Tooks Chambers is to dissolve, citing a loss of public funding as a result of the Government's policies on Legal Aid.

The set has announced it will begin winding up operations from 11 October as a "direct result" of Legal Aid policies, and will formally dissolve on Friday 27 December to ensure that all past work is billed and fees are collected.

In a statement the chambers said: "The dissolution of chambers is the direct result of government policies on Legal Aid. The public service we provide is dependent on public funding. 90% of our work is publicly funded. The government policies led by Justice Secretary Chris Grayling are cumulatively devastating the provision of legal services and threatening the rule of law."

Tooks Chambers has advised on a number of high profile cases including the Birmingham Six and the AHK judicial review while Michael Mansfield QC has led on the Hillsborough Inquests and is the barrister for the families of Stephen Lawrence and and Dodi Al-Fayed.

The statement added that Mansfield and others are actively pursuing the possibility of reconfiguring resources to create a new and alternative working model based on an electronic hub and a compact physical space.

Chris Grayling announced in April that applications for judicial review – the process by which judges are asked to examine the legality of government decisions – will only receive legal aid funding once a judge has agreed the case is strong enough to proceed to a full hearing.

In May a group of around 90 QCs publicly criticised the proposals to limit legal aid in a letter to the Daily Telegraph.

According to the letter, the plans will include refusing any legal aid to those who do not meet a residence test; refusing to pay lawyers in some cases for work reasonably and necessarily carried out; removing legal aid for complaints of mistreatment in prison; preventing small specialist public law firms from offering prison law advice; removing funding for test cases and cutting rates for legal advice and representation.