Criminal set Hollis Whiteman Chambers has appointed its first-ever chambers director after a strategic review earlier this year.
Vicky Thompson joins the set from Bates Wells & Braithwaite. She arrives at Hollis Whiteman along with new senior clerk Bill Conner, who has been hired from 36 Bedford Row, where he was senior clerk.
The appointments come eight months after The Lawyer (27 February) revealed that Hollis Whiteman’s longstanding senior clerk Michael Greenaway was retiring and that the chambers had decided to institute a more modern management structure.
Thompson and Conner will help guide the set through the implementation of Lord Carter’s legal aid reforms.
Silks Julian Bevan QC, Timothy Langdale QC and John Kelsey-Fry QC, plus leading juniors Richard Horwell and Ian Winter are also leaving the set to launch a new chambers focusing on high-value and private criminal work.
The new set, Cloth Fair Chambers, later hired Greenaway as a consultant clerk alongside Hollis Whiteman’s former first junior clerk Nick Newman as senior clerk.
Hollis Whiteman’s head of chambers Vivian Robinson QC said the appointments would help the set consolidate its position “at the vanguard of criminal and regulatory law”.
