Fountain Court Chambers

Fountain Court Chambers is a leading set of commercial barristers in the Temple in central London.[1] It has 68 tenants, of whom 29 are silks.[2] With an annual turnover of £43 million, it is in the Magic Circle.[2]

Fountain Court Chambers
HeadquartersLondon, EC4
United Kingdom
No. of offices2: London and Singapore
Major practice areasCommercial law
Key peopleStephen Moriarty QC
(Head of Chambers)
Date founded1970s (present location)
Websitewww.fountaincourt.co.uk

The origin of the chambers is in those of Sir Wintringham Stable at 2, Crown Office Row, in the Inner Temple, which eventually moved to Fountain Court and were renamed in the 1970s.

Notable former tenants include Sir Melford Stevenson QC, Leslie Scarman QC, Thomas Bingham QC, Charles Falconer QC, Peter Goldsmith QC, Mark Potter QC, Sir Denis Henry QC, Sir Nicholas Underhill QC, Sir Henry Brooke QC and Sir Francis Jacobs QC. The set became established as pre-eminent under the leadership of Sir Melford Stevenson PC in the 1950s. This status as part of the 'Magic Circle' was further cemented in the 1960s and 1970s by a number of members who were widely regarded as leading advocates of their generation.[3] The present head of chambers is Bankim Thanki QC.

History

Chambers’ origins are in the early part of the twentieth century, when they are thought to have been based in Hare Court, but their period of sustained success dates from the efforts of a group of individuals working from Chambers in the aftermath of the Second World War. In the late 1940s and early 1950s a high reputation for commercial litigation was built, thanks to Melford Stevenson, Alan Orr, and Leslie Scarman, with the support of a distinguished clerk, Cyril Batchelor.[4] The chambers moved to its present location in Fountain Court in the Middle Temple, previously the home of the Bar Council, in the 1970s from Crown Office Row.

Notable cases

Members of Fountain Court Chambers have appeared in many landmark cases and high-profile commercial disputes, such as the well-known House of Lords’ case of Caparo v Dickman, in which all counsel on both sides were from Fountain Court. Several members of the Chambers were also prominent figures in acting for the Bank of England in the celebrated Three Rivers litigation, a case which led to several appeals to the House of Lords. Numerous members of Fountain Court Chambers were involved in the Lloyds litigation which dominated the work of the Commercial Court in the 1990s, and produced two significant appeals in the House of Lords. More recently, many members have been involved in Bank Charges litigation (a test case which ended up in the House of Lords), and, most recently, in the PPI litigation. Other recent substantial cases in which members of Fountain Court appeared include Springwell Navigation v JP Morgan Chase and Stone & Rolls Ltd v Moore Stephens (House of Lords). Additionally, several members of Chambers have appeared (for three different parties, including intervening professional bodies) before a seven-member panel of the Supreme Court in R (on the application of Prudential PLC) v HMRC and a nine-member panel of the Supreme Court in Bank Mellat v Her Majesty's Treasury (No. 2).[5]

Door tenants

The List of currently appointed door tenants, is as follows. [6]

Door tenants as appointed by Fountain Court Chambers
Gaurav Pachnanda SA Kanaga Dharmananda SC Professor Benjamin Hughes Sir Gordon Langley David R Wingfield Eric A. Schwartz
Sir Andrew Smith Professor Lawrence Boo Professor Peter Watts QC Sebastian Said Philippa Hamilton Dr Louise Merrett
Professor Andrew Burrows QC Michael Brindle QC Anthony Boswood QC Sir Mark Potter Professor Luca G. Radicati di Brozolo Sir Francis Jacobs QC

Notes and sources
Notes
  1. Chambers and Partners (2011).
  2. Dowell (2011).
  3. History: Fountain Court Chambers
  4. History at fountaincourt.co.uk, accessed 8 March 2019
  5. History: Fountain Court Chambers
  6. "Door Tenants - Fountain Court Chambers". fountaincourt.co.uk. March 6, 2018. Archived from the original on 14 July 2017.
Sources
  • Fountain Court. London: Chambers and Partners. Retrieved 30 October 2011.
  • Dowell, Katy (2011). "The Bar". The Lawyer. London: Centaur Media. Archived from the original on 26 November 2011. Retrieved 30 October 2011.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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