THE top crime specialist David Spens, QC, has left 6 King’s Bench Walk to team up with Garden Court Chambers.
The move gives the set’s highly regarded crime team, which has more than 30 barristers, a major lift. As immediate past- chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, Spens has been a leading figure in the dispute between criminal barristers and the Government over pay rates.
He put his move down to the need for a “challenge and a change”. He added: “I chose Garden Court because they have got some very able criminal practitioners, they do interesting and high-quality work and have a gifted clerk with excellent administration and back-up.”
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MICHAEL BOWES, QC, the white-collar crime specialist, has joined Outer Temple Chambers. He is making the move from 2 King’s Bench Walk, where he has been based since 1996. His main areas of focus are serious fraud and regulatory law — he is a regular adviser to Lloyd’s of London in disciplinary proceedings. He said he was attracted by Outer Temple Chambers’ “imaginative and bold approach”.
The chambers has more than 60 tenants working across six practice areas, including crime and extradition, clinical negligence and healthcare, and employment and pensions.
PETER BENNETT, the chief executive of the leading Chancery commercial set Maitland Chambers, is moving across to the solicitors’ branch of the legal profession.
He has been appointed by Bates Wells & Braithwaite, the London firm, to serve in the new role of partnership executive officer. At Bates, which is best known for its charities law expertise, he will oversee the management of the firm, working closely with a new senior partner, who will be appointed in April. Bennett has been at Maitland Chambers for five years and oversaw two mergers.
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THE sports lawyer Stephen Taylor Heath has signed up with Fox Hayes, the Leeds firm, as a partner. He makes the move having been in-house counsel at Sports Network, sports promoter Frank Warren’s company.
Taylor Heath’s connection with Warren goes back to 1995 when he joined the London firm Park Nelson and began acting for Warren. He joined Sports Network as in-house counsel in 2000.