Instructing Us

Who can instruct

We receive instructions from a wide range of clients, including UK and international law firms, in-house legal departments and overseas lawyers. Members of chambers accept work directly under the Licensed and Public Access rules from professional organisations and corporate clients.

Overseas Lawyers may instruct Barristers directly in order to provide legal advice. Members of chambers may also be instructed directly in any International Arbitration and various Court proceedings, both domestically in UK or internationally.

Some members of chambers accept Public Access work. A guide for lay clients has been made available by the Bar Standards Board here.

When instructing a barrister, your first point of contact will be a member of the highly-experienced Quadrant clerking team. Our Senior Clerks, Senior Practice Manager and Practice Managers possess an unrivalled knowledge of the specialist practices of each member of chambers. Should you require such guidance, they are able to advise and recommend either a single barrister or an entire team best suited to deal with each individual case.

Professional Fees

The clerking team work with the barristers to provide fees estimates and budgets for each instruction. We do not generally charge for these estimates or quotes and will provide information in advance if we propose to do so. Whilst we charge competitive market rates commensurate with the service provided we are always willing to discuss the way our fees are structured in order to find a solution that works for our clients as well as ourselves.

Each member of chambers has an hourly rate which takes account of the market rates and the individual barrister’s skills and experience. The hourly rate for a particular case or a specific piece of work will normally be agreed in advance and takes into account the complexity and value of the case.

Whilst charges for paperwork and advice are based on hourly rates the clerking team are always willing to consider alternative or flexible fee structures depending upon the circumstances of each case, including fixed and capped fees where appropriate.

Fees for hearings will usually consist of a brief fee and, in more substantial cases, refreshers. A brief fee is an agreed fixed fee that covers all pre-hearing preparation and the first day of hearing. A refresher is the fixed agreed fee for any subsequent day of the hearing after the first day.

In appropriate cases the Barristers are able to consider certain types of conditional fee and damages based agreements.

Fees are based on the complexity and expected length of a case, the seniority of the barrister required, whether they are leading a case, and other factors including the location of the hearing. This will be discussed with you at the start of your case. Commercial cases are complex matters and a hearing can take many weeks. The expected length of a case and its implication for costs will be discussed with you at the beginning of the case and any changes will be discussed as they arise.

Terms of Business

With effect from 31st January 2013, the Bar’s Standard Non-Contractual Terms (Annex G1 to the Bar’s Code of Conduct) are no longer deemed to be the applicable terms on which instructions are accepted.  Instructions that were accepted prior to 31 January 2013 will continue to be governed by the Standard Non-Contractual Terms upon which they were accepted.

Members of Quadrant Chambers now carry out services on Quadrant Chambers Terms (see below) unless otherwise agreed in writing.

In the alternative, Barristers at Quadrant Chambers are willing to discuss the acceptance of instructions on the COMBAR and The City of London Law Society (CLLS) terms (available here) or The Standard Contractual Terms for the Supply of Legal Services by Barristers to Authorised Persons 2012 as referred to in Rule rC30.9c of the BSB Handbook (Bar Council Terms) (available here).

We foresee little or no change to the relationship with our clients following the introduction of the revised terms.

Should you wish to discuss any of these options, please contact Simon Slattery.

Precedent H Budgets

The former exemption of Commercial Court cases and high value Chancery Division cases from costs budgeting ended in April 2014 and new costs budgeting rules and a practice direction came into force, which applies to cases commenced on or after 22 April 2014. Costs budgeting now applies to all Part 7 claims except where the value of the claim exceeds £10 million or the court otherwise orders.

Since cost management was introduced as part of the substantial change to the CPR, our clerks and practice managers understand the real need to assist both professional and lay clients to manage cases that are subject to Precedent H budgets.

Our IT software has been integrated with full cost budgeting functionality as part of our fee system and, along with our clerking teams’ experience, this means they are able to provide detailed quotes at the early stage of proceedings as well as managing the budget at each phase or category of work during the lifetime of a case.

Booking policies

The clerking team liaise with clients to book appointments with members of chambers. They also maintain productive working relationships with court staff and can generally ensure that appointments before judges and tribunals are fixed and booked on convenient dates.

We operate a strict ‘no double booking’ policy for court and arbitration hearings, unless by prior agreement of the professional or lay client in specific circumstances.

Client Confidentiality and Information Barriers

Barristers, Arbitrators and Mediators at Quadrant Chambers are self- employed and independent practitioners. Whilst they share the costs of offices and administration they do not share in profits or liabilities. The Barristers at Quadrant Chambers regularly work with other barristers within chambers. This way of working can offer the client many advantages including diversity in specialisms and efficiency of communication.

It is also common place for Barristers in the same set of Chambers to act against each other in a set of proceedings. In circumstances where Barristers from Quadrant Chambers are acting against each other, the Barrister, Clerks and Practice Managers operate a strict information barrier protocol, which is available on request and can be provided to those instructing and their lay clients.

For more information regarding any of the above, please contact a member of the clerking team. clerks@quadrantchambers.com.

Data protection / GDPR

Chambers' privacy notice is available here.