Fountain Court Chambers has bolstered its bench of finance silks after attracting banking heavyweight Richard Lissack QC (pictured) from Outer Temple Chambers.
Set to join the elite commercial and chancery set on Tuesday (3 May), Lissack is one of London’s most established finance silks. Called to the Bar in 1978 and taking silk in 1994, Lissack’s practice covers a broad range of advocacy across finance, regulatory, white collar crime and professional negligence.
His CV boasts high profile regulatory and criminal work including acting on the US and UK London Whale investigations, advising Barclays on regulatory matters, cases relating to Libor and Forex, high-stakes litigation between HP and Autonomy and a multimillion professional negligence dispute between ENRC and Dechert.
Lissack also serves as a consultant to New Law standard-bearer Riverview Law and was involved with Riverview’s inception.
Fountain Court deputy head of chambers Bankim Thanki QC told Legal Business: ‘I’ve been working extensively with Richard in both commercial and criminal work. We made the approach. The rationale is we see the big growth area being regulation and investigation work – it seems the right time to add to that capability. Richard’s USP is bridging that gap between heavy criminal work and commercial work. I can’t think of anyone else who occupies that space. We expect to make more high calibre hires and are interviewing over the next month.’
Thanki added: ‘Richard is in the front rank of senior QCs. He is a joy to work with and Fountain Court is delighted to acquire such an outstanding talent.’
Fountain Court senior clerk Alex Taylor added: ‘Richard is undoubtedly one of the star silks in the London and international disputes market.’
Lissack’s arrival comes amid a period of flux at the Bar that has seen London’s elite commercial sets generally strengthen their grip at the expense of mid-tier sets.
High profile recent moves include Sonia Tolaney QC from 3 Verulam Buildings to One Essex Court. Tolaney, who is currently instructed on the sprawling Royal Bank of Scotland rights issue litigation, was appointed after One Essex this year signed up Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer disputes veteran Ian Terry as a mediator.