Local quartet to play for 10 Park Square

Leeds chambers 10 Park Square has poached four barristers from a neighbouring common law set.

Anthony Hajimitsis, Simon Waley, Simon Reevell and Aelred Hookway have joined the chambers from 39 Park Square, a 14-tenant set headed by Timothy Bubb.

Hajimitsis and Hookway are family practitioners specialising in ancillary relief and child care cases. Waley is a criminal lawyer and Reevell specialises in crime and personal injury work.

The moves follow the recruitment earlier this year of Bar practice management consultant Vicky Thompson as the chambers' first practice director.

In response 39 Park Square has taken on two criminal barristers: Robin Denny, a barrister of 29 years' call who was formerly with Fountain Chambers in Middlesborough, and Graeme Gaston, previously with Plowden Buildings, the chambers of William Lowe QC, in London.

Head of 10 Park Square Andrew Campbell QC said the new recruits would allow the chambers to offer a broader choice of specialist counsel to clients. "This growth in chambers reflects our continued strategy of managed development," he said.

Observers say that the regional Bar, like its London counterpart, is increasingly succumbing to a "football transfer culture".

This is not the first exodus seen on the Leeds circuit this year. In April, four barristers quit Leeds set 9 Woodhouse Square to form Mercury Chambers, a new civil set, after a row over the Government's legal aid reforms.