One-stop shop: transparent fee structure to be offered

Two leading silks are leaving the bar to join Herbert Smith in a major expansion of the City firm's specialist in-house advocacy unit.


Murray Rosen QC, former head of chambers at 11 Stone Buildings, London, joined the firm this week to head the unit. Ian Gatt QC, from Littleton Chambers, will join next week. Both will have to re-qualify as solicitor-advocates to enable them to become partners.


Sonya Leydecker, head of litigation-elect at Herbert Smith, told the Gazette that the initiative will provide an integrated service to clients, with counsel available and involved at an early stage.


She said: 'We will not be saying to our clients that they have to use our in-house counsel, and we will continue to use other specialist counsel, but clients will have the choice of doing it this way.'


She added: 'A transparent fee structure will be negotiated and there will be no brief fee - the bit that clients really hate, especially if the case doesn't go to trial.'


The duo will practise from Herbert Smith's main office in Exchange House, and will use the Bell Yard annex - next to the Royal Courts of Justice - for convenience during trials, as other members of the firm do.


Ms Leydecker said: 'We have received a lot of positive feedback. We'll see how it goes but we will be looking to add people [to the unit] internally and externally.'


A senior litigation partner in a rival City firm commented: 'Herbert Smith is bravely pioneering this venture but it remains to be seen how it will fare given the issues of choice and cost.


'I am not sure clients will get the best deal. There is wider choice at the bar and as their overheads are lower, barristers are cheaper.'