...and the top five juniors

Matheu Swallow asked instructing solicitors who they regard as the leading junior barristers.

Pushpinder Saini

Blackstone Chambers

Called to the bar: 19

Professional achievements/associations:

Member of the Bar European Group; Administrative Law Bar Association.

Areas of practice: Commercial, copyright and entertainment, public, civil liberties and sports.

Publications: Co-author of: Lester & Oliver on Constitutional Law (1996); Lester & Pannick, Human Rights Law and Practice (1999).

Significant recent cases: George Michael & ors v Sony Music Entertainment (1994); ex parte A (1999); Wienerworld v VVL (1998); R v Broadmoor Special Health Authority ex parte S (1998); Albert Reynolds v The Times Newspapers & Ors (1999)



Rabinder Singh

4-5 Gray's Inn Square

Called to the bar: 198

Professional achievements/associations:

Treasurer of the Administrative Law Bar Association; member of the Employment Bar Association; The Bar European Group; Planning and Environment Bar Association; member of the B panel of Junior Counsel to the Crown (Common Law); Visiting Fellow at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London; additional junior counsel to the Inland Revenue (Common law).

Areas of practice: Public, employment, commercial, European Community and human rights law.

Publications: Contributor to: The Indirect Regulation of Speech (1998); Infertility Treatment and the Courts (1988); The Future of Human Rights in the United Kingdom: Essays in Law and Practice (1997).

Significant recent cases: R v Bournewood NHS Trust ex parte L (1999); R v secretary of State for the Home Department ex parte Fayed (1998); R v DPP ex parte Kebilene (1999); R v East Sussex CC ex parte Tandy (1998)



Tim Owen

Doughty Street Chambers

Called to the bar: 1

Professional achievements/associations:

Founder member and chairman of the Inquest Lawyers Group; trustee of the Prison Reform Trust (1990-1993); member of the public and administrative law panel of Justice.

Areas of practice: Administrative and public law, prison law, coroners/inquest law, torts arising from detention and abuse of power, criminal law.

Publications: Co-author of Prison Law (1999)

Significant recent cases: ex parte Simms & O'Brien (1999); ex parte Kebilene (1999); Reeves v Metropolitan Police Commissioner (1999); Silcott v Metropolitan Police Commissioner (1999).



Nigel Giffin

11 King's Bench Walk

Called to the bar: 1

Professional achievements/associations:

Member of Administrative Law Bar Association; Education Law Association; Employment Bar Association; Planning and Environment Bar Association; lecturer on judicial review, Human Rights Act, education, local government and employment law.

Areas of practice: Public and administrative law, employment and commercial law.

Publications: Contributor to Halsbury's Laws of England on Administrative Law; chapter on education law in Butterworths Local Government Law; co-author of Tolley's Employment Handbook.

Significant recent cases: Arthur v Attorney-General (1999); Wandsworth LBC v D'Silva (1998); R v Brent LBC ex parte O'Malley (1998); R v Somerset CC ex parte Harcombe (1998); Parry v Edwards Geldard (1999).



Michael Fordham

Blackstone Chambers

Called to the bar: 1990

Professional achievements/associations:

Member of the Administrative Law Bar Association; Bar Sports Law Group; British Association for Sport and the Law; member of the Attorney-General's B Panel of junior counsel.

Areas of practice: Public and administrative law, judicial review, environmental law, commercial and sports law.

Publications: Author of The Judicial Review Handbook; editor of Judicial Review; co-author of Lender Liability.

Significant recent cases: R v Law Society ex parte Dalton (1999); British Waterways Board v Severn Trent Water Authority (1999); R v Criminal Cases Review Commission ex parte Dickinson (1999).