“Excellent set” Park Square Barristers ranked in 2018 edition of The Legal 500

The 2018 edition of The Legal 500 has been released and Park Square Barristers is once again ranked as a Leading set.

‘Excellent set’ Park Square Barristers has established expertise in criminal, family and regulatory matters; personal injury and clinical negligence law is another key area. In 2018 Andrew Mitchell and Claire Murden were appointed to the district and circuit benches, respectively. Senior managing clerk Richard Sadler leads the clerking team, which includes ‘brilliant’ senior civil clerk Francine Kirk and regulatory and public law clerk Madeleine Gray (‘always goes the extra mile’). Key contacts also include senior civil clerk Francine Kirk, senior criminal clerk Andrew Thornton and senior family clerk Claudine Cooper (‘a star’). Collectively, the team ‘is happy to challenge the traditional barriers between solicitors and barristers to offer a more progressive and pragmatic service which can only benefit the end user: the lay client’. In 2018 Richard Wright QC took over as sole head of chambers after Andrew Lewis QC stepped down from the post. Offices in: Leeds

This year’s edition has provided personal recommendations for 35 of our Counsel, ranging across a number of practice areas:

Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence : Insurance fraud claims are a core strength of Park Square Barristers’ practice, with members also adept at handling a broad range of personal injury matters, notably industrial disease claims. Andrew Lewis QC is very well known for his expertise in catastrophic brain and spinal cord injury cases.

Commercial, Banking, Insolvency and Chancery Law – Park Square Barristers’ commercial and Chancery team handles instructions in wills and probate, trusts, insolvency and contractual and partnership disputes – Darren Finlay and David Rose secure a rank 1 status

Crime – With over 60 criminal practitioners in its criminal group, Park Square Barristers has solid expertise in prosecuting and defending in high-profile cases of terrorism, murder and multi-handed drugs conspiracies, among other areas. The set also reports a significant uptick in instructions pertaining to historic sexual abuse.

13 of our Criminal Team are ranked including 4 silks

Family and Children Law – Park Square Barristers is ‘a very strong family set’, which has extensive expertise in children cases involving care proceedings, physical and sexual abuse, fabricated/induced illnesses, non-accidental injuries, alleged radicalisation and international relocation/abduction. Claire Murden was appointed to the circuit bench in 2018.

Regulatory, Health and Safety and Licensing – Recent work for members of Park Square Barristers’ regulatory team includes work health and safety breaches and food safety matters. Howard Shaw has a niche practice in prosecuting in hygiene and animal welfare offences in slaughterhouses.

Full details of the Legal 500 rankings can be found here https://www.legal500.com/firms/9559/9559#LocalReferenceWorkArea431