Top rankings for high-profile barristers from Chambers

Some of Kent’s finest legal brains have been praised in a publication dubbed the “Michelin Guide for barristers”.

Three top QCs, Oliver Saxby, Richard Barraclough and Eleanor Laws – who all appear regularly at Canterbury and Maidstone Crown Courts – have received top rankings in this year’s Chambers Guide to the Bar.

Mr Saxby, who lives near Ashford, is described as having “a strong reputation for acting in high-profile serious crimes, in particular acting for the defence in homicide cases and has been instructed on a number of high-profile serious sexual offences and drugsrelated crimes.”

The Eton-educated 43-year- old’s cases include Ivan Esack, who murdered his hairdresser wife Natalie in her Ashford town centre salon, and Stephen Farrow, the man arrested in Folkestone after murdering a teacher and a vicar in the West Country.

Chambers’ expert analysis of his talents says: “He gets right to the heart of the case ... and is calm, succinct and quietly persuasive.”

Richard Barraclough is presently involved in the Folkestone murder trial of Timothy Daley and Damian Daley at Canterbury Crown Court. The guide says: “He has a very commanding presence in court that the jury could not fail to notice. He is an outstanding barrister and makes clients believe he is on their side and he is there for them.”

Ms Laws is praised for being “a very good strategist. She has a calm manner that radiates power”.

Two other barristers from the 6 Pump Court set, John O’Higgins and Simon Taylor have also earned high praise.

Chambers says Mr O’Higgins is “an intense advocate who certainly gets the jury’s attention. He is an individual with acute intelligence, who is passionately committed to his clients and works incredibly hard for them”.

And Mr Taylor is said to have an “excellent client manner” because it “bears dividends with difficult and vulnerable clients”.

Barrister Oliver Saxby – praised by Chambers for getting right to the heart of a case”