Members of Chambers have been involved in many of the most important and ground-breaking cases in our areas of work and many of the most high profile trials, including Aldington v Tolstoy, McDonalds v Steel (the ‘McLibel’ trial), Bruce Grobbelaar v News Group (football bungs trial), Reynolds v Times Newspapers (extended qualified privilege to the media), Venables v News Group Ltd (anonymity of child murderers), Irving v Lipstadt (the holocaust denial trial), George Galloway MP v The Telegraph (Iraq war papers trial), Naomi Campbell v MGN Ltd (established new privacy law), Bonnick v Morris (elaboration on Reynolds), Polanski v The Condé Nast Publications, Cream Holdings v Banerjee (HRA and injunctions against the media), Sir Martin Sorrell v FullSix (privacy trial), Lord Browne v Associated Newspapers Ltd (privacy appeal), Gerry & Kate MCann v Express Newspapers and ors, Taranissi v BBC.
Most recently, noteworthy cases have included Spiller v Joseph (the first defamation case in the Supreme Court), Ajinomoto Sweeteners Europe SAS v ASDA Stores Limited (the single meaning rule in malicious falsehood), Flood v Times Newspapers Limited (Reynolds privilege and internet archive publications), Metropolitan International Schools Ltd v Google Inc. (the liability of Google for search results), Gaunt v OFCOM (judicial review in relation to the Broadcasting Code), Evans v Information Commissioner (challenging the refusal to disclose government correspondence with the Prince of Wales) and R v Chaytor & ors (allowing the media to report the trials of the MPs and Lord charged with expenses fraud).
Members act for a wide-range of clients, both claimant and defendant, including for example national and local newspapers, broadcasters, traditional and internet publishers, multi-national corporations, private individuals, high-profile celebrities from the entertainment and sports worlds, government departments, local authorities, NGOs and trade unions.
The clerks are happy to advise on the appropriate person to instruct for any particular case.
Former members of Chambers include two Court of Appeal Lords Justices (Sir David Hirst and Sir Brian Neill, both now retired), Sir David Eady (sitting as Mr Justice Eady since 1997), Dame Victoria Sharp (sitting in the QBD since January 2009 as Mrs Justice Sharp) and His Honour Judge Patrick Moloney QC (appointed as Circuit Judge at Peterborough Crown Court in January 2008 and sitting as the Designated Civil Judge, East Anglia), Richard Hartley QC (known in his heyday as "Prince of Libel"), Geoffrey Shaw QC and Thomas Shields QC.