Richard Harwood KC
39 Essex Chambers39 Essex Chambers is a notable set in the fields of planning, environment and infrastructure. The team is praised for having an ‘emerging cohort of talented juniors’ and silks who are ’well-known for their excellence within the practice area.’ James Strachan KC led the ‘bright and articulate’ Rose Grogan in Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site Ltd v Secretary of State for Transport (No.2) – a revival of the litigation concerning the proposed construction of a road tunnel under Stonehenge. The main objectors were represented by barristers who have also separately been involved in other notable cases; Victoria Hutton having represented London Luton Airport Operations Limited in proceedings concerning the airport's proposed expansion, Richard Harwood OBE KC working on the second challenge to the DCO for the re-opening of Manston Airport and Christiaan Zwart representing a private landowner opposing the Aquind electricity interconnector.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'Andrew Poyser and Elliott Hurrell are impeccable.'
- 'Andrew Poyser is comfortably the best clerk to work with. He knows his barristers very well and runs them as a seamless team. He really is excellent.'
- 'Andrew Poyser deserves special mention as someone who goes above and beyond the call of duty and who has truly integrated himself into the environmental and planning legal community. He is unsurpassed!'
- 'Oliver York is brilliant, he always comes back extremely quickly and is very efficient.'
- 'The clerking team is fantastically helpful and very supportive of service as a whole.'
- '39 Essex is a strong growing set in the fields of planning, environment and infrastructure and has an emerging cohort of talented juniors.'
- '39 Essex has a fantastic team of planning barristers. It has a range of silks and juniors who are well known for their excellence in the area of planning law.'
- '39 Essex has a pre-eminent planning law team with silks and juniors who are at the forefront of the industry. The set has experience across the board ranging from large infrastructure projects, major housing development and also landmark cases before the courts.'
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.
James Strachan KC
39 Essex Chambers ‘James is excellent in every aspect. Very knowledgeable, excellent courtroom gravitas, puts his clients at ease. He is very user-friendly to work with.’
Paul Stinchcombe KC
39 Essex Chambers ‘Paul is enthusiastic, enquiring and determinedly engaged from day one. He quickly becomes part of the team, able to both support and challenge its members from various professional disciplines.’
Richard Wald KC
39 Essex Chambers ‘On his feet, Richard combines intellectual rigour with precision, charm and humour. He has an astute awareness of the tribunal – no-one else comes close. Richard has the ability to be selective and discerning in selecting his grounds and arguments, and to pursue effective and achievable strategies for overall success beyond the confines of the immediate claim.’
John Steel KC
39 Essex Chambers ‘John has a brilliant eye for detail. He is able to identify the points which many barristers might miss.’
Thomas Hill KC
39 Essex Chambers ‘Thomas provides extremely thorough and sage advice, which on every occasion has been sound. He has particular strengths in heritage and design related matters.’
Andrew Tabachnik KC
39 Essex Chambers ‘Andrew loves a challenge and it shows. A strategic thinker who helps bring a team together. He breaks down complex issues into bite-sized chunks. He is an excellent communicator and is able to get points across well. He is committed to delivering successful outcomes for clients.’
Stephen Tromans KC
39 Essex Chambers
Peter Village KC
39 Essex Chambers2024 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.
Colin Thomann KC
39 Essex Chambers ‘Colin is highly intelligent but also practical and client friendly.’
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.
Christiaan Zwart
39 Essex Chambers ‘Christiaan has extensive experience in planning and is able to leverage this to help clients with sound strategy to achieve commercial outcomes. He is particularly helpful in this regard and excellent at getting to the heart of a matter in complex cases.’
Victoria Hutton
39 Essex Chambers ‘Victoria is a first rate barrister. She is brilliant with clients and approaches everything with a clear and calm manner. Her attention to detail, ability to cut to the key issues quickly and advocacy skills are all strong points.’
Celina Colquhoun
39 Essex Chambers ‘Very knowledgeable and commercial with considerable insight into the intricacies of planning enforcement matters and law which is quite a niche specialism even within planning - and unwavering when under fierce judicial questioning.’
James Burton
39 Essex Chambers ‘James is a clear, persistent and fearless advocate. He presents his arguments attractively and is not put off by judicial interventions.’
Juan Lopez
39 Essex Chambers ‘Juan is pragmatic and commercially minded in his approach. He offers clear and concise advice to clients.’
John Pugh-Smith
39 Essex Chambers
Ned Helme
39 Essex Chambers ‘Ned is one of the most hard-working, intelligent and imaginative barristers. He is also extremely willing to be brave for someone who is instinctively risk-averse – which means clients get the best of both worlds: counsel of caution and courageous, intelligent and imaginative advocacy on their behalf.’
Daniel Stedman Jones
39 Essex Chambers ‘Daniel is detail-orientated and astute. He is also an adept advocate, who can readily adapt his style to his audience.’
Philippa Jackson
39 Essex Chambers ‘Philippa has clarity of thought and speed of understanding. She is helpful, thoughtful and conscientious and very personable.’
Jonathan Darby
39 Essex Chambers ‘Jonathan is very good with clients and at getting up to speed on technical points. He has a calm and easy manner, putting clients at ease immediately. Jonathan is a delight to work with.’
Rose Grogan
39 Essex Chambers ‘Rose is one of the best junior barristers in practice in the fields of planning, environment and infrastructure. She is bright, articulate, presents and reads situations extremely well, grasping complex and difficult new subject and challenge areas with commensurate skill and ability.’
Stephanie David
39 Essex Chambers ‘Stephanie is a brilliantly effective advocate. She is able to shape her analysis to the problem at hand. Stephanie is also very hardworking and clients love working with her.’
Catherine Dobson
39 Essex Chambers ‘Catherine is brilliant. She has an incredibly sharp legal brain and extracts the key legal issues quickly, analyses them, and for the purposes of her advice condenses them into digestible concepts which are commercial and easily acted upon.’
Rising stars
Rising stars at the Bar are defined as barristers between four and eight years’ call who are seen as up-and-coming members of the Bar in their respective practice areas by clients and peers alike. They will already be instructed in high-profile, complex, and high-value contentious and non-contentious matters, working with and opposite more experienced leading counsel.
Daniel Kozelko
39 Essex Chambers ‘Dan is exceptionally talented and is destined to go far at the planning Bar. He is intelligent, personable and has a real will to win. He also finds points in cases that have not been spotted by others.’
Gethin Thomas
39 Essex Chambers ‘Gethin is responsive and clear. He provides practical advice and has strong legal analysis skills.’
Ruth Keating
39 Essex Chambers ‘Ruth is incredibly bright and goes the extra mile to assist her clients. Her technical understanding of the law is exceptional, and she worked very well with leading counsel in pulling together submissions on a novel area of work. She is hugely enthusiastic and diligent.’