A group of four leading tax barristers – including QCs Philip Baker and Patrick Way – are leaving Gray's Inn Tax chambers to form a new set.

Field Court Tax chambers, which formally launches on 1 August, will be headed by highly-ranked tax barrister Patrick Soares, who previously led 8 Gray's Inn Square before joining Gray's Inn Tax 13 years ago.

Junior barrister Imran Afzal is also moving to Field Court, along with two members of Gray's Inn Tax staff: practice managers Marie Burke and Stephanie Talbotare.

The new set counts governments, international enterprises, individuals and HMRC as clients. The four barristers represent clients in all areas of the UK courts, as well as the European Court of Justice, the Privy Council and other global courts.

"It'll be a mixture of advisory and advocacy work, and we have through Philip a lot of international tax links," Way told Legal Week.

"The majority of the members at Gray's Inn are moving into the City, and the four of us wanted to stay in the Inn," added Way, who took silk last year. "The split was entirely amicable, and we'll continue to work with them on some matters."

Way also said an increasingly litigious HMRC had led to a resurgence in tax advocacy work for both the Revenue and defendants, and that with Afzal, he is currently working on around 17 cases in the next year.

One of the last significant moves at Gray's Inn Tax Chambers came in 2010, when Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton tax partner Nikhil Mehta joined the set.