We would like to congratulate Fionnuala McCredie QC and Lucy Garrett QC for their inclusion The Lawyer’s Hot 100 for 2021, which highlights a diverse mix of excellent lawyers who have played a crucial role in the legal profession over the last year.
Fionnuala is applauded for her successful victory in the “ferocious battle” of the Rail Franchise Litigation and is heralded by the Lawyer as “one of the leading figures in this sphere”. Lucy is described as a “true star for her generation” and praised for spearheading funding of a criminal Bar pupillage.
The full Hot 100 write ups for both silks can be found below and in the link above.
Fionnuala McCredie QC
For the first half of 2020, Keating Chambers’ Fionnuala McCredie QC was completely engrossed in a bitter claim brought by four sets of rail franchise claimants against the Department for Transport (DfT). Acting for the UK Government along with Matrix silk Rhodri Thompson QC and an all-female Keating team, McCredie had to work at speed as the trial was expedited to the start of the year.
It was a ferocious battle, waged over whether the claimants had been unfairly disqualified from rail procurement competitions. The powers that be disagreed and, after a three-week hearing in court, McCredie secured victory for the DfT in a pivotal judgment for both the procurement and rail franchising industry.
The expedited procurement instructions didn’t stop there. Later in the year, McCredie was called on once again as LiveNation prepped to challenge Royal Parks over contracts awarded for a music festival. Though the case settled before trial, McCredie has established herself as one of the leading figures in this sphere, running in parallel with her equally impressive construction practice.
Lucy Garrett QC
A true star for her generation, construction barrister Lucy Garrett took silk in 2018 following 17 distinguished years at the Bar. But in that same year, Garrett went on a sabbatical to pursue her passion for humanitarian aid work. She spent 18 months as a senior advisor for the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in Freetown, Sierra Leone, assisting the city’s mayor in the fight for a clean Freetown to improve lives and reduce the risk of epidemics.
Garrett returned to Keating Chambers in March, just as the pandemic swept across Europe. Despite the lockdown, she was quickly instructed to act for a global oil and gas major in its legal battle concerning a megaproject for the expansion of a supergiant oil field. The claim, which has a $1bn tag, is another seal of approval for her reputation as one of the most sought-after silks for highly complex and technical energy, engineering design and construction disputes.
But her philanthropic endeavour in helping offset the financial impact of the pandemic on the criminal Bar is an even more important reason for her inclusion in the Hot 100. Last September, she initiated the idea for Keating Chambers to put forward £20,000 to help fund a criminal Bar pupillage.
