IN THE ASCENDENCY

Each year I list those barristers and Judges who are on their way up.When I first mentioned Sean Jones he was a junior. He is now a silk and employment Judge . Stuart Mackechnie has become the youngest member of the Judicial College working on pi damages guidelines. Erica Bedford is a costs barrister who is just about to start work at the Bar but she has a first class pedigree having qualified as a solicitor and her mentor is Dr Mark Friston , surely next in line to take silk as a costs specialist. Louise Green and Ed Pepperall are both barristers who have had real success in heavy employment law disputes . The latter is also on the committee looking at Part 36. Sean Jones QC is a cert for the Bench whilst Stuart Mackechnie and Simon Butler both shine in complex injury claims. Shantanu Majumdar is superb in Chancery and Commercial disputes . Nicholas Bacon QC is involved , rightly , in every significant costs dispute going. Turning to the Judiciary , the world has caught up with HHJ Simon Brown QC who has been training the Bench on how to manage costs through budgeting . Macduff J. ought to be in the Court of Appeal or else promoted to a position as High Court costs supremo. His decisions on both champerty and vicarious liability have received ringing endorsements from the Court of Appeal. Rix LJ and Elias LJ deserve a seat in the Supreme Court and I fully expect Jackson LJ to become MR at some point. Finally , a barrister is nothing without a good clerk. The team at Deans Court are widely praised as is Lucy Barbet and Mike Goodridge .Nothing is too much trouble for him whether it be borrowing a room in case of emergency or disposing of a body. I have never asked him to lend me a room , mind.