Media heavyweights collide as Charlotte Proudman’s former set joins forces with Barbara Hewson’s
It’s merger time over at Gray’s Inn, with 1 Gray’s Inn Square and Mansfield Chambers revealing they’re soon going to combine.
The new set will operate under Mansfield 1 Gray’s Inn Chambers, and will be located at 1 Gray’s Inn Square. Legendary 75-year-old silk Michael Mansfield QC — who has acted for the likes of the Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four and Stephen Lawrence’s family — will lead the new venture.
A spokesperson for Mansfield 1 Gray’s Inn Chambers today said:
With an overriding commitment to the rule of law, human rights and social justice, we feel chambers is very well placed now to meet modern legal needs, including those of the most vulnerable in our society.
So what do we know about the two sets?
Well, 1 Gray’s Inn Square describes itself as “one of the oldest and largest sets at the bar”. It deals with work from all sorts of practice areas including human rights, crime, international law and healthcare, plus is home to professional controversialist Barbara Hewson. The outspoken Cambridge-educated civil law barrister is well known for, among other things, her foul-mouthed Twitter rants and her contentious calls for the age of consent to be lowered to 13.
Over on the other side of the merger deal is Mansfield Chambers, the former set of ‘sexism row’ barrister Charlotte Proudman. Just last year the criminal, family and immigration law set experienced what Legal Cheek termed “the great Mansfield Chambers exodus”. In November, we revealed 14 of the legal aid chambers’ 28 tenants had — rather mysteriously — jumped ship. At the time, senior clerk Martin Parker said:
People come and go. That is the way of the bar at the moment.
Legal Cheek wishes both sets all the best with their festive merger.