Chris Jeans KC and Julian Wilson will be retiring from practice at the Bar from 31 March 2026.
Chris was called to the Bar and commenced his pupillage in 1980 before going on to join the newly formed 11 King’s Bench Walk in January 1983. Throughout Chris’ preeminent career at 11KBW he has been involved in many of the most important Employment and discrimination cases of the time. This led to his elevation to silk in 1997.
Being one of the first barristers to specialise in employment law, Chris has fought cases about whether Irish travellers were a racial group, whether the long-term sick were entitled to holiday, whether part-timers should receive pensions, whether surrogate mothers had to share maternity leave, whether human rights required self-employed Deliveroo riders to be treated as employed. The cases Chris has spent his career fighting have gone on to change the legal landscape and society itself. In this time Chris has been involved in close to 100 reported cases in the ICR and IRLR, appearing in many House of Lords, Supreme Court and European Court cases on major employment law issues. These cases have led to Chris being involved in a high proportion of the cutting-edge cases in employment law.
Following repeat appearances in the House of Lords Chris’ first (and long) trial in silk was the BCCI stigma damages litigation. With his swansong in chambers before his “retirement” as a full tenant being his successful involvement in the Deliveroo case in the Supreme Court.
Julian joined chambers in 1997, having previously been a commercial litigation partner at Herbert Smith where he case managed some of the largest cases including the defence of Price Waterhouse following the collapse of BCCI in numerous regulatory inquiries, US criminal investigations and the $2 bn civil claim. At Chambers, he was involved in many of the more colourful City cases including Horkulak, prominent whistleblowing sagas about tax avoidance at the banks post credit crunch, fraud claims and the first ever case about LinkedIn. He acted for racing drivers, TV personalities, footballers and the ex- wife of a multi- billionaire. He appeared in arbitrations in Switzerland and Vienna and in court in Cayman, the BVI and Gibraltar. Throughout his career Julian was consistently ranked as a leading junior by the legal directories.
All members of chambers and staff offer Christopher and Julian their best wishes for retirement.
