includes articles on family law topics.

  • *Gray's Inn Tax Chambers provide specialist tax advice and tax appeal litigation. A tax and VAT case reporting service is offered on the site, which provides online digests of all recent tax cases in which members of chambers have appeared, with full transcripts in some cases. There are also articles and comprehensive links to other tax links worldwide.

  • Hardwicke Building, the Chambers of Nigel Jones QC, is a broad based civil set located in Lincoln’s Inn. The site includes customizable CVs for all members, newsletters on Property and Injury, articles and case reports. There are also several online "calculators" including Redundancy, Rents Arrears/Mesne Profits and a simple interest calculator between specified dates.

  • 1 Hare Court (previously 1 Mitre Court Buildings) the chambers of Bruce Blair QC, is a leading specialist set of chambers, all of whose members practise solely in the field of family law. The site offers case reports and lectures in family law and a number of data sections and "calculators" for tax, benefits and currency conversion. There is a good set of links to family law sites.

  • Keating Chambers, at 15 Essex Street, was founded in 1934 and is one of the country's leading specialist Barristers Chambers in construction and engineering related law. Members of Chambers are frequently involved in every aspect of dispute resolution, in all capacities, in litigation, arbitration, adjudication and alternative dispute resolution. There are regular case law review updates placed on the site prepared by the Professional Support Director, Professor Anthony Lavers.

  • *11 Kings Bench Walk, jointly headed by Eldred Tabachnik QC and James Goudie QC, was founded in 1981. Members specialise in employment law, public and administrative law and commercial law. The site has a "newsy" format and offers topical case notes, seminar papers and other articles written by members of Chambers in the areas of employment law, public law and European and human rights law. These are kept well up to date. Viewers can register on the site for a newsletter containing articles on cases of particular interest.

  • Maitland Chambers has been formed from 13 Old Square and 7 Stone Buildings. Both chambers were long-established sets practising commercial chancery law and considered to be leaders in their field. There are articles and case reports on the site.

  • The Murray Stable is one of the largest and the most innovative of the eleven stables of advocates forming Faculty Services Limited, the service company of the Scottish bar. It was formed in 1991 and now has 11 QCs and 40 junior counsel. Work areas include Commercial Law, Public Administrative Law, Employment Law, Planning & Construction Law, Reparation and professional negligence and Family Law. There are interesting sections on the site on how to instruct Scottish counsel for different people: a Scottish solicitor, a lawyer outside Scotland, a member of a Direct Access Group and a non-solicitor. There is an extensive series of articles on the site which are covered by a Creative Commons Licence, meaning broadly that the material can be quoted for non commercial purposes without permission or fee.

  • New Square Chambers, the chambers of Charles Purle QC, is the Chambers formed from the merger of 1 New Square and 12 New Square. The new set is now one of the largest in Lincoln's Inn, with silks and junior counsel covering the full range of chancery and commercial practice at every level of seniority. The site offers a large number of reports of cases where the members have been involved (not at present?), updates to Sweet & Maxwell's "Lewin on Trusts", updates to Sweet & Maxwell's "Minority Shareholders' Rights" and a free day calculator and interest calculator and rent/mesne profits calculator to help with interest calculations, procedural timetables and rent arrears calculations. There is also a perpetual calendar (which provides a calendar for any year which the user may choose) and a term date calculator (which provides the dates of the legal terms in England and Wales for any year).

  • 3 Paper Buildings, the Chambers of Michael Parroy QC, is one of the largest and oldest sets in the country, established in London, Bournemouth, Oxford and Winchester. There is a Personal Injury blog by Cyrus Katrak here with news and views on personal injury cases and legal developments.

  • Old Square Chambers - specialises in employment law, personal injury and medical negligence, environmental law and product liability. There are case reports and articles available in these areas.

  • 11 Old Square is a Chancery/Commercial set based in Lincoln's Inn. The set has a long and illustrious history but a very modern web site. There is particular expertise in Banking and Financial, Business, Charities and Associations, Company and Insolvency, Pensions, Private Client, Professional Negligence and Property. There are articles on the site.

  • *5RB (5 Raymond Buildings) is a leading set of barristers specialising in all areas of media and entertainment law, defamation and freedom of expression. Most of the leading cases in recent times have involved members of Chambers. In addition individual members of chambers have recognised specialisations in breach of confidence, intellectual property & copyright, data protection, restraint of trade, disputes in sport & pop music, human rights and multimedia, broadcasting & telecommunications law. There are over 300 case reports on the site covering Media and Defamation, Privacy and Data Protection, Freedom of Information, Sports Law, Intellectual Property and other areas. The case reports include very recent ones and in many cases, copies of the judgments are appended. You can also register on the site for email briefings with monthly round-ups of key issues and new cases covered on the site.

  • *3-4 South Square, Gray's Inn is a well-known set specialising in Commercial and Business law, with a particular emphasis on Insolvency and Banking. The site offers a monthly newsletter of case summaries, news and articles relating to commercial law developments called "3/4 Digest" in pdf format which can be downloaded from the site. Note the disclaimers on this site; not many sites do this.

  • *Thomas More Chambers, based in Lincoln's Inn Fields, is a substantial set of 27 tenants, supported by an energetic clerking team. There are six main areas of practice: Crime, Family, Employment, Personal Injury, Property and Public Law. There are newsletters available in Employment Law, Property Law and Public Law and an archive of all these maintained on the site.

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    If any chambers with resources on the site would like a signpost here (free of charge), please email me:

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