No 1 Serjeants' Inn takes on six as Barnard's Inn dissolves

The chambers of Edward Faulks QC, No 1 Serjeants' Inn, is expanding by 20 per cent after the dissolution of yet another set.

Barnard's Inn Chambers, a 17-strong civil set, will close its doors on 30 June.

Alan Saggerson, head of chambers and one of the six tenants to be joining No 1 Serjeants' Inn, says: "We came to the conclusion that we're just too small in the current market."

The other barristers include John Bryant, Dr David Thomson, Matthew Chapman, Zachary Bredemear and Mohinderpal Sethi, all personal injury and clinical negligence specialists. They bring the number of practitioners at the set to 32.

Saggerson says: "We looked at No 1 Serjeants' Inn and felt that it was the kind of organisation that we would have liked to emulate had we been large enough."

Senior clerk Andrew Flanagan will follow them while Timothy Dutton, a property litigator, is joining Falcon Chambers.

The remaining tenants are finalising negotiations to join other sets.

There have already been several dissolutions this year as the bar frantically restructures in able to handle legislative reform and increased competition in a shrinking market.

Last year Bar Council research highlighted non-niche chambers in the 10-to-25 tenant bracket as being most at risk.