Fountain Court Chambers
Fountain Court Chambers is a set of commercial barristers based in the Temple in London and with offices in Singapore. It has 105 full members, of whom 45 are silks. It is in the Magic Circle.
The head of chambers, since 2023, is Richard Handyside KC. The deputy head of chambers is Patrick Goodall KC, the senior clerk is Alex Taylor and the head of administration is Julie Parker.
History
It is possible to trace Fountain Court's origins to the early part of the Twentieth Century, but its period of sustained success dates from after the Second World War.Its reputation for commercial litigation developed in the late 1940s and 1950s and its standing as a 'magic circle' chambers was cemented in the 1960s and 1970s.
Numerous members of chambers have gone on to hold high judicial office. The most eminent is Lord Bingham KG, who served as Master of the Rolls, Lord Chief Justice and Senior Law Lord. Other notable members include Leslie Scarman SC, Alan Orr QC, Melford Stevenson QC, Peter Webster QC, Peter Scott QC, Conrad Dehn QC, Christopher Bathurst QC, Mark Potter QC, Henry Brooke QC, Denis Henry QC, Lord Goldsmith QC, Trevor Philipson QC, Charles Falconer QC, Nicholas Underhill QC, Nicholas Stadlen QC, Marcus Smith QC, David Waksman QC, Professor Andrew Burrows QC, Michael Green QC and Sir Francis Jacobs QC.
Notable current members include Richard Lissack KC, David Railton KC, Timothy Dutton CBE KC, Stephen Moriarty KC, Bankim Thanki KC, Patricia Robertson KC, Richard Handyside KC, Andrew Mitchell KC and Patrick Goodall KC.
Other previous heads of chambers include Anthony Boswood QC who died in 2022, and Michael Brindle QC, who is now a door tenant.
Other current door tenants include Lord Wilson, Sir Andrew Smith, Professor Lawrence Boo, Arvind Datar SA, Gaurav Pachnanda SA, Zal Andhyarujina SA, Kanaga Dharmananda SC, Peter Watts KC, Eric A Schwartz, David R Wingfield, Ian Benjamin SC, Sebastian Said and Professor Luca G Radicati di Brozolo.
In 2014, Fountain Court opened an office in Singapore's financial district.
Notable cases
Members of Fountain Court Chambers have appeared in many landmark cases and high-profile commercial disputes.In the well-known House of Lords’ case of Caparo v Dickman, all counsel on both sides were from Fountain Court. Several members of the Chambers were also prominent figures in acting for the Bank of England in the celebrated Three Rivers litigation, a case which led to several appeals to the House of Lords. Numerous members of Fountain Court Chambers were involved in the Lloyds litigation which dominated the work of the Commercial Court in the 1990s, and produced two significant appeals in the House of Lords.
In addition, members were involved in the Bank Charges litigation, the RBS Rights Issue case, various high-value PPI matters and the FCA Test Case regarding business interruption insurance claims arising as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Other recent substantial cases in which members of Fountain Court appeared include SFO v ENRC, ''Autonomy/Hewlett-Packard v Lynch & Hussain, the Ingenious litigation, Law Debenture v Ukraine, litigation arising from Barclays' $11 billion 2008 capital raising in Qatar, Palladian Partners & others v Republic of Argentina, R v Competition Appeal Tribunal and others'' and the so-called 'Tuna bonds' litigation.