Ex NHS trust chief to head Wilberforce

Shaun Pye reports

Wilberforce chambers has appointed the former chief executive of an NHS trust to be its first chambers director.

Suzanne Cosgrave, who starts on 1 April, will be responsible for the overall management of chambers including the clerks.

Senior clerk Roy Beazley retires from the chancery set, which has 29 tenants, at the end of March, and his replacement, Declan Redmond, will report to Cosgrave.

Anthony Taussig, chairman of the management committee, said: "We consulted the consultants Stoy Hayward last year on the best model for our chambers. The new chambers director will free up the clerks to get on with clerking."

Cosgrave has no direct experience of the Bar. For the last four years she was chief executive of Worthing NHS Trust. But she said: "A consistent theme is that I have been working in professional service organisations and I am looking forward to transferring those skills to the Bar."

Taussig said: "She has the professional management abilities that chambers needs in order to adapt to the changing environment at the Bar today."

Wilberforce chambers has had a hectic year, taking on six tenants, a chambers administrator, moving into a new annex at 16 New Square and updating its information technology.