1MCB is delighted to have been shortlisted for a Chambers UK Bar Award in the category of Outstanding Set for Diversity & Inclusion. The awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, 18th November at Old Billingsgate, London. The full shortlist can be found here: congratulations to all the nominees.
1MCB works with and for a diverse range of professional and lay clients. Chambers’ expertise across a wide range of areas, our commitment to excellence and to finding solutions for our clients, and our collegiate working environment means that we are able to share our knowledge between and within areas, be approachable and offer the highest standards of representation.
Chambers is guided by its commitment to the communities it serves. We strive to support our members’ innovative, and often quiet, efforts to use law both to obtain justice for our individual clients and more broadly as a tool for social change. We owe much of our ethos to the leadership of Len Woodley QC, the first Afro-Caribbean barrister to become a QC, who was head of chambers for the twelve years from 1988 to 2000. He was involved in some of the most important race trials in the in the 70s and 80s. His dedication to civil liberties and equality of opportunity was not showy, but it was radical, and it is this approach that remains evident in Chambers today.
We are a very diverse set of Chambers with a breadth and depth of expertise across a broad range of areas including crime, immigration and asylum, housing and community care, family, actions against the police, public law, international law and civil litigation. It is important to us that we not only continue to do legally aided work but also try to find ways to share our knowledge and offer support; the pressures on legal aid providers, following deep cuts and ongoing funding issues, continue to challenge the sector as well as access to justice.
Chambers supports its members’ strong links with community organisations and charities committed to bringing about structural change and addressing inequality both locally and internationally. Members regularly provide expert advice and representation for these organisations as well as to representatives and on a direct access basis.