In this period George Leggatt went on the bench, having been in chambers since pupillage. George had always been an enormously wellrespected lawyer and advocate. His rise was meteoric: he sped through the Court of Appeal and his appointment to the Supreme Court was announced less than seven years after he went on the bench. And Sydney Kentridge came to the end of his long and amazing career. His last case was when he addressed the Supreme Court in Prudential v Pandolfo178 in 2012 and announced his retirement on his ninetieth birthday. Andrew Popplewell had a big case practice at the bar, spending time in the 1990s Left to right: Sir Sydney Kentridge QC, Lord Phillips and Jonathan Hirst QC on Grupo Torras and in silk at the unveiling of Howard Morgan’s leading on the Fiona Trust, portrait of Sydney another huge and lengthy Russian trial involving many days of cross-examination, in which he led a team of five, including Simon Birt and Fionn Pilbrow.179 He went on the bench in 2011 and was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2019. Nick Green was the first head of Brick Court in modern times to come from outside the commercial wing. Now Helen Davies was appointed as joint head with Jonathan Hirst, and as Brick Court’s first female joint head. Helen had taken silk in 2008 with Tom Adam and Tim Lord. Helen and Tom had been in pupillage the same year and were Sumption’s two most trusted juniors in his later years at the bar. Helen practised both in commercial and competition law and was Sumption’s second silk in Berezovsky. The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), the vastly wealthy Libyan sovereign wealth fund, provided significant work for chambers. They had several major cases: the first against Goldman Sachs, with Roger 178 [2013] 2AC 185 179 Fiona Trust & Holding Corporation v Yuri Privalov [2010] EWHC 3199 (Comm)
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