Ben Rigby profiles 10 of the most acclaimed young barristers making their mark in a fiercely competitive arena

The challenges facing the young Bar as a whole are particularly acute this year, and the commercial and Chancery Bar are well aware of it. In a rapidly changing commercial environment, they must win the trust of law firms – and fast. Another of the most important relationships that junior barristers must sustain is the one with their clerks.

Brian Lee, senior clerk of 20 Essex Street, is chairman of the Institute of Barristers' Clerks. To him, the essentials for junior barristers are to be "flexible, receptive and aware of the needs and expectations of a client", adding: "Impossible deadlines and unreasonable requests, especially when you are in court, just have to be met. A junior barrister of today has to be incredibly bright and receptive, and stand out from the crowd. If he or she does not, their practice will not get off the ground."

But if they do, "no matter what call, you will be considered for large cases if you have the confidence of those instructing you", Lee adds.

He criticises the practice of offering junior counsel to leading law firms for reduced rates, saying it "just does not work. Getting the juniors in on the right case with the right leader pays dividends."

One of this year's stars, Fountain Court's Simon Atrill, agrees: "I'm very fortunate to have a team of clerks who work very hard on my behalf. They make sure that the wheels don't come off on a day-to-day basis."

Supporting the pupils

Juniors also pay tribute to their equally influential pupil masters. Atrill says his former supervisor Jeff Chapman QC was a "great model of how to be a successful senior junior and then a leader".

Chapman "delivers his advice with disarming charm and calmness even in the most difficult situations", Atrill says, exemplifying "the kind of person you want in a crisis".

Likewise, Outer Temple's Farhaz Khan – another of this year's stars – says his first pupil supervisor Richard Hitchcock "showed me that doing a case well requires intellectual intensity, but also can be done with creativity and flair".

Charles Raffin at Hardwicke believes the key is to listen, for the role "calls for more than just having an understanding of the matter and the task you are asked to perform". 

"You need to get to grips with what the practical issues on the matter are (or will be)," he notes, including "where a case fits with their ultimate commercial objectives".

4 New Square's Can Yeginsu says he was drawn to his set because it was "modern and forward-looking", and "seemed to be a supportive place, borne out by my experience to date".

For example, he spent last year combining practice with co-authoring a practitioner's text on human rights law, which "could not have been possible without chambers' support and first-rate clerking".

Only one Bar

The ability of the Bar more broadly to provide such support is, however, under some threat because of cumulative cuts to funding, including legal aid.

Maura McGowan QC, chairman of the Bar Council, says lawyers should not assume the pressures bearing down on young civil, criminal and family barristers have no impact on more moneyed colleagues. "There is only one Bar, so anything that damages one part damages the whole. The challenges facing the Bar are not exclusive to publicly funded practice areas. The Bar is a collective and collegiate profession, which is united in the same shared values of justice, excellence and integrity."

The young stars are in full agreement. Michael Watkins at One Essex Court says: "At heart, we are all advocates and we all share a common desire to put our client's case as persuasively as possible, whether orally or in writing." 

Raffin says all barristers "share common goals: a need to promote an inclusive profession in all its forms, which encourages innovation and maintains the highest standards".

Justice in an age of austerity

Essex Court's Amy Sander notes, following Supreme Court president Lord Neuberger's recent speech on access to justice, that "the current economic climate clearly poses a threat to the public's ability to achieve access to justice". 

She says: "As Lord Neuberger commented, cutting the cost of legal aid risks depriving the very people who most need the protection of the courts of the ability to get legal advice and representation." 

Siddharth Dhar of Essex Court Chambers agrees: "Cuts in funding are a serious problem. The Government has it backwards on criminal legal aid. The problem seems to be that ministers do not appreciate the value of an independent and vibrant criminal Bar." 

Dhar adds: "It is easy politics to single out high-earning QCs, but the reality is that many criminal practitioners are facing real difficulties."

Caroline Pounds at Quadrant Chambers says: "The concerns are obvious: the dividing up of the profession between those who can make a living out of being a barrister and those who can't; and the consequent inevitable deterioration in the quality of advocacy due to the lack of truly specialised and experienced practitioners. The English Bar owes much of its reputation to those who are on their feet in the criminal courts every day."

The sky's the limit

Beyond offering their support to their criminal Bar colleagues, this year's cohort recognise that they need to spread their wings beyond just working constantly. Raffin says: "I also think we all want to be a little fitter and spend a little less time watching box sets. 24, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Sons of Anarchy – they are a blessing and a curse."

Others already lead active lives outside the law. Pearce, for example, is a highly competent chef, having worked in a restaurant in France for a year, as well as being a skilled jazz musician – music to the ears of 4 Pump Court's Matthew Lavy, with his PhD in music psychology. Lavy has also found time to obtain a commercial pilot's licence in both the US and EU. When not working, he flies a Piper Mirage plane. Proof, perhaps, that for the best the sky really is the limit. 

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THE STARS AT THE BAR

Simon Atrill, Fountain Court Chambers Called in 2005

Instructed as junior counsel on some of the largest commercial cases in recent years, Atrill's 2012 caseload continued to build his reputation, with a signature appearance in the long-running Russian case of JSC BTA Bank v Ablyazov. Other cases handled include the CLICO banking inquiry in Trinidad and Tobago alongside the set's respected deputy head, Bankim Thanki QC.

Atrill comes across as a consummate professional – "a workhorse: thorough as they come and extremely talented", according to one person who knows him – but also intellectually and commercially astute. One instructing solicitor calls him a "very solid black-letter lawyer, but with a good sense of commercial acumen".

Atrill says: "Every case requires something slightly different, but one of the most important things is to work out what it is that they would like you to do and to be flexible." 

Solicitors praise his "excellent interpersonal skills, [handling] clients and solicitors well and delivering oral advice in a clear and measured way".

Like any junior, Atrill says early instruction is better than late: "If the case is going to end up at trial, or settled before trial, it helps to involve counsel in the key strategic decisions along the way."

He says part of the role "is trying to anticipate what is required before it happens: either what the solicitors and client are going to need next or what your leader might have said in a given scenario".

That he has done so can be seen in one silk's feedback that "he makes his leaders' jobs easier; solicitors and clients love him". 

Siddharth Dhar, Essex Court Chambers Called in 2005

Siddharth Dhar thrives on high-stakes disputes. The higher the value, the more able he appears to his colleagues. The mix of arbitral, litigious or advisory matters on which the Essex Court junior has been involved have values ranging from $4bn (£2.5bn) to $80bn this year alone. They all tend to involve very complicated issues of fact and law, and often involve states or state entities. For instance, Dhar teamed up with Toby Landau QC and Sam Wordsworth QC in a $260m (£161m) expropriation claim against a central African state.

So why is Dhar so valuable? One leader says he has "an amazing ability to get to the heart of a case and to provide truly incisive comments that lead to the winning of a case". One partner says Dhar "has been very impressive as a junior with no leader in all the cases we have instructed him in, including two difficult anti-suit injunctions, both of which were resounding successes".

Dhar also "manages to combine razor-sharp legal acumen and punch with disarming charm and politeness", which is "a deadly combination". Another commends Dhar's can-do attitude in a case where he "came on board at a late stage, but got on top of a huge volume of paper very quickly indeed and saw straight to the heart of the issues". The solicitor adds that Dhar is "calm and unflappable, and instils confidence in the clients. He has the presence of a barrister far beyond his call."

Dhar says "most of my leaders have helped me in some way", and names Paul Key QC as an influence on his career to date.

Farhaz Khan, Outer Temple Chambers Called in 2005

The ability for a junior to develop their own practice rests not just on their own ability, but also the firm bedrock on which their work is based from the outset.

Farhaz Khan says his practice "probably reflects the trajectory of Outer Temple's growth in commercial chancery work", but in Khan's case that trajectory has been steep with increased recognition outside the set.

Clients acknowledge his "helpful legal arguments and thinking through how these can be applied to put pressure on the other side", saying that is especially appreciated in cases where he is "always on hand to advise or roll his sleeves up and help with drafting", and "understands well the pressures his instructing solicitors are under". 

Khan himself values that skill highly, calling it crucial in complex and long-running cases, where he often acts as the central point of contact, particularly in the run-up to a hearing. Good communication, he says, becomes particularly important "in being able to pick up the phone to thrash through a problem, actual or perceived, as and when things arise". 

Khan has appeared on some big pension cases in recent years, such as Foster Wheeler, IMG and Lehman Brothers, as well as heavyweight banking claims. Active in the Financial Services Litigation Association, he was the lead junior barrister on the Libor manipulation/Guardian Care Homes case, at trial and in the Court of Appeal last month.

Khan has worked alongside Brick Court's Tim Lord QC, One Essex Court's Stephen Auld QC and Bar Council chairman-elect Nicholas Lavender QC, as well as advising on the JP Morgan 'London Whale' matter and the MF Global and Lehman banking insolvencies. He says he has "gleaned a lot from the way in which experienced and able solicitors handle the slings and arrows of complex litigation".

Matthew Lavy, 4 Pump Court Called in 2004

Those that come late to the Bar might take inspiration from Matthew Lavy. Armed with a PhD in music psychology, he had a previous career as an IT systems administrator and software developer. That interest in IT fostered his interest in law, he recalls, remembering the changes in software, the dotcom bubble, open source and high-speed internet networks. 

Those technical developments, he says, raised fascinating legal questions about "what made an IT project succeed and what makes one fail – and the legal aspects of all this". Having decided on the Bar, "knowing that I wanted to spend at least some of my time engaged in technology disputes, 4 Pump Court was the obvious choice".

Popular among colleagues, opponents and clients, they say Lavy is "excellent at mastering the detail of complex technology disputes", so much so that "where others duck and cover when disclosure rears its head, he dives in with relish". 

Lavy has been instructed on a wide range of disputes, some highly technical, some purely commercial and some focusing on intellectual property issues. Yet he is also no mean advocate, with "a very calm and authoritative advocacy style", with real ability to "explain complicated concepts in simple terms to [his] clients".

Clients have been drawn to his "exceptional ability to think out of the box in coming up with practical solutions and to articulate the arguments in support of his ideas". One partner called Lavy an excellent lawyer and draftsman "irrespective of his sectoral expertise, with good judgement on legal and procedural matters, overlaid with a clear understanding of the commercial aims of clients".

One opponent added: "Coupled with the cheerful disposition with which he performs his roles, Matthew is an asset to any team he is involved in, and a formidable opponent to anyone who has the misfortune of crossing his path."

Luke Pearce, 20 Essex Street Called in 2007

What marks out the "bright and personable" Luke Pearce at the Bar is not just his intellect – he has lectured in law at Oxford and the University of London – but the way he deploys that intellect. According to one silk, Pearce "combines outstanding intellect with an uncanny ability to identify the points that a court or tribunal will find attractive and those they will not". In other words, the kind of tactical nous that partners love and clients pay for. 

How Pearce gives his advice also wins praise. He is "admired by those that he works with, especially leaders as he is not afraid to express a view and put his neck on the line", not in an aggressive way, but in a measured, thoughtful style.

Pearce is "totally unflappable, and will always give his opinion when instructed, even when bad news has to be given", says one contact. But he also has the prized ability to deliver bad news and reassure the client of the points that can be won – as well as those that can't – leaving clients inspired that Pearce is "100% on their side". 

Partners say he is "a pleasure to work with and clearly intelligent and thoughtful", while opponents say "his drafting is first rate, and he has a savvy and commercial understanding of how best to put his client's case".

Pearce says it is important for a junior barrister to be friendly and approachable, working best when "relaxed and comfortable with the people I am working with". While "lucky to work with a lot of solicitors who I get on well with", he says that "also tends to produce a better end product for the client".  

Caroline Pounds, Quadrant Chambers Called in 2003

Caroline Pounds admits she wasn't entirely sure when she chose to become a lawyer, especially with no legal background in her family. Yet she remembers that, at the age of 14, it "sounded like the ideal career for an independent and determined individual, who enjoyed both an intellectual challenge and public speaking". Studying law at university confirmed her choice, particularly contract and tort, not just for their academic interest but in leading to a commercially focused profession, combining both intellectual challenge and presentation. 

Her choice of chambers was much more straightforward. Having done mini-pupillages at various commercial sets, she felt by far the most comfortable at Quadrant and "immediately warmed to the people" at the set, "who seemed very normal, down to earth and approachable". And after nearly 10 years practising law, she says: "I still feel exactly the same." 

Her practice, she says, like Quadrant's has "broadened considerably in recent years". Pounds enjoys a wide variety of work "as chambers has transitioned from a specialist shipping set to one focused on a broader range of disciplines, encompassing commodities, energy and aviation".  

"With a real natural charm, good humour and sense of fun," those working with Pounds rate her as "ferociously intelligent, with an extremely incisive approach, fantastic at cutting through to the essence of the argument or the other side's case and exposing it".

One partner, after watching her cross-examine, says: "Her attention to detail and analysis are first class and advocacy skills are excellent." One of her leaders agrees, saying Pounds is "clear, focused and relentless in cross-examination, but tough under fire when presenting a difficult case". Others praise her as a "very hard worker who makes the work look effortless. She is always on top of the material, however large the documentation or complex the issues."

Charles Raffin, Hardwicke Called in 2005

One facet of the modern Bar is barristers who work for law firms before opting for self-employed status. Charles Raffin is one example. After pupillage, he spent time at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom's London office, where he worked with Karyl Nairn QC. 

Exposure to a high-class diet of international arbitration work left a lasting impression. Hardwicke colleagues say it "has given him a real commercial edge and a developed understanding of exactly what the client wants", while Raffin says Skadden offered great experience in working on complex, challenging cases.

Contemporaries say he is someone who "doesn't rest until he finds the answer", while clients say "his schooling [was] first class" thanks to Skadden, which means "he is not shy of hard work". One peer says: "He has exceptional technical understanding of complex issues and is unfailingly polite, patient and a pleasure to work with."

Raffin says after three years at Skadden he decided to develop his advocacy skills and seek regular court appearances, landing a third six pupillage at Hardwicke.

He has not regretted it: "From the first interview, it was obvious the barristers were not only outstanding practitioners, but engaging and warm people. It was important that I swapped like-for-like on my move from Skadden."

As well as arbitration, he has developed his commercial practice, adding it to insurance and maritime work, as well as insolvency, professional negligence and construction experience.

One leader says: "He is very much in demand principally because he is astute with a first-class analytical mind. So he can dissect a complicated dispute, or apply the law with admirable ease. The test of every good junior is whether he puts pressure on you as a leader. He certainly does that."

Amy Sander, Essex Court Chambers Called in 2006

Academia might have been Amy Sander's first career choice, but "it was the independence of the job, opportunity to effect change and variety of challenges that drew me to the Bar".

She acknowledges "a somewhat wiggly route to becoming a barrister", including living abroad and teaching law at Cambridge, but in Essex Court Chambers she has found her natural home.

Sander welcomes the set's diversity in its practice areas, "including being one of the best places to practice public international law" as well as employment law where she is also attracting notice. Second, she says "because of its warm camaraderie, doors are always open if you want to bounce ideas around".

Ideas are not her only stock in trade. Solicitors call Sander "bright and very responsive", while her leaders say she "has always demonstrated a sound appreciation of limits, including assessing the limits of what can be argued on the basis of the information available, and where further instructions are needed".

One lawyer says: "Whether in terms of skeleton arguments or longer written pleadings, Amy's written advocacy is first rate," adding that "her legal and research skills are excellent and exceptional in terms of mastering and getting to the heart of issues." Another silk adds that Sander has "very quickly gained the confidence of a canny and experienced foreign client on some very delicate questions".

Sander's enthusiasm also makes her stand out as "extremely easy to work with… very keen to get on with the job in hand".

Michael Watkins, One Essex Court Called in 2009

Michael Watkins is clearly on the rise, having acted on one of the largest ICC arbitrations of 2012, arising out of a multibillion-dollar joint venture between two petrochemical companies. His work has breadth as well as depth, spanning international banking claims, commercial litigation, international energy price review arbitrations and mounting the defence in the blockbuster London Underground negligence claim, which settled recently. As one City lawyer notes: "Repeated work with Lord Tony Grabiner QC suggests we are far from the only ones to recognise Michael's qualities." Watkins' work for his head of chambers sees him join an elite band of previous Stars at the Bar such as Conall Patton, Jamie Goldsmith and Dan Toledano QC.

A magic circle partner says he is "truly clever, incisive, drafts very well and has a natural feel for crafting witness examinations and cross-examinations", but is also "highly collaborative and user-friendly". Another praises his "willingness to work closely with instructing solicitors as part of a combined team".

Watkins says: "The best decisions are made when everyone on the team has had a chance to talk a point through, whether face to face or over the phone. I like to have a close working relationship with my solicitors where we each bounce ideas off one another whenever they arise. Quite often, a simple chat over the phone can trigger a fresh idea or a new argument that would otherwise not occur to us when working individually."

One silk says Watkins "has great judgement beyond his years, incredible perseverance and a fluid clear writing style". He is not easily fazed, either, handling "difficult and at times pressured cases", notes one lawyer, before adding that Watkins retains "a great sense of humour and fun throughout, as well as doing his 'day job'".

Can Yeginsu, 4 New Square Called in 2007

The Bar's true polymaths – the ones able to advocate in a wide variety of legal areas, with seemingly effortless fluency – are relatively few and far between. Some mark Can Yeginsu out as a possible heir to that intellectual legacy. 

He combines his increasingly global commercial practice – including acting in the Innovator One litigation – with professional liability work and a busy commercial judicial review specialism, while also fostering a wider human rights practice, equivalent in depth and breadth to his commercial work.

Despite a glittering academic career that includes Oxford, Princeton, City University and Harvard, Yeginsu is no dusty scholar. Clients say "he has an excellent mind with a real talent for picking out the key issues in any given case." In part, that is down to his being "very persuasive – it is immediately plain that he is a great communicator", says one. Another says while Yeginsu is "modest in person and friendly, he is also a very impressive lawyer", commanding personal attention: "Our clients want him, listen to and trust him."

Another senior partner agrees: "Can is older and wiser than his call suggests," and regularly acts on million-pound litigation cases as sole counsel. "His drafting and advice are both top-drawer," the partner adds. "But he also has a way with solicitors and clients that really inspires confidence, and helps to get across what is important."

One chambers insider says Yeginsu has "given us momentum to attract more top-notch commercial work into chambers not only at silk, but also junior level".

They add that "his Turkish connections and language give him a real edge over others the same age, in terms of sophistication and international mindset". As vice-chair of the British-Turkish Lawyers Association, others would agree. Remember his name.

ALSO HIGHLY COMMENDED

Adam Al-Attar, South Square (2007 call)

Richard Hanke, 3 Verulam Buildings (2006 call)

Ali Tabari, St. Philips Chambers, Birmingham (2006 call) 

Tom Richards, Blackstone Chambers (2006 call) 

Tom Robinson, 11 Stone Buildings (2003 call)

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METHODOLOGY

Legal Week contacted more than 350 solicitors, barristers, QCs and senior clerks to ascertain their views over a four-week period, with more than 200 responses and subsequent follow-up references. Those recommended were selected from more than 325 recommended junior barristers of 10 years' call and under from all circuits across England and Wales.