Darren Lewis

Name: Darren Lewis
Chambers: St John's Chambers
University: University of Warwick
Subject: law
Graduated: 2003 

Working as a barrister outside London

I moved to Bristol after completing my pupillage in London because, among other things, I wanted a balance of Welsh and English cases. I grew up in South Wales and wanted to do more work there but felt that if I moved to Cardiff I would undertake exclusively Welsh work, in contrast to the national practice that I wanted and now have. I'm an hour and a half from London and Birmingham, 50 minutes from Cardiff, and most major court centres south of Birmingham are in easy reach. I also find that the quality of work available is better than my friends in London are receiving and the quantity is greater as well.

Life in a Bristol set

I'm two-and-a-half years' call and my main areas of practice are health and safety at work, personal injury (PI), employment, and holiday litigation. About 40 per cent of my work is court based and the remainder written. I undertake both claimant and defendant work and tend to be the only counsel working on my cases. More and more of my court work is fast track PI claims, although I also do small claims track work. In my employment practice I'm doing a lot of discrimination work, from Race Relations Act cases through to ones relating to more recent directives. I also specialise in whistle-blowing cases. My clients vary from insurers and tour operators to grandmothers and trade unionists – it is this variety I enjoy.

Find out more about practising personal injury law at the Bar

Find out more about practising health and safety law at the Bar

Find out more about practising employment law at the Bar

What's great about Bristol

Bristol is a beautiful city with a great cultural scene. It is small enough to walk and cycle wherever you want to go but big enough never to get bored of the numerous theatres, galleries, cinemas, restaurants and bars.