General News

New employment webinar - adapting to post pandemic trading conditions

23rd April 2021

Times are looking up with the prospect of businesses reopening and the restrictions of the pandemic being lifted. While it will be ‘business as usual’ for many, what happens when trade doesn’t get back to pre-pandemic levels? Gareth Graham and Matthew Curtis examine the options in this employment law webinar first broadcast on 21 April 2021 and look at the potential pitfalls for businesses looking to make redundancies or organisational changes due to pressures caused...

Robin Howard acts as counsel for three brothers in high profile contested will dispute over £ 850,000 family house

21st April 2021

3PB’s experienced barrister Robin Howard (pictured here) acted as counsel for three brothers who have lost an appeal for an inheritance claim for £ 850,000 after the initial trial was made unfair because of the attitude of the original trial judge. The case came to court in 2019 and the judge ruled that all £ 850,000 of value from the family house be awarded to their sister, after a will made in 1986 was replaced by...

Susan Jones in 5-week inquest after the death of a prisoner on remand

19th April 2021

3PB regulatory lawyer and inquest specialist barrister Susan Jones was recently instructed by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) to represent a registered mental health nurse in a 5-week, Article 2 and hybrid/partially-remote, inquest before Her Majesty’s Assistant Coroner Darren Stewart OBE and a jury. The inquest touching the death of a 46-year remand prisoner considered: complications arising from prescription medication, methods of requesting GP assessment, communication between prison and healthcare staff and the interaction...

David Parratt KC (Scot) and law firm Brodies talk of Brexit and the future of business disputes in Europe

13th April 2021

3PB’s international arbitration expert David Parratt KC (Scot) joins forces with Ken MacDonald from law firm Brodies LLP to record a podcast for Brodies latest episode in their ‘’Building Resilience Series’’. In this podcast David Parratt and Ken MacDonald discuss what the impact of the UK’s new relationship with the EU means for settling disputes and why businesses should be thinking about international arbitration as the best dispute resolution clause in contracts. To instruct David...

Welcome to April's newsletter In this edition we welcome Mathew Gullick QC's appointment as Silk and our new tenant Alex Leonhardt. We also introduce you to our new on-line employment law resources. Our team has reviewed the judgments in the following cases: Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake & Others [2021] UKCS 8; Asda Stores Ltd v Brierley; Rodgers v Leeds Laser Cutting Ltd; Mallon v AECOM Ltd; Page v Lord Chancellor and ors; Smith v Pimlico Plumbers Ltd UKEAT/0211/19/DA and...

Settlement negotiations and tactics for property litigators

5th April 2021

On 17th March 2020, 3PB’s specialist property law barrister Thomas Talbot-Ponsonby delivered a webinar on settlement negotiations for 180 members of the Property Litigation Association. Thomas Talbot-Ponsonby was called to the Bar in 2011 and practises in a wide variety of property, commercial and chancery matters, including neighbour and boundary disputes, landlord and tenant, and probate matters, as well as other commercial disputes and insolvency. View Thomas Talbot-Ponsonby’s profile. Please find a copy of Thomas...

3PB Family takes on two new junior tenants

1st April 2021

Midlands family barrister Ria Herbert (call:2017) and recent 3PB family law pupil Sam Pentony (call:2019) have both joined 3PB’s 70-strong family law team. Ria Herbert  is a junior barrister from Northampton Chambers who is teaming up again at 3PB with their chambers’ senior clerk Adam Gayton. A former in-house advocate with a mid-sized law firm in Milton Keynes, she is used to attending a large variety and number of public law and private law hearings....

Trio of regulatory barristers talk about their journey to specialising in inquests

30th March 2021

On 26 March 2021, three of 3PB’s regulatory barristers specialising in inquests were invited by the University of Bristol Bar Society to share their experiences of their own personal journey to the Bar in a talk entitled ‘No Bar to the Bar - Inquests and Inquiries at the Bar Talk'. Elisabeth Bussey-Jones, Susan Jones and Sunyana Sharma shared stories of how they came to practise in inquest work, a recount of day to day life as a barrister and...

3PB examines truth in business and property cases and enhanced measures for the taking and making of witness statements

29th March 2021

3PB commercial and property Silk Joseph Giret QC (pictured here) and 3PB pupil barrister Amanda Fernandez examine the impact of Practice Direction 57AC on Witness Evidence at Trial (“PD57AC”). This will apply to witness statements for use at trials in the Business and Property Courts, specifically to claims issued next week - after 6 April 2021 - or to existing proceedings where the witness statements for trial are signed on or after 6 April 2021....

Equal pay claim of Asda v Brierley: is it time for large employers to undertake a widespread review of their pay structures?

29th March 2021

Supreme Court Judgment on the Equal Pay claim of Asda Stores Ltd v Brierley – Is it a ‘watershed moment’ as some commentators have suggested or purely a clarification of existing principles? Simon Tibbitts, employment law specialist at 3PB Barristers provides his analysis and commentary on the Judgment of the Supreme Court which was handed down last Friday, 26th March 2021. The case provides clarity on the approach and principles to be adopted when dealing...

Victoria Jones represents British Gymnastics before the Court of Appeal

25th March 2021

3PB's specialist intellectual property barrister Victoria Jones (pictured here) represented British Gymnastics before the Court of Appeal. The appeal was brought by UK Gymnastics against the judgement of IPEC Judge HHJ Clarke handed down on 26 June 2020 in which she found UK Gymnastics to be liable for acts of passing off and trade mark infringement. On 24 March 2021, the Court of Appeal handed down its decision with Lord Justice Arnold upholding the findings...

Seb Oram analyses good faith and ‘the spirit of agreement’ in commercial contracts

24th March 2021

3PB's specialist commercial and construction law barrister Seb Oram (pictured here) has reviewed the case of Westfields Homes Ltd v Keay Homes (Windrush). The case involved a potential breach of commercial, land-development contract and serves as a must-read for all commercial lawyers and litigators alike. In this case, the Court held that where the contract prescribed no basis for determining the meaning of clauses of good faith or ‘the spirit of the agreement’, it would...