No5 Chambers

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No5 Chambers Logo

No5 Chambers is one of the largest sets of barristers' chambers in the UK located in Birmingham, with offices in London, Bristol and the East Midlands. The current Head of Chambers is Paul Bleasdale QC.

Locations

No5 Chambers hub is based in central Birmingham at Fountain Court, Steelhouse Lane. The second office is located on Salisbury Court, near Chancery Lane in the City of London. The third office is in Queen Square, in Bristol city centre. The fourth office is in Museum Square, Leicester.

Members of Chambers

At present, No5 Chambers has over 230 barristers, including 26 silks practising across all areas of law.

The Head of Chambers is Paul Bleasdale QC. The current Deputy Heads of Chambers are Rex Tedd QC and Ian Dove QC. Ralph Lewis QC was the Head of Chambers until he died on 4 July 2010.

Heads of Groups Richard Jones QC, Mark Anderson QC, Lorner Meyer QC, Satinder Hunjan QC, Ian Dove QC, Jeremy Cahill QC, Celina Colquhoun, Richard Hignett, Adrian Keeling QC, David Lock QC, Abid Mahmood, David Mason QC, and Paul Bleasdale QC along with many other members of chambers all receive particular mention for their work in "The Legal 500".

Notable Cases

• KM (Zimbabwe) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] UKSC 38 –

Ian Dove QC and Abid Mahmood appeared for KM in this landmark ruling in which the Supreme Court unanimously held that there are no hierarchies of protection amongst the reasons for persecution in the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees 1951 (United Nations).

• Dewar v. Ministry of Defence - Satinder Hunjan QC appeared in this Clinical Negligence matter involving the highest damages made by the Ministry of Defence. The claimant suffered a brain injury and quadriplegia. The value of the claim was circa £10 million on a lump sum basis.

• Re S - Adam Farrer acted for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority in relation to a significant brain injury case - Re S. Using the 2.5% discount rate, The First Tier Tribunal assessed the applicant’s award at £5.25 million. The discount rate was challenged and alternatives proposed which would have increased the award to £17 million. The First Tier Tribunal rejected the application; the applicant’s legal team have recently issued a judicial review challenge, in which Adam and James Eadie QC are instructed.

• R v Fraser - Gary Bell QC represented Fraser, the first defendant of three alleged to have used his company to defraud lending institutions of £110 million.

• Midlands Regen Ltd v. David Collyer (1) Midlands Regeneration (2) John Ellis (3) John Ellis & Co (A firm) Her Majesty’s Attorney General Treasury Solicitor (Charity Team) - Richard Jones QC and Glenn Willetts acted on behalf of Midlands Regen Ltd. Olivia Chaffin-Laird acted for the Directors of Midlands Regen in the counter claim issued by David Collyer.

• Operation Guild/Operation Opal - Michael Burrows QC prosecuted a Multi Handed Murder case involving the contract killing of a Scrap metal dealer and the subsequent trial when one of the defendants was sprung from custody outside HMP Hewell.

• COMMERCE INC. & SAN SEBASTIAN GOLD MINES INC. -V- EL SALVADOR - Emma Edhem advised and will represent San Sebastian Gold Mines Inc (SSGM) and Commerce Group Corp (CGC). The case is against El Salvador where clients contend that El Salvador expropriated their assets by way of removing the requisite environmental licences and thereby preventing them from continuing to mine gold in El Salvador

• MM & Others Supreme Court - Manjit Gill, Danny Bazini and Ramby de Mello. - Amendments to the Immigration Rules concerning the maintenance requirements for the admission of spouses to the United Kingdom, including raising the minimum income level to be provided by a UK sponsor to £18,600, had a legitimate aim but were so onerous in effect as to be an unjustified and disproportionate interference with the ability of spouses to live together contrary to their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights 1950 art.8.

• R v Lisa Burrows & Tahir Mahmood - Lisa Burrows was a senior manager at the CPS in Birmingham. Mahmood was her lover. They were in a secret relationship for over 5 years. She was employed by the CPS for over 21 years and had risen to the Area Head of Finance for the whole of the West Midlands, with power to authorise invoices up to £25,000. They were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud by abuse of trust. They stole just over £1,000,000 of public money via a sophisticated and well planned fraudulent scheme. Brian Dean was instructed by the Special Casework Directorate in York. The case had national press coverage.

• R (on the prosecution of Natural England) v Philip Edward Day - Rex Tedd QC and Bernard Thorogood (Instructed by Browne Jacobson LLP) for the Prosecution. A businessman and landowner was fined £450,000 and ordered to pay £457,000 in costs, after pleading guilty to two offences of carrying out unauthorised works on a Site of Special Scientific Interest (“SSSI”) in 2010. Following substantial legal argument at an earlier hearing in May 2013, HHJ Hughes QC ruled that the Prosecution was required to prove that the Defendant caused the operations, but that otherwise the offences were ones of strict liability. Mr Day later pleaded guilty. The case has resulted in the largest ever fine in such a case. Leave to appeal has been lodged.

Areas of Advocacy

Due to the large size of No5 Chambers, it is able to undertake advocacy in many areas of law.

These include, but are not limited to:

• Administrative & Public Law
• Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Clinical Negligence
• Commercial & Chancery
• Costs & litigation Funding
• Crime
• Employment
• Family
• Immigration, Asylum & Nationality
• International
• International Human Rights Law
• Mediation
• Personal Injury
• Planning & Environment
• Sports & Media Law

External links

• No5 Chambers website
• Legal 500 page for No5 Chambers
• Waterlow Legal Directory entry for No5 Chambers