Farrar's Building

Farrar’s Building is a long-established specialist civil and common law set of chambers based in London with a strong historic regional presence in Wales.

Chambers areas of practice include the following: personal injury; clinical negligence; employment; credit hire; civil fraud and fundamental dishonesty; serious and white-collar crime; health and safety; inquests; disciplinary; regulatory; professional negligence; insurance; product liability; trusts and probate; commercial law; costs; travel; and public inquiries (see individual profiles).

The set: Farrar’s Building has been occupied by barristers for many centuries and its name derives from Thomas Farrar, treasurer of Inner Temple in 1679. Over the years, chambers has provided a number of judges in the House of Lords, Court of Appeal and elsewhere, and current members sit as deputy High Court judges, recorders and in other public positions.

Farrar’s Building prides itself on being a friendly and reliable set, which is efficiently clerked and administered by an experienced and long-established team.

Chambers has a reputation for excellence, with members acting for a variety of corporate bodies, insurance companies, prosecuting authorities, sporting bodies and players, disciplinary, regulatory and professional bodies, as well as individuals. Members act in privately funded cases and under conditional fee agreements.

Types of work undertaken: Chambers core areas of practice are:

Personal injury: Farrar’s Building is recognised as a leading set of chambers in the personal injury field with a long-established reputation for offering high-quality specialist advocacy and advice in all aspects of personal injury work. Personal injury is the largest field of practice within chambers. Chambers is involved in the whole spectrum of cases ranging from catastrophic brain and spinal injury claims to lower value multi-track and fast-track work.

Health and safety: The health and safety team works closely with, and benefits from, Farrar’s Building’s strong PI team. Chambers has been involved in a number of high-profile cases in this area and has a tradition of acting in large-scale disasters, including the Hatfield Rail Disaster, the Ladbroke Grove Rail Disaster and the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

Employment: Chambers and members of the employment law group are recognised in the field for their efficient, commercially sensitive and competitive approach. Members act at all stages of employment disputes by advising, drafting pleadings and providing advocacy before employment tribunals, the EAT and the higher courts. Members also have experience acting in judicial and private mediations.

Regulatory and disciplinary: Farrar’s Building has been heavily involved in the development and administration of disciplinary proceedings over the past 30 years. Chambers provide specialist advice and advocacy across the full range of regulatory and disciplinary law. The depth of knowledge and understanding that the team at Farrar’s Building has to offer comes not only from its members who have experience of appearing before all major disciplinary and regulatory tribunals, but also from those members who regularly advise and chair such panels themselves.

Crime: Chambers has a specialist criminal team, involved in major fraud and serious crime cases, and has close links with Wales where it remains a dominant force on the Welsh Circuit. Chambers is and has been involved in many of the major cases on the circuit and members of the crime team are highly sought-after.

Public inquiries: Chambers has a long history of involvement in public inquiries and of chairing/appearing before a range of regulatory and disciplinary tribunals.

Members of chambers also offer expertise in: contract and commercial litigation, covering areas such as sale of goods and consumer credit and commercial fraud, insurance matters and product liability; clinical negligence and all areas of professional negligence; costs and taxation actions, including solicitor’s bills of costs, counsel’s fees and legal aid costs; sports and competition cases include contracts, advertising and sponsorship and restraint of trade; all aspects of disciplinary and regulatory law; and matters pertaining to trusts and probate.

Members also have experience in administrative and public law work, including matters relating to judicial review, local government, education, health, housing and pharmaceutical actions.