Renowned barrister Michael Mansfield has departed his chambers less than a year after a collaboration with another set.
The human rights silk has joined Nexus Chambers as head of chambers. The chambers, in New Square, will now be known as ‘Nexus The Chambers of Michael Mansfield QC’.
Joining Mansfield are Sam Stein QC, Brian Richardson and Andrew Jeffries QC.
The three barristers, alongside Mansfield, were all tenants at Mansfield 1 Gray’s Inn Square (1GIS). The chambers was created when Mansfield Chambers combined with 1 Gray’s Inn Square at the end of last year. 1GIS’s website has now dropped Mansfield from its name - though Mansfield, Stein, Richardson and Jeffries remain listed on the site.
Last month, it was reported that 20 barristers had departed 1GIS for Goldsmith Chambers.
Mansfield Chambers was set up by Mansfield after the demise of Tooks chambers, which was dissolved at the end of 2013 after legal aid cuts.
Now 75, Mansfield was called to the bar in 1967. He has acted in a number of high-profile cases including representing Mohammed Al-Fayed in the inquest into the deaths of his son Dodi and Diana, Princess of Wales; as well as the families of the Hillsborough disaster.
On joining Nexus he said: ‘I am excited to be leading a chambers which, whilst forward looking and embracing the challenges that are facing the bar today, retains all that is good in a set of chambers; a passion for the law, an emphasis on democratic collective working, a real commitment to diversity, social justice, and human rights. It indeed feels like I am returning home.’
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