Members of chambers have been highly ranked in the Chambers and Partners UK Bar Guide 2022, which was released on Thursday 21 October 2022.
Members of chambers have been ranked in 22 practice areas and the set has been ranked in 12 practice areas, including Band 1 rankings in Commercial Dispute Resolution, Fraud, International Arbitration and Public International Law.
Special mention is given to the following members who have received a ‘Star at the Bar’ ranking: Roderick Cordara QC for Tax, Joe Smouha QC for Commercial Dispute Resolution, Vaughan Lowe QC for Public International Law, Tim Akkouh for Fraud: Civil and Siddharth Dhar for International Arbitration.
21 members have improved rankings, with a total number of 153 member rankings.
The set is ranked in the following categories:
- Commercial Dispute Resolution: Band 1
“The set has a deep pool of experts capable of handling commercial cases arising from many different legal areas, such as banking, civil fraud, energy and shipping, to name but a few.” “ - Fraud Civil: Band 1
“Essex Court Chambers houses a strong bench of senior and junior barristers who are experienced in the handling of large fraud cases both in the UK and further afield. - International Arbitration: General Commercial & Insurance: Band 1
“Members offer unrivalled expertise across an impressive breadth of sectors, and have particular prowess in energy and insurance and reinsurance disputes. The “absolutely stellar” barristers at Essex Court Chambers are regularly called upon to handle complex proceedings and cases involving foreign law under all major institutional rules.” - Offshore: Band 1
“Offers substantial expertise in a variety of offshore commercial disputes including fraud, shareholder actions, contentious liquidations and complex civil fraud matters. Its barristers act in some of the most high-profile and high-value offshore disputes.” - International Law Public: Band 1
“The technical expertise and forensic attention to the detail of the work provided is excellent.” - Chancery: Commercial: Band 2
“A standout chambers for civil fraud,” “They have a tremendous strength in depth and are involved in most big civil fraud cases.” - Employment: Band 2
“For commercial employment cases, such as contentious restrictive covenants and non-competition work, the set has a lot of depth in its bench.” - Energy and Natural Resources: Band 2
“A heavyweight set which draws upon particular strengths in international arbitration and commercial disputes to represent clients in a range of energy matters.” “The set has very impressive practitioners who are always on top of the law.” - Insurance: Band 2
“Impressive advocacy in the courtroom alongside considerable strengths handling international arbitrations.” “The barristers are serious commercial heavyweights and very good at turning their hands to insurance.” - Shipping & Commodities: Band 2
“Adept across wet and dry shipping matters, members of Essex Court Chambers are regularly sought out by shipbuilders, ship owners, shipyards and insurers for their expert knowledge.” - Tax: Indirect Tax: Band 2
“A widely respected chambers recognised for the strength of its indirect tax expertise. Members here act in cases relating to VAT recovery disputes, judicial reviews, the application of EU VAT law, MTIC fraud, and customs and excise duties, among others.” - Banking and Finance: Band 3
“A leading commercial and financial set,” “the barristers are excellent and real heavyweights.”
Members of chambers are also delighted to congratulate the clerking team on receiving outstanding praise from clients. The clerking team have received the following praise:
“The clerks are proactive in looking for solutions and understand what clients are looking for. They are also very responsive, practical and upfront about availability and work with you to facilitate what you want to achieve.” “It’s a really good clerking service, particularly on multifaceted cases. They provide spot-on advice in a timely fashion – they work wonders.” “The clerks are always really responsive, commercial and easy to work with – I couldn’t speak highly enough of them.” “The clerks give a very good service and are always willing to go the extra mile.” “The clerks are very approachable and helpful.” “They are very professional, very responsive, and the chambers is well run.”
The set has also been praised for it reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, “Clients are well served by the set’s programme of podcasts, seminars and webinars.” “the team provides a wealth of multimedia resources for clients, such as webinars and podcasts.”
Special mentions are given to:
- Joe Ferrigno who is described as “stand-out” and “runs a very smooth operation, provides an excellent service in terms of communications around fees and availability and has a real can-do attitude.” “He has a very ‘can do’ attitude, he makes sure you are provided with a proper service and he tries to accommodate fees in a way that keeps everyone happy.” ” he’s everything you’d want in a clerk.”
- Ben Perry is “super efficient and makes working with Essex Court a seamless experience.”
- Ollie Butcher is “a very straightforward, responsive and helpful clerk.”
