Chambers of Stephen Hockman KC and Mark Watson KC

This is one of the leading common law sets in London and the south east, with particular specialist expertise in civil and commercial, criminal, employment, family, inquests and inquiries, licensing personal injury, public, planning and environmental, and regulatory law.

The set: Chambers was founded in the 1920s and whilst originally recognised as a specialist criminal, civil and family set, has evolved to become one of the strongest sets in environmental, local government, planning, health and safety and all forms of regulatory law as well.

The profile of chambers and the quality of work continues to be maintained at a very high level. Six Pump Court has an ethos of approachability and friendliness, as well as strong administration that delivers solutions. It offers a first-class team of advocates and advisers.

Types of work undertaken
Regulatory and competition law: chambers prosecutes and defends regulatory criminal offences particularly health and safety (including the construction, energy and transport sectors), food, consumer protection/trading standards, licensing, intellectual property protection, environmental protection, and planning enforcement. All financial litigation including fraud, confiscation, corporate governance and financial conduct.

Public: members undertake a full range of judicial review and related advisory work, often with a planning/environmental or regulatory subject matter.

Planning and environmental: members appear for and against regulators and public authorities. Proceedings include public inquiries and regulatory criminal proceedings. The team has established a particular niche in relation to work on the interface between environmental, planning and human rights law.

Personal injury: chambers covers all aspects of personal injury for both claimants and defendants. Cases include employers' liability, RTA, clinical negligence and professional negligence arising out of the conduct of claims. Claims at all levels of value are conducted from the earliest stages through to trial including settlement through ADR.

Inquests: members appear for the full range of interested persons (including regulators, employers, site operators and families) at inquests and inquiries, tackling the wider issues raised by Article 2 inquests and reports to prevent future deaths.

Family: members of the family team advise and appear in the private and public law arenas. In private cases dealing with financial and child care applications, including removal from the jurisdiction. The expertise in matrimonial finance extends to corporate, agricultural and high-value matters, including overseas trusts.

Employment: the team covers all aspects of employment law and provide a service that is available from advising on the formation of company disciplinary and grievance procedures through to representing at Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

Criminal: the team has a proven track record in the whole range of criminal work from pre-charge advice onwards, both for the prosecution and the defence. It undertakes publicly and privately funded work. Members represent individuals and corporations (and officers thereof) in proceedings brought against them; and also undertakes private prosecutions brought by business and local authorities, as well as by the orthodox prosecuting agencies.

Civil and commercial: commercial disputes (including arbitration), professional negligence, and landlord and tenant work. The work is split between claimants and defendants and undertaken, inter alia, on behalf of a range of substantial insurers, public companies, local authorities and government departments.

For more information visit www.6pumpcourt.co.uk.

Languages spoken: French, German, Russian and Japanese.