Hogarth Chambers - Our Ancestry

Hogarth Chambers is the result of a merger of 3 leading chambers with pre-eminence in intellectual property - Five New Square, One Raymond Buildings and Nineteen Old Buildings - all of which had illustrious pasts. On the merger of Five New Square and One Raymond Buildings in Spring 2001, the new set adopted the name "Hogarth" in recognition of the contribution of the well-known English 18th century artist William Hogarth, whose successful lobbying of Parliament led to the first law giving copyright protection to the works of artists.

The history of One Raymond Buildings goes back to the beginning of the 20th Century, when the late Sir Kenneth Swan QC commenced practice. Swan became well known as Chairman of the Departmental Committee on the Patents and Designs Acts, whose final Report resulted in the enactment of the Patents Act 1949 and the Registered Designs Act 1949. Swan had become interested in patent law through the experiences of his father, Sir Joseph Swan, whose inventions included the electric light and the bromide process for photographic printing. In 1910, Swan joined Chambers at 1 Essex Court, where he later became Head of Chambers. His successors included the late John Burrell QC, a joint author of the Memorandum on the Community Trade Mark, and Christopher Morcom QC, who remains in practice at Hogarth Chambers. The chambers moved from Essex Court to One Raymond Buildings in 1995.

In 2001, One Raymond Buildings merged with the Chambers of Jonathan Rayner James QC at Five New Square to form Hogarth Chambers. The history of Five New Square includes names such as F.E. Skone James, joint author with W.A. Copinger of the leading work on copyright law, and his son E.P. Skone James who edited that work for many years. Five New Square also had a well-established Chancery practice led for many years by W.H.G. Sunnucks, the editor of Williams, Mortimer & Sunnucks on Executors, Administrators & Probate. One ex-member of Five New Square is Lord Justice Mummery who now sits in the Court of Appeal.

In 2004, Hogarth Chambers merged again with the Chambers of Alastair Wilson QC formerly based at Nineteen Old Buildings. Alastair is now a joint head of Hogarth Chambers with Roger Wyand QC. Previously, Nineteen Old Buildings had been headed by Lord Lloyd of Kilgerran QC and earlier by Sir Duncan Kerly.

Hogarth Chambers follows these traditions. It now offers clients access to highly regarded specialists in all fields of Intellectual Property and Chancery law; the overlap of their expertise in these fields is one of Hogarth's continuing strengths.

The pictures above depict:

A bronze sculpture of Sir Joseph Swan, seated - the work of his daughter Isobel Morcom.

A portrait of Sir Kenneth Swan in 1902, when he was called to the Bar.

A patent granted to Sir Joseph Swan in about 1865 for a method of photographic printing (this preceded his invention of the bromide printing process, which he patented in 1879, the year in which he demonstrated his first electric light).