Brian Kennelly KC
‘Brian is at the top of the competition law Bar and always impresses.’
‘A leading set for competition law, with a number of trusted barristers’, Blackstone Chambers has been prominent in many of the largest and most important regulatory and enforcement cases. ’At the top of the competition Bar’, Brian Kennelly KC has recent experience in major domestic and European damages claims, collective proceedings, merger cases and enforcement matters for major clients in technology and the automotive industry, and Thomas de la Mare KC has led in the Dieselgate litigation concerning a technology suppression cartel. ‘Fantastic and effective’, Kieron Beal KC is regularly seen before the CAT and the GCEU, and acted for the claimants in the highly complex and long-running Umbrella Interchange Fee Claimants vs Visa and MasterCard proceedings. Hanif Mussa KC has been praised for his ’wonderful ability to see through to what matters in a case’, and in the last year led the advocacy for the defendants in Granville Technology Limited & ors. v LD Display Co Ltd & ors., with a successful result ending in claimants receiving less than 2% of their original claim. Jason Pobjoy KC and Naina Patel KC took silk in 2025, and both have rapidly developing competition law practices.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'Danny Compton is an extremely user-friendly clerk.'
- 'Good clerks overall, helpful and approachable.'
- 'The clerks at Blackstone are always professional and easy to deal with.'
- 'Blackstone are an excellent set. Almost all their barristers are extremely good, and their clerking team are very responsive and go above and beyond to help. '
- 'They are very strong in competition as well as a number of other areas. They are commercially minded and very easy to work with.'
- 'Blackstone is a go-to set of Chambers for all public law, EU law and competition issues; they have fantastic strength and depth, and everyone is great to work with.'
Lawyers
Leading Silks
KCs at the very top of their field, with a long-established record of market-defining cases, and widespread endorsement from clients and peers. All silks appointed in the last two rounds are listed further below.
Kieron Beal KC
'Kieron is a strong tactician, a really effective advocate and brilliant to work with as part of a team. The breadth and depth of his areas of expertise is a real strength. As an advocate his judgement is excellent - in getting the right balance of explaining complex background whilst developing the case, to excellent effect.'
James Segan KC
‘Excellent advocate and good at the intersection of intellectual property and commercial/competition law.’
2025 Silks
KCs at the very top of their field, with a long-established record of market-defining cases, and widespread endorsement from clients and peers. All silks appointed in the last two rounds are listed further below.
Jason Pobjoy KC
'Jason is a delight to work with: ridiculously clever, incisive draftsman, strategically adroit and a pleasure to work with.'
Naina Patel
'Naina is an incredibly expert barrister who has legal principles at her fingertips. She is a calm and measured advocate, who is prepared to fight her client's corner even when under pressure from the court. She is also a real delight to work with.'
2024 Silks
KCs at the very top of their field, with a long-established record of market-defining cases, and widespread endorsement from clients and peers. All silks appointed in the last two rounds are listed further below.
Leading Juniors
Leading juniors are those with significant experience of key cases, strong market recognition from both peers and clients, and are seen as future candidates for silk.
Tom Coates
‘Tom is extremely bright, pragmatic, personable and responsive. His drafting is top notch and his advocacy is measured and persuasive. A real pleasure to work with.’
Ravi Mehta
‘Excellent knowledge of the law and written work.’
Emily Neill
'Emily's written work is clear, concise and very persuasive. She is pragmatic, very responsive and a real pleasure to work with.'
Isabel Buchanan
'Isabel is a brilliant junior for competition law claims. She is exceptionally clever and very astute. A confident communicator.'
Hollie Higgins
'Hollie is head and shoulders above other junior barristers of similar call. She is consistently excellent: incredibly hard-working, her written work is thorough, and she is willing to get fully involved in the less glamorous bits of conducting a trial. '
Gayatri Sarathy
‘Gayatri is a brilliant junior for competition litigation claims and for group actions. She is a strategic and shrewd thinker, very responsive and focused on her clients, and drafts cogently and concisely.’