Results for 5 Essex Court:
5 Essex Court Chambers & Partners - Barristers in London:
Usually when we review a firm we have to use a lot of our experience such as knowledge of the relevant agencies the firm might be registered with, tracking down alternate names, pinning down previous brands, browsing the lesser-known third party review boards, etc. However with 5 Essex Court there seems to be a wealth of information, articles and reviews available right from the outset.
"One phrase crops up repeatedly when describing the work at civil law chambers 5 Essex Court ― 'high-profile'."
That's the opener of a review by Legal Cheek which goes on to detail comments made by those who have been involved with the chambers over time. The Legal 500 page about them also uses similar wording in it's praise:
"An excellent set with a stellar reputation, 5 Essex Court consistently appears in high-profile inquests and inquiries ..."
The Legal 500 arcticle also includes peer reviews from other professionals that have worked with them over the years, trained there, or seen them in action in court. To have such a great industry reputation certainly puts them head and shoulders above many whilst you're making a decision about which firm you should use for your own case. But many people might not be aware of some of the other benefits that come from using a 'chambers' over a regular 'solicitor'.
There are many firms around the UK that have both solicitors and barristers or dually qualified staff on board. But on the whole, solicitors will tend to hire a third party barrister to do the actual court appearances for a range of matters - including 5 Essex Court's speciality of Criminal Law. Until recently, the public didn't have any say in this. You would take your case to a solicitor, they would run it, and they would hire a barrister to represent you. However under the new Direct Access scheme members of the public are able to hire a barrister directly. This naturally means a great opportunity to save both time and money:
"The Direct Public Access scheme introduced in 2004 enables barristers to be instructed directly from or on behalf of a member of the public, also known as a lay client. Prior to 2004, it was necessary to instruct a firm of solicitors or third party. Many of our barristers are qualified to accept Direct Access instructions."
That's from the firm's own website which also goes on to discuss the relevant fees, advantages and types of cases. There is a also a full list of the barristers available along with their experience and expertise. You won't find any of the typical staff profiles here which is a welcome relief. We've never understood why so many law firms feel the need to share all the staff's hobbies and favourite foods. On this site like most chambers you'll be presented with each barrister's case focus, experience and usually some testimonials for each individual rather than the firm as a whole.
With barristers you'll also find they tend to specialise much more niche-ly than solicitors. However this actually makes it much harder to find client reviews of the firm. Clearly 5 Essex Court are highly regarded by other professionals, but there are far fewer comments on the web by people who have actually used a barrister at this firm. Google currently lists them 4.6/5 stars, but there are only five ratings and no actual comments next to each. This may be partly because you really do deal one-on-one with the barrister rather than with the firm as a whole. But probably more so because Direct Access is unfortunately not as widely known as it should be considering how long it's been available. Hopefully as more and more people get wind of the option, we'll start seeing more publicly available feedback about the various barristers/chambers as well.
In the meantime, there is no shortage of praise amongst the legal community:
"a genuinely unstuffy, open and informal chambers"
"a formidable reputation"
"its reputation as the leading set in England, as far as police law is concerned, goes before it"
"an impressive track record of major cases"
"outstanding quality of counsel"
"cares about what is best for the client"
"a formidable reputation"
"its reputation as the leading set in England, as far as police law is concerned, goes before it"
"an impressive track record of major cases"
"outstanding quality of counsel"
"cares about what is best for the client"
Many chambers do have very similar names so researching about each and navigating can be tricky. We've linked to the official www.5essexcourt.co.uk above but www.5essexcourt.com is currently a chinese lottery site. Other typical variants such as www.fiveessexcourt.co.uk or the dot com version are also similarly nothing to do with this particular chambers.
Of course, if you search for the name on a search engine the correct site will pop up at the top. However it's not uncommon for random adverts to appear under this or related keywords. Unfortunately Google can be quite slow in responding to scammers. We've also seen some understandable variants in searches such as "no.5 essex court" and "5 essex street" for example. We would therefore recommend bookmarking the correct site once you're on it just in case.
In closing we'll leave you with the firm's own description of it's offering:
"A top-tier civil law set of chambers recognised for our exemplary client service, depth and breadth of experience in our specialist areas and the outstanding quality of our counsel."
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General Notes: Legal Aid availability changes constantly, so ask up front. If you are looking for a career with 5 Essex Court it's best to visit the website (www.5essexcourt.co.uk) and locate the correct phone/email contact details. Any quoted here will be for potential clients. Alternating or adding words such as 5 Essex Court Chambers & Partners may bring up different background/reviews on the firm. Each firm's Law Society and/or SRA number should be on their site too.