Wilberforce Chambers

The set:

The set is widely recognised as one of the leading chambers in its core specialist areas of commercial litigation, insolvency, pensions, private client and trusts, property, professional negligence and arbitration. With 82 barristers (37 KCs), chambers is able to offer specialist barristers at all levels of seniority and across the spectrum of commercial and chancery work. It has individuals who possess excellent reputations for their specialist capabilities in the additional fields of arbitration, art and cultural property, banking and financial services, company and partnership, construction, fraud, IT and telecoms, restructuring and insolvency, sport, and tax. With its strength and depth of expertise, members of chambers undertake many of the most complex and important cases in the UK and overseas. Members work hard to build and maintain strong long-term relationships with their clients, including leading UK and international law firms, multinational corporations, major organisations, private companies and individuals. Clients value the modern quality of chambers’ clerking and organisational management and the approachable service provided by barristers and clerks.

Types of work undertaken:

Arbitration and alternative dispute resolution: chambers provides first-class advice and representation in arbitrations and mediations and acts as arbitrator, mediator and expert.

Banking and finance: loan agreements; mortgages and charges; guarantees; other forms of security; retail banking; consumer credit; syndicated lending; asset and project finance; asset tracing; preservation and recovery; insolvency issues; professional negligence claims against those advising lenders.

Commercial: including agency; civil and commercial fraud; confidentiality; construction; contract; energy; joint ventures; partnerships and telecommunications.

Company: shareholder disputes; s994 petitions; derivative actions; share and business sale agreements; breach of warranty disputes; shareholder agreements; directors’€™ duties; disqualification of directors; conduct of meetings; restoration of companies to register; OEICs; corporate insolvency; accounting and auditing negligence.

Financial services: Markets Act 2000; FCA enforcement and disciplinary proceedings; unit trusts; OEICs; mis-selling claims; Financial Ombudsman Service cases; insolvency of investment firms.

Insolvency: liquidation; administration; receivership; bankruptcy; IVAs, asset tracing; preservation and recovery; avoidance of transactions defrauding creditors; disclaimer of onerous property; CVAs.

International and offshore: the nature of the work conducted overseas is varied and often high-profile, reflecting the broad spectrum of work which members of chambers undertake including trust litigation; company and commercial law; property and intellectual property disputes.

Pensions: trust law; regulatory and tax issues arising in connection with occupational pension schemes and other employment-related trusts.

Private client, trusts and taxation: contentious and non-contentious litigation involving both private trusts and trusts in the wider commercial context, both in the UK and worldwide.

Professional liability: of accountants; actuaries; auditors; company directors; financial advisors; insurance brokers; investment mergers; barristers; solicitors; surveyors and trustees; and construction-related professional negligence.

Property: commercial and residential landlord and tenant law; property-related insolvency; proprietary estoppel; property finance and mortgages; restrictive covenants; easements and profits; property-related torts and questions of title; and the sale and registration of land.

Regulatory and associated law: financial services; professionals; sport; utilities; transport; environmental and planning.