Chancery and commercial sets 3 Stone Buildings and 13 Old Square are to merge at the start of April, The Lawyer can reveal.
13 Old Square founder John McDonnell QC will be head of chambers at the combined set.
Sources at the bar speculated 13 Old Square’s six silks and 28 juniors could move into 3 Stone’s Lincoln’s Inn premises. It is not yet known what the merged set will be named.
The two chambers are understood to be holding conversations with Lincoln’s Inn regarding the new set’s home in the next couple of weeks.
3 Stone has seen a raft of exits since December, including the departure of head of chambers Andrew Twigger QC to Maitland Chambers in February.
The spate of exits has seen member headcount drop from around 30 to 18 and the departure of all silks except one, David Lord QC, who remains at 3 Stone.
Fenner Moeran QC and Gilead Cooper QC left for Wilberforce late last year alongside junior Andrew Child; Richard Wilson QC left for Serle Court with junior Constance McDonnell; and Peter Crampin QC has rejoined his former set Radcliffe Chambers alongside junior Oliver Hilton. It is not yet known which chambers Norman Palmer QC has joined.
Longstanding senior clerk Andrew Palmer also left the set in January.
13 Old Square was set up by John McDonnell QC in 2005 after he left 9 Stone Buildings. The set’s launch with 14 members saw McDonnell earn a spot in that year’s Hot 100.
In a statement to The Lawyer,13 Old Square senior clerk Justin Brown said: “We can confirm that 13 Old Square and 3 Stone Buildings will be joining forces. John McDonnell QC will be head of the newly merged set and I will be its senior clerk.
“We have exciting plans for the future and look forward to revealing them very shortly. For now, it’s a case of watch this space.”
A number of Chancery and commercial sets have experienced significant instability in London following the shock collapse of 11 Stone Buildings late last year.
The set voted to close its doors in September after more than 40 years in operation with the majority of members joining Wilberforce and Radcliffe.
Mergers at the commercial bar remain uncommon, though there has been a steady flow of consolidations over the past 15 years.
4-5 Gray’s Inn Square merged with public law set Atlas Chambers in 2013 after it was hit by the departure of a team of 24 barristers, including seven silks, to 39 Essex. A couple of years earlier, Manchester set St Johns Buildings became the largest chambers in the country after merging with sets in Liverpool and Sheffield in 2011.
In 2006 the two sets housed in 7 New Square merged to create a new chambers, and in 2004 Hogarth Chambers was born out of the three-way merger of Five New Square, One Raymond Buildings and Nineteen Old Buildings.
Back in 1999, Serle Court merged with One Hare Court, creating a 44-tenant, eight-silk set, while 2 Crown Office Row merged with 1 Paper Buildings.