Michael Furness KC
Wilberforce Chambers ‘His sheer intellectual power will get you past most obstacles.’
Wilberforce Chambers is 'well known in the pensions and trust law world'. Brian Green KC has an excellent track record in handling complex, high-profile pensions cases, and Michael Tennet KC is sought after for his expertise in assisting with pensions-related regulatory matters and professional negligence issues in the space. Among the junior end of chambers, Sebastian Allen is acting for the London Borough of Croyden in a longrunning dispute over how the Local Government Pension Scheme calculates contributions made by academy schools.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'Fraser Geddes and Stewart Cameron are excellent at keeping us and counsel aligned with our work and with regard to deadlines and fees.'
- 'The clerks have always been helpful and responsive. Conor Michaels has been consistently excellent.'
- 'The clerks are very responsive. I've had exceptional service from Tara Shah.'
- 'The clerks at Wilberforce run a very slick operation. Evidently a very close knit team.'
- 'Very good - George Salvage goes out of his way to help.'
- 'This set is well known in the pensions and trust law world. It has experience across various technical areas and at different levels of seniority, both in contentious and non-contentious work.'
- 'Wilberforce is a go to set for pensions work.'
- 'Best in the business for pensions and trusts.'
Silks
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.
Brian Green KC
Wilberforce Chambers ‘He is a fighter who wears mink boxing gloves, but lands punches with the collective force of Wilder, Fury, Tyson and Foreman.’
Paul Newman KC
Wilberforce Chambers ‘An absolutely brilliant advocate – a straight talking person who does not sugar coat the situation. He fights like his life depends on it to put your best points across.’
Michael Tennet KC
Wilberforce Chambers ‘Michael is one of the pre-eminent pensions silks. He can be relied on to provide incisive and authoritative advice.’
Jonathan Hilliard KC
Wilberforce Chambers ‘Incredibly bright - Jonathan sees dimensions others miss.‘
Fenner Moeran KC
Wilberforce Chambers 'He has excellent knowledge of pensions and financial services law and regulatory issues – a go-to KC in this area.'
Juniors
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.
Edward Sawyer
Wilberforce Chambers ‘Edward is both thoughtful and practical and sees the full picture. He combines technical knowledge with commercial awareness and is one of the most highly rated senior juniors.’
Sebastian Allen
Wilberforce Chambers ‘Sebastian is a stand-out pensions counsel. His approach is incisive, clear, collaborative and innovative. His technical legal work is top-notch and he's a genuine pleasure to work with.‘
James McCreath
Wilberforce Chambers ‘He’s a real superstar – very smart and gets to the nub of issues very quickly.’
Thomas Robinson
Wilberforce Chambers ‘Thomas is fiercely intellectual, incredibly hardworking, and solutions-focused.'
Joseph Steadman
Wilberforce Chambers ‘Joseph is hugely talented, cogent and eloquent, with a sharp eye for detail.’
Jonathan Chew
Wilberforce Chambers 'He’s very bright and strategic, a tremendous team player who demonstrates great judgement.'