Atkin Chambers and 22 of its members ranked in The Legal 500 EMEA 2024 Guide
News - Awards
Atkin Chambers has been recognised as a Tier 1 set for Construction by The Legal 500 EMEA 2024 guide (English […]
27th Mar 2024
“An excellent advocate and a superb thinker who is unyielding under pressure."
“She did a really excellent job…making the opposition look ordinary.”
Chambers and Partners UK Bar and Chambers Asia-Pacific
Serena’s practice focuses on technically and legally complex energy, engineering and infrastructure disputes. She is an experienced trial advocate who has represented a wide range of clients around the world, with a particular emphasis on the Far East and Middle East.
Serena’s practice focuses on technically and legally complex energy, engineering and infrastructure disputes. She is an experienced trial advocate who has represented a wide range of clients around the world, with a particular emphasis on the Far East and the Middle East.
Serena is ranked in seven categories across the current editions of Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500. She is cited for international arbitration, energy and infrastructure, construction, and professional negligence, in the UK, Middle East and Asia Pacific editions of the directories.
Serena’s recent client recommendations include:
“She is superb; incredibly bright, astute, commercial, calm, clear, confident in her opinion, and a pleasure to work with”.
Energy, The Legal 500 2025
“Serena’s key strengths lie in her attention to detail, communication, and ability to simplify complicated legal arguments for all. She is excellent, and is always well-prepared”.
Construction, The Legal 500 2025
“Superb advocacy, excellent advice and trusted by clients. She’s a pleasure to work with.”
Construction, Chambers and Partners, UK Bar 2024
In 2023, Serena was nominated for Silk of the Year at the Legal Business Awards.
In the same year, she was named as one of Business Today’s “Top 10 Most Influential Arbitration Lawyers Dominating Asia-Pacific’s Legal Landscape”.
In 2022, Serena was nominated for Construction and Energy Silk of the Year at The Legal 500 UK Bar Awards.
Lane End Developments Construction Ltd. v. Kingstone Civil Engineering Ltd: Kingstone Civil Engineering Ltd. v. Lane End Developments Construction Ltd. [2020] 1 BLR Plus 41, Construction Law Reporter 7 September 2020, CILL 4 October 2020
Blackpool Borough Council v. Volkerfitzpatrick Ltd. & (1) Range Roofing and Cladding Ltd & (2) RPS Planning and Development Ltd & (3) Caunton Engineering Ltd [2020] BLR 340, [2020] TCLR 4
Harcap Ltd. v. FK Generators & Equipment Ltd [2017] EWHC 2765 (Comm), cited in Lewison, The Interpretation of Contracts, 7th Ed. (Sweet & Maxwell, 2020)
Malcolm Charles Contracts Ltd v. Crispin & Zhang [2016] 1 All ER (Comm) 9, 159 Con LR 185
Eurocom Ltd v Siemens PLC [2015] BLR 1, 157 Con LR 120
University of Brighton v Dovehouse Interiors Ltd [2014] BLR 432, 153 Con LR 147
Hillcrest Homes Ltd v Beresford & Curbishley Ltd [2014] 153 Con LR 179
Doosan Babcock Ltd v Comercializadora de Equipos y Materiales MABE LDA [2014] BLR 33
Westshield Civil Engineering Ltd v. Buckingham Group Contracting Ltd [2013] 28 EG 85, 150 Con LR 225
Walter Lilley & Co v Mackay and DMW Developments Ltd [2012] BLR 503 and [2012] BLR 249, 143 Con LR 79 and 141 Con LR 102
Carillion Construction Ltd v Stephen Andrew Smith [2012] Bus LR D61, 141 Con LR 117
Straw Realisations (No1) v Shaftsbury House (Developments) Ltd [2011] BLR 47, 133 Con LR 82
Price v. Carter (t/a Ian Carter Building Contractors) [2010] EWHC 1451 (TCC), cited in Sutton, Gill and Gearing, Russell on Arbitration, 24th Edition (Sweet & Maxwell, 2015) and Merkin and Flannery, Arbitration Act 1996, 5th Edition (Informa Law, 2014)
Workspace Management v YJL London Limited [2009] BLR 497, [2009] 3 EGLR 11, [2009] 42 EG 178
Braes of Doune Wind Farm (Scotland) Ltd v Alfred McAlpine Business Services Ltd [2008] 2 All ER (Comm) 493, [2008] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 608, [2008] BLR 321, [2008] Bus LR D137
Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey Southern Counties v Barnes & Elliott [2006] All ER (Comm) 735, [2006] BLR 377, 110 Con LR 169
Baker & Davies Plc v Leslie Wilkes Associates [2005] 3 All ER 603, [2005] BLR 425, 101 Con LR 82, [2006] PNLR 3
1999-2000: Inns of Court School of Law (Outstanding in Advocacy)
1996-1999: LLB (Hons), King’s College London
Serena is a member of COMBAR, LCLCBA and the SCL. She served on TECBAR’s Management Committee between c. 2010 and 2017.
She teaches advocacy at Lincoln’s Inn and was, for 15 years, a governor of a Leathersellers’ school in South East London.
“Serena Cheng is incredibly thorough and very well organised.”
“Serena’s attention to detail and user-friendly approach make her stand out.”
“She grasps issues immediately and gets right into the detail. Her advice is well-reasoned and comprehensive.”
Construction, Chambers UK Bar 2025
“Serena is very detailed and very thorough.”
“She is very tenacious, with an impressive mixed practice.”
Professional Negligence, Chambers UK Bar 2025
“Serena’s key strengths lie in her attention to detail, communication, and ability to simplify complicated legal arguments for all. She is excellent, and is always well-prepared”.
Construction, The Legal 500 2025
“Serena is an effective and impressive cross-examiner”.
Construction, Energy and Infrastructure, The Legal 500 2025
“She is superb; incredibly bright, astute, commercial, calm, clear, confident in her opinion, and a pleasure to work with”.
Energy, The Legal 500 2025
“Excellent attention to detail, very strong advocacy, presents clear advice, willing to deliver difficult messages”.
International Arbitration: Counsel, The Legal 500 2025
“She has excellent drafting and advocacy skills. She’s also excellent with clients”.
Professional Negligence, The Legal 500 2025.
“Superb advocacy, excellent advice and trusted by clients. She’s a pleasure to work with.”;
“Serena leaves no stone unturned. She is incisive and clear in her advice and quickly builds strong relationships with clients.”;
“Serena is very conscientious, very hard-working and very responsive. She has a very polished approach to working with clients.”
Construction, Chambers and Partners, UK Bar 2024
“Serena is amazing. She works incredibly hard and pushes the team to deliver excellent results.’
Construction, The Legal 500 2024
“Serena assimilates complex, technical issues with ease and then presents the same with clarity.’
Energy, The Legal 500 2024
“Serena has an excellent understanding of the application and nuances of UAE procedure and practice. Her calm and clear communication with clients provides them with assurance at all stages of the matter. Serena assimilates complex, technical issues with ease and then presents the same with clarity.’
International Arbitration – Counsel, The Legal 500 2024
“Very bright and hardworking, Serena turns instructions round quickly, gives first rates legal advice and is commercial and easy to deal with. She is also an excellent advocate.’
Professional Negligence, The Legal 500 2024
“She’s an excellent advocate and a superb thinker who is unyielding under pressure.”.
International Arbitration – The Bar, Asia-Pacific Region, Chambers Global 2023
“Her advocacy is really impressive, very calm and shows great attention to detail”
“Serena is a very calming and authoritative presence while being very intelligent, extremely thorough and hard-working.”;
Construction – UK, Chambers Global 2023
“Able to grasp complex technical issues and very capably draw the applicable legal principles in, to provide comprehensive, exhaustive and accuate advice. A very strong advocate who deals with tribunals with consummate professionalism”.
Construction, Energy and Infrastructure, The Legal 500, Asia Pacific 2023.
“A very gifted advocate whose style and approach reflect the very highest standards of the Bar”;
“She did a really excellent job, getting to grips with the technical matters with fantastic attention to detail and making the opposition look ordinary”.
International Arbitration, the Bar, Chambers and Partners, Asia Pacific 2022
“She is very clever, meticulous and is excellent with details and foreshadowing issues.”
Construction, Energy and Infrastructure, The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2022
“Serena is obviously a very skilled and effective counsel with a good understanding of how to persuade a technical tribunal.”
Construction, The Legal 500 2022
“An absolute first-rate advocate who reads tribunals very well and astutely formulates arguments for very effective and persuasive delivery.”
Energy, The Legal 500 2022
“Serena is a very skilled counsel, who quickly gets on top of her brief.”
Professional Negligence, The Legal 500 2022
“A brilliant advocate, subtle and measured. There is an almost hypnotic quality to her oral advocacy.”
International Arbitration, The Legal 500 2022
”Conscientious and technically very knowledgeable in construction contracts.”
Construction, Asia Pacific. The Legal 500 2022
“She has a no-nonsense approach and is very user-friendly – her drafting is clear and straightforward.”’
Construction, Middle East, The Legal 500 2022
“An impressive and intelligent silk with a huge depth of knowledge.” “A very impressive barrister”.
Construction – UK, Chambers Global 2022
The above are a selection of recent client endorsements from the leading legal directories, both UK and internationally. For a complete list of endorsements, please contact the practice management team at Atkin Chambers.