3RB Awards the Fifth Nicholls Prize for Advocacy

Congratulations to Jack Fletcher, winner of the 2022 Gray’s Inn Moot Final, and to Matthew Innes who was first runner up.  We are delighted to award them the fifth Nicholls Prize, with £1,000 awarded to Jack and £500 to Matthew.

The final took place on Thursday 21 July.  Thanks to the sterling work of the Gray’s Inn Education and Training Department, this was held in person for the first time since 2019.  3RB was represented by Hugo Keith KC, Joint Head of Chambers and a Bencher of Gray’s Inn.

About the Winners

We normally like to invite our winners in to Chambers to meet members and receive their awards.  Unfortunately we have had to arrange a ‘virtual prizegiving’ this year, but we can tell you a little bit about them:

Jack Fletcher studied Classics at the University of Oxford, graduating in 2014. He then worked in Asia for three years for the conglomerate John Swire & Sons, living in Hong Kong, Mumbai and the Maldives, as part of their general management programme. He returned to London in 2017 to work as an equity analyst in a global fund at Polar Capital. He has also volunteered in Kenya and Ghana and worked in Ethiopia for the largest wine producer in the country, before coming to the law. He recently completed the GDL and the Bar Course at City, University of London.

Jack will start pupillage at 4 Stone Buildings in October 2022. He hopes to build a practice in commercial dispute resolution, banking and finance, civil fraud, company law and insolvency and restructuring.

Matthew Innes studied for a DPhil in early modern French history at University College, Oxford, before undertaking the GDL and Bar Course at City, University of London. His legal studies have been supported by scholarships from Gray’s Inn and City, University of London. During the GDL, he represented Gray’s Inn at the 28th annual Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot. He combined the Bar Course with the part-time role of Visiting Lecturer in Contract Law at City, University of London.

He will begin pupillage at Serle Court in October this year. He hopes to develop a wide commercial and Chancery practice, including civil fraud, company and insolvency, trusts, and offshore work.

We wish them both every success with their careers at the Bar.

About the Nicholls Prize

Our prize was founded in 2018 in memory of Clive Nicholls KC.  Clive died in February 2017, aged 84. He had been a member of Chambers for 60 years and was Head of Chambers from 1994 until 2010. He was still a valued member of Chambers, active in advisory work well beyond his 80^th birthday. Clive was called to the Bar in 1957. He had graduated with his twin brother, Colin Nicholls KC, who is an associate member of Chambers, from Trinity College, Dublin and both became leading lights in their respective fields after joining Chambers.  Clive took silk in 1980, he sat as a Recorder of the Crown Court between 1984 and 1999 and became a Bencher of Gray’s Inn in 1989.

Clive’s was a stellar career. He had a wide range of work and was able to apply his mind to legal issues in a number of disciplines. He specialised in extradition and the roll-call of cases in which he appeared speaks for itself – Nielsen (a landmark case which overturned 100 years of extradition law), Pinochet, Osman, and many other high profile matters. He appeared in courts all over the world and was internationally acknowledged as a leader in his field.

Throughout Clive’s practice, and in his 16 years as Head of Chambers, he was a genuine father-figure and mentor, ever humorous, radiating dynamism and energy beyond his years and always making himself available to help other members of Chambers. He embodied and exemplified all the virtues of the Bar as a profession: he was a man of integrity who took great pleasure in his work and whose courtesy to fellow barristers never wavered, even in the most hard fought of cases.

We are proud to associate our award with the Gray’s Inn Moot Final, continuing a tradition we started with the DuCann Advocacy Prize, which ran from 2008 to 2017.  We look forward to the next ten years honouring the memory of Clive Nicholls KC.

1st August 2022