The Legal 500 have revealed their latest professional rankings, highlighting the UK’s most impressive barristers and chambers. 18 St John Street is delighted to feature in the directory with a record number of rankings across several areas of law, emphasising our strength in depth. We are particularly proud to once again be ranked as a Tier 1 set for Family and Children Law.
The 2023 edition of The Legal 500 sees 18 St John Street feature with 37 rankings across 11 different practice areas – our congratulations to those members listed. The rankings, along with selected client testimonials, are detailed below.
As always, we are very grateful to clients who gave up their time to provide feedback and reviews to The Legal 500. We thank all those who work with us across all our practice areas for their continued loyalty and support.
Commercial Litigation
The 2023 edition of the Legal 500 names 18 St John Street as a ‘quality set’. Testimonials for the department in the practice area of Commercial Litigation include:
‘The chambers are one of the leading sets in commercial litigation in the North-West, with appropriate practitioners at all levels of seniority.’
Leading Silks – Richard Chapman KC (Tier 1)
Leading Juniors:
Jennifer Newstead-Taylor (Tier 1)
David Hoffman (Tier 2)
Dr Christopher McNall (Tier 2)
Elisabeth Tythcott (Tier 3)
Dr Mike Wilkinson (Tier 3)
Chancery, Probate and Tax
‘Chambers offer a broad range of quality junior to senior tax counsel.’
‘In respect of tax law, it has the particular advantage of having three members of Chambers who sit as Fee Paid Judges of the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber).’
Leading Silks – Richard Chapman KC (Tier 2)
Leading Juniors:
Dr Christopher McNall (Tier 1)
Oliver Caplan (Tier 3)
Nathan Goldstein (Tier 3)
Elisabeth Tythcott (Tier 3)
Jennifer Newstead-Taylor (Tier 3)
Company and Insolvency
Jennifer Newstead-Taylor is noted as being “knowledgeable and approachable. She is not daunted by cases with difficult issues and limited prospects.”
Leading Silks – Richard Chapman KC
Leading Juniors – Jennifer Newstead-Taylor (Tier 1)
Agricultural Law
Dr Christopher McNall is once again highlighted as an expert in disputes involving agricultural tenancies, the taxation of farms and land, and proprietary estoppel and Inheritance Act claims relating to farms.
‘His expertise in agricultural law is immense. He is really helpful and is pragmatic in his advice.’
Leading Juniors – Dr Christopher McNall (Tier 1)
Social Housing
The guide gives 18 St John Street Chambers‘ Oliver Caplan a ‘Tier 2’ ranking in the practice area of Social Housing Law, noting that ‘Oliver has excellent and forceful advocacy skills’.
Leading Juniors – Oliver Caplan (Tier 2)
For more information on the Business and Property Department at 18 St John Street, please contact a member of the clerking team on 0161 278 8261 or via email bandp@18sjs.com
In the latest edition of the Legal 500 directory, 18 St John Street chambers is praised as an ‘excellent’ and ‘well-established’ set in the area of Criminal Law.
Silk Michael Brady KC is highlighted for his involvement in several high-profile murder cases, while Rachel Shenton is noted for her work on cases involving serious sexual offences and violence and Richard Vardon for his homicide and drug importation caseload.
Leading Silks – Michael Brady KC (Tier 3)
Leading Juniors:
Rachel Shenton (Tier 2)
Richard Vardon (Tier 2)
Rachel Faux (Tier 3)
Testimonials from clients include: “An excellent set in a competitive market…chambers can be viewed as a ‘one stop shop’ for choice of counsel, no matter what the type of case.”
For more information on the Criminal Department at 18 St John Street, please contact a member of the clerking team on 0161 278 8262 or via email crime@18sjs.com
18 St John Street Chambers is praised for having ‘a superb family department’ in the latest edition of The Legal 500 guide. Ten members of our Family team feature in the 2023 edition of the respected legal directory, across the areas of Child Law (Public and Private) and Divorce and Financial Remedy:
Child Law
Testimonials for the department included, “18 St John Street has a superb family department…which is known in Manchester as being reliable, hardworking, dependable, and knowledgeable.”
“I would have little difficulty in finding somebody suitable to instruct in any area of child protection law.”
“18 St John Street is an excellent chambers. They are brimming with talent and have a good blend of very talented senior counsel alongside very talented junior members of the team.“
Leading juniors:
Fiona Holloran (Tier 1)
Yvonne Healing (Tier 1)
Kate Bramall (Tier 2)
Kate Donohue (Tier 2)
Rehana Begum (Tier 2)
Leonie Caplan (Tier 2)
Danish Ameen (Tier 3)
Anna Warters (Tier 3)
Alex Walker (Tier 3)
Divorce and Financial Remedy
‘Stephen (Murray) has an incredible knack of getting to the fundamentals of a case quickly and has no fear of finding holes in a case, which he then constructively works with the client to address.’
Stephen Murray (Tier 1)
Kate Donohue (Tier 3)
For more information on the Family Department, please contact a member of the family clerking team on 0161 278 8263 or via email family@18sjs.com
PERSONAL INJURY, CLINICAL NEGLIGENCE AND COSTS
Personal Injury
The 2023 edition of the Legal 500 states that 18 St John Street has ‘great expertise in personal injury, covering cases of all nature and value’ with Elahe Youshani and Kane Simons recommended.
Testimonials include: ’18 SJS are moving up the table with some skilled individuals in high value work.’
Leading juniors:
Elahe Youshani (Tier 1)
Kane Simons (Tier 2)
Our ongoing seminar programme also drew praise from PI solicitors: ‘They also provide great online training courses that are of great practical use’ and ‘and they offer training which is in-depth and useful to solicitors.’ (You can find more information on our seminars by clicking here: www.18sjs.com/seminars
Clinical Negligence
The Legal 500 recommends Gemma McGungle for Clinical Negligence, noting that she has a ‘thriving practice predominantly acting for claimants’ and that counsel at 18SJS are ‘efficient, capable and experts in their field’.
Leading juniors:
Gemma McGungle (Tier 2)
Costs
Gemma McGungle is also highly recommended as an expert in Costs Law, receiving a ‘Tier 1’ ranking, with interviewees commenting that she “has a very sound knowledge of the issue of Costs Law generally and has exceptional knowledge on Solicitor Client matters”.
Leading juniors:
Gemma McGungle (Tier 1)
For more information on the Personal Injury, Clinical Negligence and Costs Department at 18 St John Street, please contact a member of the clerking team on 0161 278 8261 or via email pi@18sjs.com
Richard Chapman KC 
Jennifer Newstead-Taylor 
David Hoffman 
Dr Christopher McNall 
Elisabeth Tythcott 
Dr Mike Wilkinson 
Nathan Goldstein 
Oliver Caplan 
Michael Brady QC 
Rachel Shenton 
Richard Vardon 
Rachel Faux 
Fiona Holloran 
Yvonne Healing 
Kate Bramall 
Kate Donohue 
Rehana Begum 
Leonie Caplan 
Danish Ameen 
Anna Warters 
Alex Walker 
Stephen Murray 
Elahe Youshani 
Kane Simons 
Gemma McGungle
The Legal 500 Series is widely acknowledged as the world’s largest legal referral guide. More than 300,000 buyers of legal services are surveyed and interviewed globally each year.
The Legal 500 is an independent guide, and firms and individuals are recommended purely on merit. It is the only guide to truly reflect the needs of corporate counsel by focusing on the strength in depth of the teams (practice and associates) rather than simply list individual partners.
18 St John Street is a multi-disciplinary set based in Manchester. Members of Chambers have been delivering the highest standards of advice and advocacy services to professional and lay clients for almost 50 years.
For more information on the services provided, please contact Chambers Director James Parks or a member of the clerking team on 0161 278 1800.