Our Services

While the traditional work of barristers is in litigation, all our members have diversified practices and are able to offer expert legal opinion in their specialist fields. In addition, they often use this expertise to provide training to lawyers and other professionals.

Legal Representation and Litigation

All of our barristers are experienced advocates, and have spent years training with the aim of achieving the highest standards of excellence in court. The courts that they appear in vary according to the nature of their practice, but include the domestic courts right up to the level of the Supreme Court, the Privy Council, the European Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and numerous Special Courts and Tribunals set up by the UN. Members of our team have also represented clients in mediations and arbitrations, both domestically and internationally.

Legal Advice and Consulting

Although our barristers' focus is the advocacy elements of litigation, they are able to use their specialist expertise to advise solicitors and other professionals at all stages of a case. This includes advising on the merits of a case and its likelihood of success, advising on evidence, and preparing and presenting written arguments. They are also able to advise on complex points of law which are either non-contentious or which have not yet become litigious.

Beyond litigation, our barristers spend most of their time using their specialist knowledge to assist clients in need of expert advice and opinion. In recent years our clients have included:

• NGOs of all sizes
• National governments
• Inter-governmental organisations
• The United Nations
• The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
• The EU
• The Council of Europe (CoE)
• Private individuals
• Commercial clients

Members of Garden Court have drafted legislation and provided high-level advice to governments and other interested parties on how laws might be changed to effect a certain policy outcome. Others have undertaken research and provided advice on a consultancy basis to numerous international organisations.

Legal Training

With their specialist knowledge of the law, members of the team are involved in providing training to lawyers, policy makers or other professionals in some way. In some cases, our barristers provide regular series of lectures and seminars on topics such as immigration or minority rights to solicitors here in the UK. Others have been commissioned by organisations such as the Council of Europe and NGOs to speak at international conferences, or are involved in capacity-building with local lawyers elsewhere.

Members of the team have also provided training and advice under the auspices of inter-governmental organisations on the establishment of legal training as a route to supporting a reliable, open and independent judiciary.

Whatever areas of law or advocacy you require training in, members of Garden Court International will be able to assist. To discuss your requirements, please contact the clerks who will be happy to recommend who will be most suitable and to help plan a session or programme to meet your needs.