Rankings Released for the Legal 500 UK Bar 2025 Edition
Rankings Released for the Legal 500 UK Bar 2025 Edition
33 Chancery Lane and its barristers feature in Business & Regulatory Crime (including Global Investigations), Fraud Civil, Fraud Crime, POCA & Asset Forfeiture, Commercial Litigation and Crime. Congratulations to all of those ranked:
LONDON BAR > BUSINESS AND REGULATORY CRIME (INCLUDING GLOBAL INVESTIGATIONS)
33 Chancery Lane acts for the prosecution and defendants as well as affected parties on all kinds of business crime and regulatory cases and fields ‘excellent set of barristers who are true experts in financial crime‘.
Chambers won ‘Financial Crime Set of the Year’ at this year’s Legal 500 Awards.
Mark Rainsford KC – Band 1 – “Mark is an excellent advocate. His advocacy is measured, incisive and persuasive. He has a natural authority, which catches the court's attention and makes his points land. His attractive and well-structured submissions reflect his meticulous preparation”
Graham Brodie KC – Band 1 – “Graham is strategically brilliant. Even in the most stressful situations he never loses his sense of humour, which makes him very pleasant to work with”
Faisal Osman – Leading Junior – “'Faisal is incredibly user friendly and responsive. His written work is excellent, and his advocacy is persuasive. His practice across both civil work and criminal asset forfeiture is a real point of difference.”
Testimonials
'Martin Adams is a solid senior clerk with an impressive ability to present the most talented advocates tailored to the client's needs.'
'33 Chancery Lane is a go-to set for asset forfeiture work.'
'33 Chancery Lane has carefully studied the legal market and is adapting to ensure that it stays focused on offering great advice. It is forward-thinking with exemplary practitioners at all levels, and with a friendly and efficient and commercial clerks room to boot. An impressive outfit.'
'This set is well known for this work.'
'33 Chancery Lane is a bespoke, boutique chambers offering the finest quality business crime advocates, that are respected far and wide.
Graham Brodie KC – Leading Silk - 'An excellent, whip-smart practitioner. A joy to work with.'
Faisal Osman – 'An extremely intelligent and organized junior.'
33 Chancery Lane is ‘a very strong set for financial crime and criminal fraud work’. Narita Bahra KC is highly regarded as a ‘go-to advocate’ for complex fraud matters, recently representing a defendant who was convicted of online romance fraud after defrauding multiple women out of £100,000. The 'calm, measured, and persuasive' Alistair Webster KC recently acted for a company director charged with alleged involvement in a major diversion fraud. At the junior end of chambers, Catherine Collins is well versed in prosecuting and defending in complex fraud matters.
Narita Bahra KC – Band 1 - ‘Narita has built a formidable reputation as one of the finest advocates around. A go-to silk for high-profile fraud and white collar crime cases.’
Mark Rainsford KC – ‘Mark is an excellent advocate: measured, incisive and persuasive. He has a natural authority, which catches the court’s attention and makes his points land.'
Graham Brodie KC – ‘Graham is a superb strategist and a tenacious advocate.'
Christopher Convey – ‘Christopher is simply excellent: great with clients and exceptional in court.’
Nick James – ‘An exceptional advocate with an approach that combines passion for his craft with superb judgement in even the most difficult situations.’
Catherine Collins – ‘Catherine is extremely bright, articulate and highly proficient.'
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
'Martin Adams is very good to deal with and makes a point of understanding the case as well as just dealing with commercials.'
'Chris Chiles is very hard-working and pleasant to deal with.'
'Martin Adams is professional, friendly and has a wealth of knowledge.'
'33CL is very well operated and has real strength in white-collar crime. They can offer junior barristers to support where necessary.'
'A very strong set for financial crime and criminal fraud work.'
'33CL is one of the premier sets particularly for financial crime matters.'
LONDON BAR > PROCEEDS OF CRIME (POCA) AND ASSET FORFEITURE
TIER 1
33 Chancery Lane remains a pre-eminent set for the full spectrum of POCA work, with the members’ busy workload extending to unexplained wealth and account freezing orders, civil recovery and confiscation under POCA, as well as advice on the intersection of POCA issues and sanctions law. Mark Rainsford KC acts in proceedings related to the biggest single recovery of cryptocurrency obtained under POCA by the NCA, whereas Kennedy Talbot KC was involved in securing an order restraining £75m assets in relation to the investigation into PPE Medpro, a company owned by the husband of Conservative peer Baroness Mone that was awarded large government personal protective equipment contracts during the Covid pandemic. Penelope Small is instructed in an enforcement case involving a child suffering from multiple learning difficulties living in a property purchased by the father from the proceeds of his criminal conduct. Christopher Convey is instructed by the SFO in ongoing confiscation proceedings against mortgage fraudster Achilleas Kallakis, including litigation related to the recovery of donations to the Francis Holland School, which named a theatre after him.
Martin Evans KC – Band 1 – ‘Extremely well prepared and skillful across the whole ambit of case preparation and presentation. Financial analysis and commercial understanding is first class. Particularly incisive in cross examination with a deftness across masses of financial and contractual matters.'
Kennedy Talbot KC – Band 1 – ‘Kennedy is great to work with. He encourages a collegiate approach with his solicitors and lay client alike. His knowledge of POCA is encyclopaedic, and as a result both his written work and advocacy are both top drawer.'
Andrew Mitchell KC – Band 1- 'Andrew is an industry leader and brings real gravitas to his cases.'
Graham Brodie KC – ‘Excellent attention to detail, direct and clear advice. Ensures that client understands the risks and implications of the proceedings. No-nonsense advice, when the clients need it the most. Clearly an expert in this field.'
Mark Rainsford KC – ‘Mark's advice was sound.'
Ian Smith – Band 1 - ‘His strength is that he playing in both the civil world and the criminal world.'
Barry Stancombe – Band 1 - ‘Barry is an encyclopaedia on POCA law and practice. He is a very well-respected advocate by the courts in all POCA work.'
Christopher Convey – Band 1 – “Christopher is an excellent and tenacious advocate in court”
Fiona Jackson – Band 1
Catherine Collins – “Superb mastery”
Faisal Osman – Band 1 ‘Faisal is incredibly user friendly and responsive. His written work is excellent, and his advocacy is persuasive.'
Penelope Small – ‘Her drafting is clear, robust and unambiguous as is her advice to clients.'
Rachel Ferrari – ‘Rachel is meticulous in her preparation. She has a fantastic eye for detail and her ability to reduce a voluminous case into a more manageable working document is a real skill.’
Testimonials
'A friendly and integrated service. The clerks systems and client handling are excellent - with a can-do attitude, enabling easier planning on my side. Chris Chiles is excellent.'
'Very able set of clerks. Martin Adams in particular is always responsive to queries and requests for assistance.'
'Martin Adams is excellent. Always tries to help, and is very responsive.'
'33 Chancery Lane is the go-to set for POCA work. Number One.'
'The set has heavyweight individuals and is undoubtedly at the top of the tree for all matters relating to economic crime including Proceeds of Crime Act cases.'
'33 Chancery Lane is possibly the best set in the country in terms of depth of quality counsel for POCA work. Every member is highly respected.'
'Heavy focus on confiscation cases, the market leader in this field.'
'33 Chancery Lane is a prominent set specialising in POCA and commercial matters, boasting excellent counsel.'
Narita Bahra KC – Leading Silk - ‘Narita is incredibly hard-working. She is meticulous in preparation, in particular in relation to disclosure, in which she is an industry thought leader and noted author of the practitioner texts. Narita is a masterful advocate who has seen it all and knows just what to say and how to say it to best effect.’
REGIONAL BAR > COMMERCIAL LITIGATION
Olivia Chaffin-Laird –‘Olivia is technically brilliant whilst having the ability to explain the most difficult concepts to clients in appropriate terms. She is an absolute pleasure to work with in all aspects of litigation, from written advice and pleadings, to her immensely impressive advocacy skills.’
MIDDLE EAST > ENGLISH BAR
Sam Carter is very helpful and always keen to ensure that the right barrister is put forward for a particular instruction.'
'Sam Carter is a dream to deal with - leads the chambers incredibly well.'
'Very quick service and amiable clerks. Sam Carter is very impressive.'
Legal 500
Financial services and fintech regulation
'Sam Carter is my go-to clerk. He is always available and always tries to accommodate the most urgent requests.'
'Sam Carter is a very business savy clerk and always delivers. I really like they way he structured the chambers.'
'Clerk's room are very responsive. I work with Sam Carter, who is always willing to speak about an instruction.'