Advocacy

Our pioneering Advocacy group was established in 1990 to offer our clients a streamlined and effective service. Whereas other firms rely on external counsel for drafting, advice and representation, we can offer this specialist input more rapidly and more flexibly.

The members of the group all hold rights of audience, backed with practical experience on their feet. When we do instruct external barristers, our advocates often act as junior counsel. Major cases with leaders of the commercial bar illustrate the success of this pairing.

Our advocates integrate seamlessly into a modern legal team, cutting across the traditional divisions of responsibility between solicitors and barristers. Our clients appreciate this teamwork as we help them to find practical and commercial resolutions to their disputes.

Actual advocacy is only a part of the group's function, particularly since we see a full-blown trial as a last resort. Specialist involvement at an early stage (without the need for formal instruction of outside counsel) often enables costly litigation to be avoided. The group's role also extends beyond disputes. Transactional departments and their clients see the value in having members of the group on hand to cast a forensic eye over questions of drafting and interpretation.

The group's advocates have appeared in two recent cases in the Court of Appeal (Koo Golden East v. Bank of Nova Scotia [2007] WLR (D) 340 and British Gas Trading Ltd. v. Amerada Hess Limited [2006] 2 CLC 67) and one of the largest on-going cases in the Commercial Court (Independent Insurance Company Limited v. Watson Wyatt Partners).