Chris Owen – Chairman

Chris Owen

Chris became articled to the senior partner of a law firm in Leicester in 1968. He ran the firm’s higher courts department until 1977 when he was approached to join a local barristers chambers as senior clerk. He stayed there until 1988 when he was headhunted to join what is now known as 7 Bedford Row. He had 12 happy years there but decided to leave when he was 50 or when he had his 20^th silk, thankfully both occurred in the same year.

In the last 15 years Chris has been a Chief Executive in leading chambers in London and Birmingham, latterly St Philips Chambers from 2009 to 2012. He has also been the CEO of a law firm in London and Bristol; the Commercial Director of ADR group for whom he opened a London office; a Director in several companies including IT, Property, Legal Recruitment, Legal Couriers and now Audit Compliance Limited.

He has sat on a dozen Bar Council committees over the years and chaired several national conferences and workshops/seminars in relation to pro bono (as Vice Chairman of the Bar Pro Bono Unit); best practice (as an advisor to BSI on how to manage a common law chambers in the run up to Barmark) and equality/diversity (as the bar clerk member on that committee).

He sat on the Bar Nursery Committee twice and helped negotiate with its Chair the successful London and Leeds nursery deals.

He has experience of managing and advising on mergers for law firms and chambers.

He is the immediate past Chairman of the Birmingham Law Society, immediate past Chairman of Governors at a large primary  school in Birmingham and has been heavily involved with St Philips Cathedral in Birmingham, in particular the Tercentenary Committee organising their 300 year celebrations.

He was given a lifetime achievement award by Birmingham Law Society at their  Legal Awards evening at the ICC in March 2017. In his business life he is a legal recruiter/headhunter in London and Birmingham.