Royal flush for Kings Chambers
KINGS Chambers, the Manchester barristers’ set, has reported a record year with 17% growth in billings to £29m.
The chambers, which is also present in Leeds and Birmingham, has set out plans to win more international work.
Established in 1946 in Manchester, Kings, which deals only with civil cases, has more than 100 barristers as members including 16 QCs.
Key areas of specialism at Kings are chancery and commercial, planning and public law, personal injury and clinical negligence. Members are instructed by law firms all over the country to appear in cases involving major institutions, PLCs, limited companies and high net worth individuals.
Several members have been admitted in foreign jurisdictions including the Courts of the Dubai International Financial Centre and many members act as arbitrators, mediators and adjudicators or as a chair or panel member of dispute resolution boards.
Winning work from international clients is a key growth strategy, says chief clerk Colin Griffin, said: “We’ve earned an outstanding reputation nationally and we are seeing the benefits of many years of careful recruitment of the best practitioners and controlled growth.
“We made a brave decision back in 1996 to cease practising in criminal, family and publicly funded work generally to focus on our key strengths to become Manchester’s first purely multi-disciplinary civil set and that was possibly the best decision we ever made.
“We’ve seen year-on-year growth for the past 15 years and are determined to maintain growth whilst providing outstanding service to our clients.”
Bill Brown, co-chief clerk, added: “There’s no reason for a solicitor to instruct a London set when we’ve some of the finest barristers practising in the three biggest regional cities. We’re now servicing work which routinely went to London counsel a few years ago and this has seen our members work on increasingly large cases.
“We’ve worked hard to attract the finest legal minds in the business and we’re proud to have done it from Manchester. We are continuing to grow by launching more specialist departments and seeking more outstanding members, particularly in our Birmingham and Leeds chambers.”
