3VB picks up Keating Chambers' Cooklin
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Gray’s Inn set 3 Verulam Buildings (3VB) has hit Keating Chambers for its director of clerking Paul Cooklin who will rejoin his former chambers as practice director.
Cooklin will join 3VB as senior practice manager in March, succeeding Nick Hill who last month announced his exit for IP set Three New Square (20 January 2012).
Cooklin is departing Keating Chambers two years after joining the set from South Square, following the exit of long-standing joint senior clerk John Munton (27 January 2010).
Cooklin had joined South Square in 1999 from 3VB where he spent 14 years in the clerking room (18 October 1999). His return to the set has been welcomed by head of chambers Ali Malek QC.
Malek said: “He will be a great asset to us in the further development of our business areas and services to our national and international clients.”
Keating Chambers, which is understood to have made a significant investment in restructuring its team at the beginning of 2011, said it would look to expand clerking room in 2012.
Head of chambers Paul Darling QC said: “Keating Chambers is looking forward to expanding the clerking team in 2012, as we continue to invest in the best talent.
“Under the leadership of [senior clerk] Nick Child, our clerks will continue to provide an excellent level of guidance, ensuring our clients have access to our sector leadership in advocacy and advisory services.”
Readers' comments (5)
construction litigator solicitor | 8-Feb-2012 5:12 pm
Confirms what everybody in the market has been saying - the set is finding it hard to maintain its position with others catching up and overtaking it in terms of reputation. It still has the numbers, but that isnt the sole selling point it once was: a lot of the best work is going to other smaller sets with stellar people and less double booking.
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Anonymous | 8-Feb-2012 5:14 pm
... so thats the plan to expand beyond construction work gone then....
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Dr E.S Blofeld | 9-Feb-2012 8:18 am
Hilarious, is somebody in this forum trying to suggest that an insolvency clerk departing back to his former world will effect Keating's plans for global domination..... I think not.
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Neutral observer | 9-Feb-2012 9:33 am
What KC must not do in these circumstances is even contemplate the appointment of a chief executive drawn from outside the clerking fraternity. To do so would seriously undermine efforts to consolidate their market leading position in the construction sector and obliterate any prospect of broadening their expertise to other commercial disciplines. Merely look north to see what can happen when less than ideally equipped individuals are brought in to navigate sets through choppy waters.
KC can, and I am sure will, bounce back from this. They just need to ensure that they retain the right man or woman for the job. A final word of warning, though. They cannot expect to reposition their business towards other revenue streams in the short term. To use the aged cliché, Rome was not built in a day.
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Anon | 9-Feb-2012 3:48 pm
Dr E.S. Blofeld - you are deluded if you think (a) that the departure of Paul Cooklin will not have an effect on the fortunes of Keating Chambers and; (b) that Keating Chambers is within a million light years of construction (or other) global domination.
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