Information for Overseas Clients

The Bar is a profession of independent lawyers who are usually self-employed but practising in groups, from offices known as chambers. More information about barristers can be found on the website of the Bar Council, the professional body for barristers in England and Wales.

So far as overseas clients are concerned, barristers can receive instructions either directly from clients or from a law firm, whether based within the UK or outside the UK, acting on behalf of foreign clients.  However, when acting in legal proceedings conducted in England and Wales a barrister has to be instructed by solicitors who are on the record.

The Chancery Bar of England and Wales

The Chancery Bar undertakes, both domestically and internationally, the work which traditionally is associated with the City of London.  It deals with companies, investment trusts, pension funds and other investment vehicles, with takeovers, mergers and reorganizations, with insolvencies, banking, capital markets, securitisations, and financial services, with Media work, with all matters involving property and interests in property: whether real, personal, or intellectual, and with trusts and commercial contracts.  Members of the Chancery Bar advise on and act in international transactions and disputes, and are able to accept instructions direct from overseas lawyers.

It is easy to instruct Chancery barristers.  For guidance click here.

Do the following concern you: International fraud? Spider webs of trusts and companies? Trans-national estates and succession problems? Cross-border insolvencies? Offshore tax and pension problems? Complex shareholder, company and joint venture disputes? Arguments about property?

Solving problems, advising, appearing in courts, at arbitrations and in mediations in these matters are what members of the Chancery Bar Association excel in. The Chancery Bar Association is the professional association for members of the Chancery Bar and has over 1,000 members.

Chancery barristers traditionally practise within the area of law dealt with by the Chancery Division of the English High Court.  Historically, the Chancery Division succeeded  the Court of Chancery, which administered "equity" as opposed to the "common law". Chancery work has, however, grown far beyond its historical roots.  The way in which traditional equitable doctrines have developed in the modern climate is exemplified by recent developments in constructive trusts and restitution in the commercial context. Chancery barristers and judges are notorious for their attention to detail, skilful drafting, incisive advocacy and intellectual rigour.

Dickens in Bleak House immortalised the Court of Chancery of the Victorian era. But the fog and delay to which he referred have long since rolled away, and modern Chancery barristers have a huge diversity of skills. They are efficient, technologically able and very approachable - particularly by foreign lawyers who can, of course, instruct them directly without a solicitor as an intermediary.

The core areas of practice of our members are company law, contract, estates (wills and probate), insolvency, intellectual property, partnerships, property law and trusts. These, of course, are the bedrock of most business and financial transactions. Our work therefore includes onshore and offshore trusts; charities; wills, probate and estates; corporate finance and insolvency; shareholder disputes; claims against directors; real property; partnerships and joint ventures; banking, mortgages and guarantees; financial services; hedge funds; CDO transactions and syndications; pensions; tax; intellectual property; media and sports law; civil fraud; money-laundering; injunctions and equitable remedies; and related professional negligence.

As well as appearing in the Chancery Division of the High Court, our members appear in the other Courts within England and Wales, from the County Court to the House of Lords, including the Commercial Court.  For further details of the work of the Chancery Bar, click here.

Many of our members regularly advise and appear in courts abroad, particularly in the Commonwealth jurisdictions. In addition to providing specialist advice, assistance, advocacy and drafting services, our members act as arbitrators and mediators and provide expert witness services.

For some notes on how to instruct a barrister click here.