New Silk at 5RB

5RB is delighted that Adam Speker has been appointed as Queen’s Counsel. The formal ceremony will be on 16 March 2020.

Adam was called to the Bar in 1999 and has practised at 5RB since he became a tenant in October 2000. He is rated as a ‘star individual’ Junior in the Defamation and Privacy category in Chambers & Partners UK Bar Guide and has appeared in a number of the leading cases in this area, including PJS v News Group Newspapers [2016] UKSC 26; OPO v MLA [2015] UKSC 32; and Mionis v Democratic Press SA [2017] EWCA Civ 1194.

In 2019, Adam appeared as an advocate unled in the following cases, amongst others:

• in the Privy Council, in Simon v Lyder [2019] UKPC 38, for the successful media appellants on an appeal concerning reference innuendoes in libel;
• in the Court of Appeal, in DSM v Kelly [2019] EWCA Civ 2256, for the successful appellants on an appeal concerned with whether an individual who has obtained confidential information illicitly could use the information before establishing a right in law to do so;
• in the Divisional Court, before the Lord Chief Justice, in which the Court decided not to send Tina Malone, the well-known actress and reality TV star, to prison for breach of the Thompson/Venables contra mundum order;
• at trial in the High Court for Richard Burgon MP against News Group Newspapers, securing for him damages of £30,000 and a permanent injunction: [2019] EWHC 195 (QB);
• in preliminary issue trials in Triplark Ltd v Northwood Hall (Freehold) Ltd & others [2019] EWHC 3494 (QB) and Greenstein v Campaign against Antisemitism [2019] EWHC 281 (QB).

For further information on Adam’s practice, click here.

Adam’s appointment comes a year after three members of 5RB took Silk in the 2018 competition round – Christina Michalos QC, Adam Wolanski QC and William Bennett QC.

5RB congratulates Adam wishes him all the best for the future.