Road crash deaths stun London chambers

BARRISTERS and solicitors in London have been shaken by the sudden deaths of a clerk and a legal secretary who were killed in a horrific road crash over the recent bank holiday weekend.

The 3 Gray's Inn Square chambers of Rock Tansey QC, has paid tribute to Vicki Raynham, the driver of a Metro which crashed at Eltham on 28 May.

The crash also killed six teenagers including former barristers' clerk Miriam Tickner, who had recently left 1 Gray's Inn Square for City Road law firm Harris da Silva.

Raynham was the daughter of former Old Bailey chief clerk Ted Raynham.

Tansey says Raynham's death "is a terrible example of a young life, full of promise, being cut off in the flower of its youth".

"Vicki brought her very special qualities to 3 Gray's Inn Square and to the busy life of Gray's Inn generally," says Tansey.

Patricia Scotland QC, who employed Tickner as a clerk, described her as "cheerful and quietly efficient".

"For her to be denied such a bright future both in her personal life and her employment seems so desperately unfair," says Scotland.

Tickner's senior partner Charles da Silva says since her appointment at the firm in February everyone in the practice had grown to like and depend on her.