4 New Square adds two barristers from 39 Essex Street

The set said the pair would join a team led by Nicholas Bacon QC and Roger Mallalieu.

Williams has been involved with some of the biggest costs battles in the courts in recent years. He was instructed by the private investigator at the heart of the phone-hacking scandal, Glenn Mulcaire, in his battle with News International over legal costs (21 December 2011).

Williams was also instructed as junior to 7KBW’s Christopher Butcher QC and Doughty Street’s Richard Hermer QC in Leigh Day & Co’s costs battle with oil company Trafigura (12 October 2011). In that case he went head to head with 4 New Square’s Bacon, who was instructed for Trafigura (2 January 2012).

The pair also did battle in a costs battle over success fees in Sousa v Waltham Forest Council (see judgment), in which Williams won for the respondent Sousa.

Marven, who joined 39 Essex Street in 2008 (30 June 2008), is also a costs specialist who is instructed by insurers and claims management companies.