Tooks Chambers announces dissolution as a result of the government's legal aid policies
updated on 26 September 2013
Tooks Chambers - the set of Michael Mansfield QC - has decided to begin the process of dissolution as the "direct result of the government’s legal aid policies".
Tooks, founded in 1984, is well known for its civil liberties work; Mansfield represented the families of Stephen Lawrence and Jean Charles de Menezes. The set was recently involved with both the Hillsborough Inquests and the AHK judicial review. Members of Tooks derive 90% of their work from legal aid and the set's announcement criticised the legal aid policies of Chris Grayling as "cumulatively devastating the provision of legal services and threatening the rule of law". Mansfield began his career at the Bar in the first days of legal aid and has subsequently been a prominent critic of the government's changes.
The Law Society Gazette reports that 15 members of Tooks will form a new, low-cost chambers under the name of Mansfield Chambers. The new set will move from Farringdon Street to offices at 5 Chancery Lane, with hopes to lower costs through a reduced clerking facility and new electronic hub. Chambers member Mark McDonald suggested that the set would try to take on a pupil, dependent on funding.
