About Atkin Chambers
Atkin Chambers is a leading set of barristers with an international reputation for providing advocacy and specialist legal advice on commercial disputes particularly relating to construction and engineering, technology, energy and infrastructure projects. Disputes are extremely varied and include transport, power, water/sanitation, shipbuilding and offshore construction, and social infrastructure projects. Wider commercial and professional negligence work is frequently related to such disputes.
The members of Atkin Chambers offer a huge breadth and depth of experience in disputes which are often complex both in terms of the law and the technical nature of the underlying dispute. They are recognised as being leaders in their field.
In the UK members regularly appear as advocates before the Appellate Courts and High Court, as well as in commercial arbitrations. The disputes are varied and often high-profile, and have included landmark cases such as disputes relating to The Shard, Wembley Stadium, the Olympic Village, the Channel Tunnel, The British Library, The Rolls Building, Heathrow T5, the M25 and London Underground, as well as major oil and gas, and on and offshore renewable energy projects.
International work frequently involves complex cross-border disputes, involving parties from several jurisdictions. Disputes are often commercially and/or politically sensitive. Members practise in many of the world’s leading arbitration centres and are highly-experienced in handling disputes conducted under the auspices of the major arbitral institutions such as the ICC, LCIA, DIAC, HKIAC, SIAC, and numerous others.
Members and door tenants are called upon to act as arbitrators, adjudicators, mediators, in expert determination, and as members of international dispute boards as well as chairs of public inquiries.
Members of Atkin Chambers are authors of authoritative and influential legal texts including:
- The Building Law Reports
- The International Construction Law Review
- Hudson’s Building and Engineering Contracts – this seminal work on the law relating to building and engineering contracts has been edited in Chambers for over 50 years.
Committed to client service
Atkin Chambers is committed to offering a high-quality service to members’ clients. Members “are also noted for their ‘responsiveness and approachability” (The Legal 500) and, according to this year’s Chambers UK Bar Guide, “the clerking service they offer is second to none… truly excellent, very straightforward, very transparent, very reliable”.
What the directories say about Atkin Chambers
Atkin Chambers has been referred to as a “premier set” and it is a top-ranked or leading set for construction, energy & natural resources, international arbitration: counsel (construction/engineering), professional negligence (technology & construction), and information technology in the Chambers UK Bar Guide, and for construction, energy, professional negligence, international arbitration: (counsel), and IT and telecoms by The Legal 500.
The Legal 500 UK Bar Guide described Atkin Chambers as “’the unrivalled top-end construction set in the UK’” in its most recent edition and noted its “outstanding bench of barristers, from market-leading silks to rising star juniors”.
Chambers and Partners’ UK Bar guide noted that “individuals here are eminently capable of handling the full spectrum of construction disputes including the highest-value and most complex proceedings both domestically and internationally” and that in international arbitration “Atkin Chambers has attained a commanding standing in the market”. An interviewee, it went on to note, describes it “in glowing terms as ‘a real construction law powerhouse, a top set for construction with a clerking service and a quality of barrister that sets them apart’.”
Atkin Chambers was named Construction Set of the Year at the Chambers and Partners UK Bar Awards in 2021 and 2022, and Construction and Energy Set of the Year in The Legal 500 awards 2022 and 2023.
In April 2020 Atkin Chambers was, for the second time, honoured with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade, the UK’s highest recognition for international business success.
See also: Corporate/Chambers Corporate Responsibility.