Fountain Court Chambers has named Sian Huckett as its next senior clerk, as one of London’s leading commercial sets prepares for a generational handover in the leadership of its clerking team.
Huckett, who is currently deputy senior clerk, will take up the post from January 2027, succeeding Alex Taylor, who has led the team since 2008 and will support chambers in a consultancy capacity. Clerking team leaders Luke Diebelius and Alfie Harper will become deputy senior clerks from the same date.
Huckett will become the first woman to lead the clerking team at an elite commercial set.
While other women have become senior clerks at Chancery sets – such as New Square Chambers - or managed chambers as a whole, such as Caroline McCombe at 4 Pump Court or Julia Horner at Blackstone - Huckett is the first senior clerk to take the role at one of the four top commercial sets, generally held to comprise Fountain Court, One Essex Court, Essex Court and Brick Court.
Fountain Court, which also has a Singapore base, is active internationally in all major dispute centres and is well known for its work in commercial disputes across banking and finance, civil fraud, commercial crime, insurance, professional negligence, competition, and, increasingly, sport. It has developed a strong bench of arbitrators and arbitration counsel to challenge rivals like Essex Court.
Huckett joined Fountain Court in October 2008, having previously worked with Taylor at Old Square Chambers and Keating Chambers. She was promoted to deputy senior clerk in December 2018.
Fountain Curt has raised the profile of female commercial barristers, winning an award at the Women and Diversity in Law Awards, which are hosted by The Global Legal Post, in 2025 thanks to an initiative pioneered by Leigh-Ann Mulcahy KC, while Huckett was shortlisted at the same awards, having been involved with promoting fairer briefing practices both internally and with the Institute of Barristers' Clerks.
Richard Handyside KC, Fountain Court’s head of chambers, who succeeded Bankim Thanki KC in 2023, said: “The quality of our clerking team has long been central to Fountain Court’s strength and to the service we provide to clients. Sian, Alfie and Luke are outstanding clerks, widely trusted by members and clients alike, and I have every confidence that they will each excel in their new roles. I also wish to pay tribute to Alex Taylor, whose leadership has been instrumental in shaping the team and its standards.”
Huckett said: “It is a real honour to be appointed Senior Clerk at Fountain Court and to lead such an exceptional clerking team. Our reputation is built on the quality of our people, relationships and service, and those will remain central to everything we do.”
Diebelius joined chambers in January 2015 and Harper in September 2016, each as a team leader’s assistant. Both were promoted to team leader in 2019.
The transition caps nearly two decades of achievement for Taylor, who adroitly managed relationships with senior figures like Michael Brindle KC and the late Tim Dutton CBE KC, his first heads of chambers, after succeeding former joint senior clerks Mark Watson and Michael Couling in 2008, through to the current era of Handyside and Patrick Goodall KC, Handyside’s deputy.
Taylor's deputy was initially Paul Martenstyn. When Martenstyn left in 2018 to join litigation funder Vannin Capital as its managing director, Huckett and Katie Szewczyk took over as joint deputy senior clerks. Szewczyk subsequently joined Brick Court Chambers last year in a rare lateral move between the sets.
During his tenure, Taylor improved the set’s marketing, hiring Helen Griffiths from Clyde & Co as head of business development and marketing, and administration, with the arrival of head of administration Julie Parker in 2013, while he added experienced criminal clerk Mark O’Neill in 2022 and, that same year, brought back George Hack from Matrix Chambers alongside Szewczyk, Huckett, Debelius and Harper.
Taylor also brought in key silks such as Mulcahy, Richard Lissack KC, Anneliese Day KC, and Clare Sibson KC, in moves that expanded chambers’ practice reach, while the clerksroom ensured a consistent pipeline of successful silk and tenancy applications with minimal exits.
Recent arrivals at Fountain Court include Lord Peter Goldsmith KC, the former Attorney General, who returned to the set in January after retiring from Debevoise & Plimpton, and sports barristers Ashley Cukier and Maurice Holmes, who joined from Littleton Chambers and Crown Office Chambers, respectively, in February.
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