Important Notice: 1 Chancery Lane and the Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Most of our barristers, and many of our staff, are already working from home. To comply with the latest advice from the Government to stay at home, from close of business today, 24th March, all remaining members of 1 Chancery Lane staff will also move to remote working. Our priority remains safeguarding the health and wellbeing of all our barristers, staff, clients and visitors.

We remain confident that we can continue to provide the quality of service that you rightly expect during these uncertain times. We already have the infrastructure in place to ensure business continuity. All barristers and members of staff have access to our secure telephone and IT technologies so there will be no difference in your ability to access our services quickly and efficiently.

As of this morning, the guidance is that the legal profession should not be attending court in person for any non-urgent hearing. The latest guidance can be found here. Our barristers will be following this advice. We will continue to monitor the situation carefully and we will advise you if this situation changes.

We can continue to hold “virtual” conferences, either by phone or by video conference, rather than in person. However, until the present situation changes, we would ask that wherever possible you send us papers in digital form rather than hard copy.

We also understand that many of you will be working remotely and may not have access to your usual resources and references. All our barristers are readily available and are more than happy to assist you if you need any help. If you have a question you need answering at short notice, or need assistance, for example, with a procedural point, please do not hesitate to get in touch with one of our barristers directly or with the clerks and we will do all we can to assist you.

When getting in touch, please email us in the first instance at clerks@1chancerylane.com to ensure a speedier response. If you would prefer to call us, you can find a list of the clerks’ mobile numbers here.

If you have any further questions about how we are dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic or how we can work together to help each other, please do not hesitate to get in touch.