No5 Barristers' Chambers

Catherine Spedding

Catherine has specialised in criminal law since her call to the Bar in 1995. Initially practising in chambers in Bristol, she then spent a number of years in chambers in Birmingham, before returning to Bristol, where she was employed as Head of Crown Court Department and Principal In-house Counsel for a large firm of defence solicitors, before returning to chambers in 2019. She now practises on the Western and Midland Circuit. Catherine prosecutes at Grade 3 and defends in a wide range of criminal cases, including those involving serious violence and sexual offences, domestic violence, drugs, firearms, theft, fraud, serious driving and motoring offences and she has been led in several high profile murder cases. She has a friendly and approachable manner which puts defendants and witnesses at ease. She is well-prepared and adopts a forensic and effective approach to case preparation and advocacy.

Charles Price

Charles has enjoyed stints as the employment lawyer at Bristol and Sheffield City Councils and contributes articles on employment law to various publications. An expert in discrimination cases, Charles has been instructed in cases of sex, race and disability discrimination. Further he has extensive experience in unfair dismissal, redundancy, contracts of employment, pregnancy related dismissal, constructive dismissal, minimum wage claims, compromise agreements, post-termination covenants, holiday pay disputes, parental leave, deductions from wages, variation of contractual terms, whistle blowing, business transfers, harassment and breach of contract claims. As well as advocacy work in both Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeals Tribunal, Charles has considerable experience of advisory and drafting work, preparing pleadings for the County Court and Employment Tribunals. Charles has acted as a disciplinary officer in various tribunals and has appeared in the Employment Appeals Tribunal. Charles has more than 10 years experience of being instructed by individual claimants, local authorities, international/national companies, bodies such as the BMA. Charles writes employment law articles for his own website at www.charlesprice.net, and is the author of a popular employment blog, www.employmentlawuk.blogspot.com. Charles is a public access barrister and can therefore be instructed by members of the public.

Charlotte Robinson-Jones

Charlotte’s practice involves representing both Claimants and Defendants in all levels of cases in a wide range of PI and clinical negligence matters, the latter including negligence involving dentists, NHS Trusts and GPs. She regularly advises on liability and quantum, for both adults and minors. She has particular experience acting in cases where diminution in value of a vehicle is claimed over and above the cost of repairs. An example is the reported case of Lex Autolease v Tweddle.

David Gardner

Barrister

Femi Ogunlende

Barrister

Harrison Burroughs

Harrison is a member of the Business and Property group at No5 and accepts instructions in all areas of commercial, property and chancery law. He represents companies, individuals, and partnerships across the full spectrum of business and property disputes.

James Stoll

James specialises in personal injury and undertakes work at all levels including those of the utmost severity. Having previously been in independent practice and having held a senior position in the advocacy department of a national firm of solicitors he has a friendly and approachable style with instructing solicitors. James deals with: road traffic accident claims (including low velocity impact claims), employer’s liability claims, occupier’s liability claims, fatal accident claims, claims involving the MIB, credit hire litigation. In the course of his practice, James undertakes: multi-track hearings, fast track hearings, disposals (including Stage 3 hearings under the RTA protocol), inquests, applications, case management conferences. James has delivered training on: drafting schedules of loss (with particular reference to calculation using the 6th edition ogden tables), quantum valuation, case management and application hearings. James is also happy to conduct file ‘surgeries’ on request. James has been dealing with credit hire claims since 1998, formerly in a case-handling role and then in the past 6-7 years in an advocates role. He has also assisted training others in how to deal with credit hire litigation and in how to present credit hire cases in the past.

Jorren Knibbe

Russell Holland

Sapandeep Singh Maini-Thompson

Sapandeep Singh Maini-Thompson specialises in Employment, Public Law and Regulatory. He has appeared before a range of courts and specialist tribunals. Sapandeep is accredited to accept direct instructions from members of the public where appropriate.

Serena Sekhon

Serena joined Chambers in October 2022, following the successful completion of her pupillage. Her practice focuses on public law. As a pupil (supervised by Philip Rule), Serena gained experience of a wide range of public law matters and related areas including judicial review, prison law and parole, inquests and coronial law, Court of Protection and immigration. Serena’s drafting and advisory experience includes: • civil actions against the police; • civil actions relating to personal injury and negligence in prison • judicial review of Parole Board, recall and re-categorisation decisions • judicial review and interim relief applications relating to accommodation and financial support under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 • judicial review of decisions taken by public authorities including government departments, regulatory bodies, the NHS and the police • applications to the European Court of Human Rights. Serena regularly represents clients in oral hearings before the Parole Board. Serena acts for a range of interested parties in inquests, including health trusts and local authorities. During pupillage, she assisted Philip Rule on a jury inquest involving the state’s duty to protect life (Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights), relating to the self-inflicted death of a prisoner whilst in custody, representing the family of the deceased. In the Court of Protection, Serena has represented family members of P. Prior to commencing pupillage, Serena was a volunteer caseworker at Intervene, a specialist legal charity providing advice and representation to prisoners. In this role she developed experience of prison law and related matters including Rule 39 breaches, breaches of the Public Sector Equality Duty, discrimination, failures to make reasonable adjustments, failures to follow PSIs, issues with healthcare provision and mishandling of prisoner property. She previously volunteered in the Advocacy team at Southall Black Sisters, and at HMP Brixton as a Vocalise mentor.