Birmingham’s St Ives Chambers remains ‘a heavyweight set with a deservedly fine reputation’ in the Midlands for family and children law work. Elizabeth Isaacs KC is widely praised as a ’ferocious, fearless advocate’ as well as for her client care skills, benefitting in this regard from her background as a child protection social worker. Justine Lattimer is regularly instructed in the most serious cases involving sexual abuse, brain injury, deaths of parents and children, FGM, forced marriage, and fabricated illness. Tracy Lakin is ‘a highly experienced barrister who brings authority and good sense to a case’. Mark Cooper-Hall’s broad practice covers care proceedings involving child deaths, fabricated or induced illness, sexual abuse, and systemic local authority failings. Anthony Finch joined chambers in February 2024.
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'David Walters and Scott Goodison are very experienced and capable clerks. They both have a 'can do' attitude and are very professional and efficient.'
- 'The clerks' room is excellent - Asma Akhtar, Nick Burdon and Sarah Robinson are a pleasure to deal with.'
- 'All the clerks are extremely helpful and will go out of their way to assist.'
- 'The backroom staff at St Ives match the ability of the barristers under their care. The service given is excellent. Telephone calls are generally answered immediately and, if that is not possible, calls are returned promptly thereafter. Efforts are made to accommodate instructions, even when given at the very last minute. Sarah Robinson, Nick Burdon and Asma Akhtar stand out. They also have a brilliant receptionist, Jacqui Hanks.'
- 'A heavyweight set with a deservedly fine reputation.'
- 'St Ives are always the go-to set - they have excellent strength in depth and are a safe pair of hands.'
- 'St Ives Chambers is undoubtedly the leading set of chambers in the Midlands in this field, with amazing strength-in-depth, so much so that on run-of-the-mill cases clients can simply phone up and ask who is available.'