3PB breaks through £30m turnover

14th April 2022

National chambers 3PB Barristers (3 Paper Buildings) has broken through the critical £30m threshold - traditionally the preserve of the specialist London sets - with record turnover of £31.4m and receipts of £30m this financial year ending 28 February 2022, a rise of 16.8% and 12.3% respectively from last year’s results of £26.9m and £26.7m; alongside fees per barrister (FPB) growing by 9.5 %. After this record year 3PB has now set its sights on further expansion in its main practice areas.

The six-office, multi-disciplinary, chambers, now with more than 220 barristers, is described variously by the independent legal directories with a team of clerks operating as a "well-oiled machine” and “the overall impression is excellent, from clerks to counsel and everything in between. They have fantastic teamwork."

Simon Astill, 3PB’s Chief Executive, pictured here, said: “This is an important milestone to pass for 3PB. These have been hugely positive twelve months with all our twelve teams performing strongly, with employment, commercial litigation, family, education, construction and international arbitration all performing extremely well. Our strategy of investing in technology to deliver remote hearings, legal research and resilience in cyber security, serving counsel and clients across multiple services, across the UK and in certain specialist services in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region - seems to have borne fruit. These results have also enabled us to invest again to deliver better offices alongside reducing rents to our members.””

Commenting on the crisis in criminal justice, he said: “These great results are tempered for 3PB by the current position in respect of criminal legal aid. Our Tier 1 Crime team fully supports the Criminal Bar Association’s action and we are not currently accepting returns of legally-aided defence work. Whilst we hope for a swift resolution to this action,  we endorse the CBA position that there must be an immediate and substantial improvement to fees paid under the AGFS."

David Berkley QC, Head of Chambers, said: “3PB’s results position us very well for future growth. We feel this investment in knowledge and technology marks our commitment to have, develop and attract the best barristers across the UK. We’re not going to sit still. We see the bar and legal sector generally changing and offering opportunities and we want to take advantage of those.”

3PB's results were covered in The Lawyer, alongside the news of former Skaddens partner and international commercial arbitrator Patrick Heneghan joining 3PB.

For further information, please contact Simon Astill on [email protected] or by calling him on 0207 583 8055.