Chambers Approach
Gibraltar has a fused legal profession. This means that a barrister is also an acting solicitor and as a result barristers in practice in Gibraltar take instructions directly from their lay client in most cases.
Here at Governor’s Street Chambers we are firmly of the view that competent legal representation is assured less by the size of the firm than by the diligence, insight and hard work of the practitioner. The information age has largely levelled the playing field from the practitioner’s perspective. Until the last ten or fifteen years and particularly in the last five years the cost of entry to practice was such that the large law firm with many partners and practitioners was at a considerable advantage concerning research facilities and other such matters. Now a sole practitioner can be as well supported by precedent, statute and other research materials as his counterpart in the Baker McKenzies or the Norton Roses of this world.
We enjoy online access to most if not all of core legal materials available in order to properly advise our clients in light of the current environment. This is complemented by traditional resources.
We try to exercise lateral thinking at all times. We have a variety of external agencies upon whose facilities we draw – including forensic accountants, banks and credit insititutions. We co-operate both with lawyers in practice and with academic institutions to ensure that we are always aware of the state of the law. Where appropriate, we draw on professional legal research assistants in order to see that costs are controlled.