Barristers' Chambers Directory Help

The Barristers' Directory is a comprehensive essential reference source of law firms throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

This directory has a range of handy tools to enable you to find the Chambers or Individual Barrister you need with the areas of expertise you need in a convenient location.

Search features

The search page brings up a number of features for you to choose from.  Don't forget that if you narrow down your search too much and make selections in every field, you will have a very small number of results to view, possibly none at all. You should also check the spelling of any items that are free text fields (particularly Chambers' Name and Town) as misspellings are common causes of 0 results being returned. Once you have made your selections, click 'Search' or use the Return key on your keyboard.  If you want to clear your search and start again for any reason, click on the 'Clear' button.  .

• Chambers' Name.  You can enter the name of the Chambers you are looking for or even a part name so that your results return all the firms with that name or with the part name you have selected.  For example, entering 'King' will return the various King's Bench Walk sets of Chambers, King Street and Kingsway among others in your results, but if you enter 4 King's Bench Walk , the results will list only that set of Chambers.
• Individual Barrister.  You can enter the name or part name of the Barrister you are searching for to identify where they can be located. Your results will then include all chambers with individuals bearing that name or part name.  As tenants are NOT listed in alphabetical order in full entries but order of joining the Chambers, you will need to manually check the list of tenants to find your barrister.
• Head of Chambers.  You can enter the Head of Chambers' full name or surname to find the set of chambers of your choice.  Be careful with spellings though.  For example, 'De Silva' will find Mr Desmond De Silva's Chambers at 2 Paper Buildings, but ' Da Silva' will return 0 results.
• Town.  This is another free text search field and you can enter a full town name or a part town name.  For example, 'Ma' will return not only Manchester but all other town which include 'ma' as four consecutive letters, such as Carmarthenand Malvern. For users of the previous version of this website, do not  use the wild card* if you are unsure of spelling as this will return 0 results on this site.  The part spelling is sufficient on its own.  Although we hold over 600 towns in the database, we do not list every village.  For example, a search on Laugharne will return 0 results even if there was a small set of chambers operating from this Welsh village, but a search on Carmarthen would include every set in that Unitary Authority
• Postcode.  If you know the full postcode of the firm you are looking for you can enter this.  For example M2 5EL   you will return the result of Lincoln Chambers . Do not enter the postcode of your own office or location to find your nearest firm as you will end up with 0 results. However, if you enter a part postcode, such as M2, you will return results listing all the sets of Chambers in that part of the Manchester rather than just one set.
• County/Unitary Authority.  This drop-down menu enables you to select the County Council or Unitary Authority of your choice and refine your search further after that if you wish.  For example, a search on 'Greater Manchester ' returns not just Manchester, but the other major towns in that region such as Bury, Altrincham and Salford.
• Circuit.  All barristers chambers within England and Wales belong to different Circuits, as drawn up by the Bar Council and overseen by the Lord Chancellor's Department. You can read more about Circuits by clicking here.
• Areas of Expertise   This drop-down menu enables you to select the particular expertise you are looking for in a barrister or set of Chambers..  Simply highlight the one that most closely matches your enquiry and your results will return all the Chambers with barristers offering that expertise. 

Unitary Authorities

Note that in the UK ,'Unitary Authorities' are English or Welsh local authorities set up by the Local Government Act 1992 which form a single tier of local government and are responsible for almost all local government functions within their areas.This is opposed to the two-tier system of local government which still exists in most of England where local government functions are divided between county councils and district councils. Until 1996 similar two-tier systems existed in Scotland and Wales but these have now been replaced by fully unitary systems.  

For further help with checking what town is in what Unitary Authority, click on this downloadable map:   www.statistics.gov.uk/geography/downloads/UK_LADUACty.pdf

Understanding Your Search Results

Once you have made your selections and either pressed Return or clicked on 'Search' your results will be returned to you on new screen. Don't forget that if you want to conduct a new search at this point you have to select 'new search'.  Your results comprise a number of features to enable you to get the most from your research:

• Title of search.  Your results will tell you what you have just searched on.  For example 'Your search on Liverpool, Employment Law, revealed 5 record(s).
• Number of results displayed.  Each screen can accommodate 50 results and to view the whole of your search you need to click on the 'Next' link at the foot of your search page
• Order of results.  These default to A-Z of Chambers' Name, listing all the Chambers who have opted for a Basic Entry in the first A-Z listing.  The other sets who have the free entry providing basic contact details are listed after that. You can switch the order to location by clicking 'Location' on your screen.  This orders your results in the A-Z order of the Location of the Chambers.
• Colour coding and symbols.  The alternating shaded blue stripes enclose the firms who have opted for a Basic Entry where you can click through to their full details. You can do this by clicking on the highlighted Chambers Name or on any of the symbols on the right of your screen denoting Map, Email and Weblink.
• Circuit.  Your results indicate which Circuit the Chambers belongs to.
• Printing your results.  Each screen of results can be printed by clicking on the Print button or using CtrlP on your keyboard.  You should not be compiling databases from these results (see our Terms & Conditions), and if you were interested in renting Waterlow's Barristers or the International Bar Association lists, click onto Waterlow Direct Marketing.
• Add/Edit Your entry. If you have searched for your own Chambers or a particular Barrister you know is in practice but has not appeared on this website, please click on this button to provide with details so that we can include the Chambers or individual, subject to our usual verification process. If your Chambers does come up on your search results but only basic information with no map is appearing in your profile page, you may wish to opt for a Basic Entry to add in the missing information.  Full details of options can also be viewed on our Classified Advertising pages.

Refine Your Search

You can refine your search, retaining all the search criteria you have just selected by clicking on the Refine button at the top left side of your screen.  For example, if your search results are bringing up all the Barristers Chambers in Manchester came to 16 or so records and you wanted to refine this by finding out how many offered Criminal Work as an area of expertise, you can add this into your search screen and search again.  You should have around 16 results now.

Contact Us

For further help with your search or search results, please contact us.