Ground Floor Wentworth Chambers, located next to the Supreme and Federal Courts in Sydney, is a leading set of barristers’ chambers, whose members practise across a wide range of jurisdictions and areas of law, with special expertise in commercial and revenue law.
Established in 1977, our floor comprises 13 senior counsel and 39 junior counsel. Floor members are sole practitioners, each conducting an individual practice as advocate and legal adviser, sometimes in collaboration and sometimes, because of their recognition as leaders in their fields of practice, in opposition to each other. With a wide range of experience and seniority on the Floor, members are often briefed together as senior and junior counsel, and even when not briefed together, members share experience and provide informal assistance to each other.
Floor members are available for advice and representation in matters at all levels of factual and legal complexity, and in forums from local courts and informal tribunals to the highest levels of appeal. Members are also skilled in alternative dispute representation, both in representing parties to ADR processes and in providing a forum for dispute resolution, as accredited mediators, arbitrators, adjudicators, expert determiners and court-appointed referees.
Ground Floor members regularly appear in all Australian courts and tribunals, and have appeared in foreign jurisdictions including New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Fiji. Floor members have practices not only in Sydney but also in other States and overseas, with chambers in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, London and New York.
Floor members aim to provide advice and representation which is both realistic and effective, with an ability to get to the heart of complex legal matters, and an ability to collaborate and work constructively with those that instruct them.
The members of Ground Floor Wentworth Chambers recognise the importance of assisting those who may not be able to access or afford legal services, and to this end, offer pro bono legal services through Justice Connect, the NSW Bar Association’s pro bono assistance schemes and court referrals.