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Nick Marston
- Call: 1975
Nick is a qualified arbitrator with the CIArb, and has recently retired as a Judge. Called to the Bar in 1975, Nick practised in family law at St John’s Chambers in 1990, where he was Head of the...

Robin Neill
- Call: 1979
Robin is a highly experienced lawyer, bringing with him the twin benefits of having worked in an international law firm and practising at the Bar in the field of domestic and international construction projects and trade disputes. He...

Richard Stead
- Call: 1979
One of Chambers’ most senior barristers, Richard has an extensive practice which encompasses personal injury, clinical negligence, professional negligence claims and property damage matters, including a number of high profile cases. Richard’s practice is also complemented by his...

Peter Wadsley
- Call: 1984
Peter specialises in planning, local government and environment law. He heads the Public & Administrative Law Practice Group at St John’s Chambers. He also has extensive experience in public rights of way inquiries and associated topics, as well...

Charles Auld
- Call: 1980
Charles has specialised in land-related matters for over 30 years. He has great experience of boundary litigation, restrictive covenants, easements and public rights of way. He regularly appears in Court; in the First-tier Tribunal (especially on land registration...

John Blackmore
- Call: 1983
John is a specialist commercial litigator with a wide practice in commercial dispute resolution, company law, shareholder matters, partnership disputes, civil fraud, restraint of trade, intellectual property law and professional negligence. He also established the Commercial and Chancery...

Susan Hunter
- Call: 1985
Head of Chambers, Susan Hunter has over 30 years’ experience at all court levels. She has experience ranging from the modest asset case where the impact of the outcome may be very significant (for example one spouse claiming...

Nick Miller
- Call: 1994
Nick specialises exclusively in divorce and financial remedy cases. He has an in-depth knowledge and expertise of the issues and the law, including consideration of pensions and actuarial issues along with tax and commercial considerations. Prior to joining the...

John Sharples
- Call: 1992
John is a very experienced adviser and advocate in real estate- and chancery litigation, an area in which he has specialised for over 25 years. John is ranked in Band 1 for real estate litigation and chancery in...

Dianne Martin
- Call: 1992
Dianne is a specialist family barrister undertaking all aspects of Children Act work, family finance and cohabitation. She is also a family arbitrator with CIArb. Dianne deals with the consequences of marriage breakdown, pre-nuptial settlements, divorce and the...

Prof Roy Light
- Call: 1992
Roy accepts instructions in all areas of licensing. He is highly commended for his advocacy, legal knowledge, negotiating skills and approachable client-friendly manner. He acts for individuals and small businesses as well as public authorities and international corporations...

Andrew McLaughlin
- Call: 1993
Andrew is a leading junior in the fields of personal injury and industrial disease, consistently recommended in Chambers UK and Legal 500 for the past 20 years, whose practice takes him to all parts of the country but...

Timothy Leader
- Call: 1994
Tim specialises in planning, compulsory purchase, local government and commercial law. He appears regularly on behalf of local planning authorities and developers in planning appeals, Judicial Review, statutory challenges of appeal decisions, and development plans, especially those dealing...

James Pearce-Smith
- Call: 2002
James, a former solicitor, is an experienced litigator specialising in commercial and property disputes. His practice includes company and partnership disputes, construction disputes and insolvency, and he is often instructed in complex disputes which span more than one...

Sarah Phillimore
- Call: 1994
Sarah was called to the Bar in 1994 and since 1999 has worked as a specialist family lawyer in Chambers in London and Bristol. She has interest and experience in care proceedings, private law children applications and Court...

Jacqueline Humphreys
- Call: 1994
Jacqueline is a confident and highly competent advocate, specialising in the financial aspects of relationship breakdown. She rejoined the St John’s Chambers Family & Divorce team from a chambers in Birmingham where she had an enviable reputation for...

John Dickinson
- Call: 1995
John is a barrister specialising in contentious probate, Court of Protection, all areas of real estate work including conveyancing disputes, boundaries and easements, landlord & tenant, partnership, banking, pensions, insolvency, company law and shareholder disputes. John’s commercial practice...

Judi Evans
- Call: 1996
Judi is Head of our Family & Divorce team, and practises across public and private family law, with particular expertise in cases of abduction and the international relocation of children. In complex public law cases she is involved in multiple...

Matthew O'Regan
- Call: 2015
Matthew, a former Solicitor, is a specialist competition and regulatory lawyer. He was Called to the Bar and joined St John’s Chambers in 2015, having previously been a Partner in the Competition Group of Burges Salmon LLP. He...

Matthew White
- Call: 1997
Matthew deals with all aspects of personal injury litigation for both claimants and defendants. He aims for a roughly equal spilt between claimant and defendant work, taking the view that it makes for a more rounded and better...

Julian Horne
- Call: 1998
Julian works in all aspects of personal injury law including employers’ and public liability, industrial disease, road traffic accidents (including fraud work), product liability, fatal accidents including inquests, and costs. He is more commonly instructed by defendants and...

Alex Troup
- Call: 1998
Alex is ranked as the only ‘star individual’ on the Western Circuit in chancery matters by Chambers UK and is Head of our Wills & Trusts team. For the second year running he has been identified as the...

Justin Valentine
- Call: 1999
Justin specialises in clinical negligence and personal injury litigation acting almost exclusively for claimants. He undertakes all aspects of clinical negligence work with a particular focus on: Birth injury and neo-natal claims (hypoglycaemic and hypoxic injury) Cauda equina...

Abigail Bond
- Call: 1999
Abigail specialises in law involving children and is Head of the Children Law team. She has considerable experience of care proceedings in which she represents local authorities, parents and children. She has experience in a wide range of...

Delia Thornton
- Call: 1999
Delia is a specialist family law barrister and mediator. She has a particular interest in care proceedings where she represents parents, and guardians. Her work load involves Fact-Finding hearings concerning allegations of domestic violence, sexual abuse and non-accidental...

Zahid Hussain
- Call: 2001
Zahid is an experienced family law barrister with a practice encompassing all areas of Children Law. He frequently represents parents, family members, Guardians, the Official Solicitor and local authority’s in care proceedings at all tiers of Court across the South West, often...

Rachel Russell
- Call: 2001
Rachel is Head of our Personal Injury team, and highly respected both in Chambers and on circuit. She was recently appointed Recorder on the Western Circuit sitting in the civil jurisdiction. Rachel has gained a reputation for her...

Harry Spurr
- Call: 2001
Harry is a specialist environmental and planning lawyer and an experienced commercial mediator. Known for his expertise in environmental, planning and other aspects of regulatory law concerning land (such as highways, water, towns and village greens and statutory...

Caroline Elford
- Call: 2002
Caroline is a specialist family barrister who practises in all areas of family law with a strong emphasis on care proceedings. Her practice in this area has given her a detailed knowledge of the appropriate procedural law and...

Lucy Reed
- Call: 2002
Lucy is a family law specialist and has practised in family law throughout her professional career. Her practice now spans all areas of family law with a particular emphasis on children work. She often acts in complex, multi-party or high...

Julia Belyavin
- Call: 2003
Julia specialises in children law, both public law and private law cases. Her public law practice focuses on complex care cases. Recent instructions have included cases where the principle allegations were sexual abuse and/or inflicted injuries, as well...

Zoë Saunders
- Call: 2003
Zoë is a specialist family law barrister, and completed her pupillage with Falcon Chambers before moving to Bristol to practice family law in October 2004. This background gives her particular insight into cases involving chancery law issues. Zoë...

Rebecca Taylor
- Call: 2003
Rebecca is an experienced civil practitioner specialising in construction and personal injury. She is a member of PIBA, ACIArb, a TECBAR adjudicator and an accredited Civil Mediator. Rebecca acts for both claimants and defendants in all aspects of...

Christopher Jones
- Call: 2004
Christopher is a chancery and commercial specialist with particular emphasis on trust litigation and advice, contentious and non-contentious probate applications, real property litigation (particularly in relation to easements, restrictive covenants and contracts for the sale of land) and...

Michael Clarke
- Call: 2009
Michael is a commercial and chancery barrister specialising in: Wills, trusts, probate and inheritance (including private client taxation and TOLATA) Professional negligence in any of his areas of expertise including in relation to negligent tax advice Commercial and...

Darren Lewis
- Call: 2004
Darren specialises in personal injury and employment matters, and was called to the Bar in 2004. He is a leading junior on civil fraud, fundamental dishonesty, S57 defences as well as committal for contempt of court. He has...

Jody Atkinson
- Call: 2005
Jody is described in Chambers UK as “a very bright guy of singular ability with a massive intellect”. Jody is a specialist private client barrister, and is therefore a member of both the wills, trusts & tax and...

Louise Asprey
- Call: 2007
Louise has many years of experience representing both claimants and defendants in personal injury and clinical negligence matters. She regularly deals with claims arising out of road traffic accidents and is experienced in dealing with claims brought under...

Patrick West
- Call: 2007
Patrick is personal injury barrister who is regularly instructed in hearings on the fast and multi-track. He also advises on liability and quantum and undertakes the drafting of schedules and counter schedules. He has successfully conducted and defended...

Jimmy Barber
- Call: 2008
Jimmy is a specialist practitioner in the fields of clinical negligence, personal injury and industrial disease. He joined St John’s Chambers in September 2015 having previously practised in London. In clinical negligence, Jimmy has experience of cases involving...

Olivia Pike
- Call: 2008
Olivia is a family law barrister, specialising in public and private law cases concerning children. She was called to the Bar in 2008 and practised in Cardiff, before joining St John’s Chambers in 2018. Olivia represents local authorities,...

James Marwick
- Call: 2008
James is an experienced personal injury and clinical negligence barrister with sub-specialisms in costs and professional negligence. He is ranked in The Legal 500 in costs (Tier 1), clinical negligence and personal injury. He acts for both claimants...

Ben Handy
- Call: 2008
Chambers’ Head of Pupillage, Ben is an experienced personal injury barrister specialising in high value litigation, regularly involving claims of £1m or more. He is recommended by both Chambers UK and the Legal 500, in which it is...

Oliver Wooding
- Call: 2009
Oliver has a specialist practice that focuses on wills and trusts, and real estate matters, and the overlap between them. He is regularly instructed as an advocate, advisor, and mediator in a wide range of disputes. Recent cases...

Richard Norman
- Call: 2009
Richard is a family law specialist with particular expertise in financial remedies (Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 and Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989) as well as complex private law disputes concerning children. He has a busy Court...

Natasha Dzameh
- Call: 2010
Natasha is consistently ranked as a leading junior in Chambers UK and Legal 500 and is often instructed as sole counsel in high value, multifaceted litigation. She also has experience of acting as junior to senior counsel on...

Charlie Newington-Bridges
- Call: 2011
Charlie undertakes a wide range of commercial and chancery work in litigation, arbitration and mediation. He has experience of substantial, complex and high-value litigation in the High Court and the Court of Appeal. He also has wide experience...

James Hughes
- Call: 2011
James specialises in the following areas of work: Personal injury Clinical negligence Data protection James is a specialist personal injury and clinical negligence practitioner. He has extensive experience across the full spectrum of such work, including public and...

Adam Boyle
- Call: 2012
Adam is a specialist Commercial and Chancery barrister. His practice covers a wide range of areas including real estate work, court of protection matters, wills, trusts & probate cases, commercial disputes and agricultural law. At the beginning of...

Jack Harris
- Call: 2012
Jack is an up and coming junior in Chambers UK 2018 as a specialist family barrister. He has a busy court-based practice and appears in courts across the Western Circuit and further afield. Jack accepts instructions in all...

Oliver Riley
- Call: 2013
Oliver is a family barrister and accepts instructions in all areas of family law, including: Financial Remedy proceedings Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 disputes Schedule 1 Children Act 1989 applications Public and private law...

Asha Groves
- Call: 2013
Asha has a busy family law practice with a particular focus on children public and private Law. Her expertise is strengthened by having worked in the Children’s Services Legal Department of a Local Authority in the South West prior...

Rachel Segal
- Call: 2013
Rachel specialises in personal injury and clinical negligence and is ranked as a leading junior in The Legal 500. She is frequently instructed to advise and represent parties on both sides of relief from sanctions applications across the...

Robert Mills
- Call: 2014
Robert is a clinical negligence specialist, acting for both claimants and defendants. He has experience of litigation across a wide range of areas of medicine, with a particular interest in obstetrics, brain injuries, oncology, orthopaedics and cardiology. He...

Bethany Scarsbrook
- Call: 2014
Bethany has developed a busy and thriving junior practice as a specialist family law barrister. She accepts instructions in all aspects of family law including: Financial Remedy Proceedings Schedule 1 Children Act 1989 Private law Children Act matters...

Ryan Morgan
- Call: 2017
Ryan specialises in all areas of family law with a particular interest in care proceedings. He was called to the Bar in 2017 and practised in another Bristol Chambers, before joining St John’s Chambers in 2019. Ryan often...

Joss Knight
- Call: 2014
Joss has a varied commercial and chancery practice spanning commercial/contractual disputes, real estate litigation, and wills & trusts matters. Recent cases where he has appeared as sole counsel include: A multi-track trial concerning a claim for a resulting and/or constructive trust...

Annie Sampson
- Call: 2015
Annie’s broad commercial and chancery practice encompasses wills and trusts work, real estate matters, commercial disputes, professional negligence claims and insolvency proceedings. Annie also has experience of acting at all stages of disputes, including pre-litigation, on interim applications,...

Brittany Pearce
- Call: 2015
Brittany has recently joined the Chancery team, formerly a barrister at Guildhall Chambers. She is ranked as a ‘rising star’ in tier 1 for The Legal 500 guide in her specialist areas, and is described as an “effective...

Sophie Smith-Holland
- Call: 2015
Sophie joins Chambers after the successful completion of her specialist family pupillage under the supervision of Judi Evans (Head of Family & Divorce team) and Andrew Commins. Sophie is building a busy practice in the following areas: Children...

Harriet Dudbridge
- Call: 2015
Harriet has joined chambers after her completion of pupillage under the supervision of Susan Hunter. Harriet joins St John’s Chambers as a Justice First Fellow, a scheme devised by the Legal Education Foundation for the next generation of...

Sophie Howard
- Call: 2016
Sophie is a member of the Personal Injury, Clinical Negligence, and Inquest teams. She joined Chambers in May 2022 after completing a specialist third six pupillage under the supervision of Jimmy Barber. Having successfully completed a common law...

Daniel Soar
- Call: 2016
Daniel has an established chancery and commercial practice, covering the traditional areas of probate, property, trusts and breach of contract, appearing regularly in the County Court, First-Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) and the High Court. As part of his...

Jonathan Lindfield
- Call: 2017
Jonathan is a sought-after personal injury barrister, acting for both claimants and defendants. His practice covers all aspects of personal injury work including Highways Act, public liability, employers’ liability, Animals Act, product liability, road traffic accidents and credit...

Georgina Thompson
- Call: 2017
Georgina is a commercial and chancery practitioner and a qualified mediator. She accepts instructions in all of the main areas of commercial and chancery law. Her main areas of expertise lie in commercial litigation, insolvency matters and contentious...

Rhodri Jones
- Call: 2017
Rhodri’s practice focusses on clinical negligence, inquests, and personal injury. Rhodri specialises in clinical negligence, acting for both claimants and defendants. Before retraining as a barrister Rhodri practiced as a medical doctor for 18 years, principally in A&E...

Lauren Karmel
- Call: 2017
Lauren joined Chambers in April 2022 following the successful completion of her pupillage under the supervision of Justin Valentine. She accepts instructions in all aspects of clinical negligence, inquests and personal injury, and acts in small claims hearings,...

Sarah Fincham
- Call: 2018
Sarah has recently joined the Family & Divorce team, formerly a barrister at Four Brick Court where she completed her pupillage and established her practice before returning to the west country, where she grew up. She specialises in...

Dominik Morton
- Call: 2018
Dominik has recently joined St John’s Chambers Family & Divorce team, formerly a barrister at Queen Square Chambers. Dominik is praised by many of his lay and professional clients as well as members of the judiciary for his...

David Forster
- Call: 2018
David specialises in personal injury and clinical negligence law, with a busy fast-track practice. He is frequently instructed by both claimants and defendants in a wide variety of fast-track matters, including: Occupier’s liability Employer’s liability Highways Act claims...

Vivien Croly
- Call: 2019
Vivien joins our Family & Divorce team under the supervision of Zoë Saunders. Prior to starting pupillage, Vivien worked as a County Court Advocate, conducting hearings on a variety of Civil matters including mortgage possessions, mortgage applications, bankruptcy,...

Kate Pearson
- Call: 2019
Kate is building a broad practice as a specialist family law barrister, and accepts instructions in the following areas: Private Law Children Act matters Divorce and Financial Remedies Schedule 1 Children Act 1989 Part IV Family Law Act...

Jack Pankhurst
- Call: 2021
Jack joined Chambers in April 2022 following the successful completion of his specialist commercial and chancery pupillage. He accepts instructions in all of the main areas of commercial and chancery law. Jack’s pupil supervisors were Nick Pointon, Charlie...

Diana M. Panizzon-Pineda
- Call: 2021
Diana joined Chambers in April 2022 following the successful completion of her pupillage under Julia Belyavin and Zoë Saunders. Diana is developing a busy practice in children proceedings in both private and public law matters. She also accepts...

Kayleigh Bloomfield
- Call: 2021
Kayleigh joined Chambers in October 2022 following the successful completion of her specialist commercial and chancery pupillage. She accepts instructions across all main areas of this practice group. Kayleigh’s pupil supervisors were Charlie Newington-Bridges and Christopher Jones. Kayleigh...

Glen Pritchard
- Call: 2022
Glen has recently joined our Family & Divorce team following a successful career as a Solicitor working for Somerset County Council where he focused on children law. He represented the Local Authority in many different types of public...
Richard Mawhinney
- Call: 1977
Richard acts in a wide range of personal injury claims, including in particular severe head injury cases, those involving psychological trauma and in respect of injuries sustained by claimants in early or teenage years. He acts for both...

Tim Higginson
- Call: 1977
Tim has built up an extensive practice over a number of years, the main areas of which concern disputes in these areas: Commercial and Chancery Civil Fraud and Asset Tracing Professional Negligence (principally, solicitors, barristers, auditors/accountants and bankers)...

Guy Adams
- Call: 1989
Guy is a chancery and commercial specialist who acts in complex cases which often raise difficult and/or novel points of law. His commercial work includes banking, finance, commercial contract, company and partnership and professional negligence. He also has...
Anna Symington
- Call: 2002
Anna acts for both claimants and defendants in most personal injury matters. Anna’s mainstream personal injury practice is centred around higher value claims and she is particularly experienced in dealing with claims where the claimant has developed CRPS....
George Rowell
- Call: 2004
George is a commercial barrister specialising in tax disputes, professional negligence and insolvency. He has specialised in tax disputes throughout his time as a barrister. He ‘cut his teeth’ in-house with HM Customs & Excise and HM Revenue...

Richard Gold
- Call: 2006
Richard has a general chancery and commercial practice. His main areas of expertise are: Real estate (particularly landlord & tenant and mortgage cases) Wills & trusts (including challenges to the validity of wills and applications under the Inheritance...

Andrew Kearney
- Call: 2007
Andrew has nearly 30 years dispute resolution experience. He is a barrister at 39 Essex Chambers, a leading set based in London, Manchester, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. He is a member of the St John’s Chambers mediation panel,...
