Hope Williams

Hope joined 5RB in 2021 and accepts instructions in all areas of Chambers’ practice. Her recent work includes:

• Taylor v Pathe Productions Limited & Ors: acting for the Ds in the libel claim about the film ‘The Lost King’, a dramatisation of the search for the remains of Richard III (led by Andrew Caldecott KC).
• Stoute v NGN: acting for the successful respondent in Stoute v NGN, the 2023 Court of Appeal privacy case concerning photographs taken by paparazzi on a public beach (led by Adam Wolanski KC).
• WFZ v BBC: acting for the BBC in a privacy and contempt claim brought by a person with a high public profile, including in C’s application to make collateral use of a journalist’s witness statement (led by Adam Wolanski KC).
• Attorney General v BBC: acting for the BBC in the case brought by the Attorney General to injunct the disclosure of the identity of an MI5 covert human intelligence source (led by Lord Pannick KC and Adam Wolanski KC).
• Inquiry into the Retirement of the Former Commissioner of Police: Junior Counsel to the Inquiry in Gibraltar, advising The Hon. Mr Justice Openshaw (led by Julian Santos).
• Phone Hacking Litigation: acting for Mirror Group Newspapers in claims brought by celebrities and other individuals concerning accusations of unlawful news-gathering activities, including voicemail interception and blagging (2022).

Hope is listed as a Rising Star by Legal 500 (2025) and Up and Coming by Chambers & Partners (2025) for defamation and privacy.

• “Hope is a brilliant barrister. She is highly intelligent, extremely hardworking and a real team player. She has already become one of the most sought after juniors in the field, and is unquestionably a future star of the Bar.” (Legal 500 2025)
• “Hope is very thorough and fantastic to work with.” (Chambers & Partners 2025)
• “Hope is very approachable and will have an excellent career.” (Chambers & Partners 2025)

During pupillage, Hope’s supervisors were Aidan Eardley KC, Alexandra Marzec, David Hirst and Kate Wilson. Cases which Hope assisted on during pupillage included:

• HRH The Duchess of Sussex v Associated Newspapers Limited: strike out and summary judgment application in ongoing privacy and copyright claim (assisting Alex Marzec and Gervase de Wilde for D).
• AG v Crosland: committal proceedings before Supreme Court concerning publication of embargoed judgment (assisting Aidan Eardley KC for the AG).
• Mincione v Gedi Gruppo Editoriale Spa: jurisdiction challenge to libel claim (assisting Aidan Eardley KC for D).
• Soriano v Forensic Group Limited: jurisdiction hearing on application of s9 Defamation Act 2013 (assisting Alex Marzec for D6).

Prior to 5RB

Prior to joining Chambers, Hope was a Research Assistant at the Law Commission of England and Wales. In Australia, she was the Researcher to the New South Wales Court of Appeal, Judicial Assistant to Acting Justices of Appeal Emmett and Sackville, and Head Paralegal at Allens Linklaters Sydney.

Hope holds a Bachelor of Law (Hons I) from the University of Sydney, and a Master of Law (Class I) from the University of Cambridge. Her thesis on contempt issues arising from true crime podcasts was published in the Media and Arts Law Review.

Awards and scholarships

• WM Tapp Studentship in Law (Gonville & Caius, University of Cambridge)
• Mills and Reeve Prize for Comparative Family Law (University of Cambridge)
• Zoe Hall Scholarship (University of Sydney Law School)
• Sir Dudley Williams Prize (University of Sydney Law School)
• Rose Scott Prize (University of Sydney Law School)
• Nancy Gordon Smith Prize (University of Sydney Law School)
• Caroline Munro Gibbs Memorial Prize for Torts (University of Sydney Law School)

 Publications

• ‘Political blogger’s belief in the public interest held to be ‘manifestly unreasonable” (Riley v Sivier), Lexis®PSL, 6 December 2022
• ‘No jurisdiction to grant internet injunctions in claims brought on ‘mosaic basis’’ (Mincione v Gedi Gruppo Editoriale SpA), Lexis®PSL, 30 July 2021
• ‘Rebel without a Cause of Action: Bauer Media v Wilson [No 2]’ (2018) 22 Media and Arts Law Review 350
• ‘Serial Concerns: the Rise of New True Crime Journalism in the United States and Corresponding Legal Impediments in Australia’ (2018) 22 Media and Arts Law Review 201
• ‘Equity’s Childbearing Years: the Proposed Extension of Shareholder Oppression Remedies to the Beneficiaries of Trading Trusts’ (2018) 10 Butterworths Corporation Law Bulletin [222] (with the Hon. Arthur Emmett)
• ‘Piercing the Corporate Veil? The Liability of Directors for a Company’s Contempt’ (2018) 4 Butterworths Corporation Law Bulletin [71] (with the Hon. Arthur Emmett)