Business consultancy firm Berkeley Research Group (BRG) has hired Declan Redmond as a managing director working across its EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions.

Redmond – who was previously CEO of Keating Chambers and Wilberforce Chambers – joins from US risk and investigations consultancy Kroll, where he was a managing director in the firm’s London office. He will start his new role at BRG on 27 August.

At Kroll, he serviced the firm’s business development work across all its major service lines, including valuation, investigations and disputes (including expert witness services), compliance and regulation, corporate finance and restructuring, cyber risk, business services and digital solutions, working alongside fellow former clerk, Jessica Barnes, once of One Essex Court.

Redmond told GLP: “I’m looking forward to working with my new colleagues at BRG later this month and taking stock of the opportunities my new role presents me based on my experience in the markets in which I will be operating.”

He added: “My new role combines the best of my experiences at the Bar and working with law firms to benefit corporate clients by allowing them to access BRG’s extensive experience in their chosen fields,” focusing on crucial dispute resolution centres like Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Redmond’s departure is amicable, offering former colleagues at Kroll best wishes for the future and thanking them for their time together.

During his time at Wilberforce, the set made substantial inroads into offshore and Far Eastern markets alongside Russian and CIS-related litigation, particularly in the Caribbean – notably the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands – and Hong Kong.

Redmond’s tenure at Keating saw the set consolidate its Asian credentials in significant energy and infrastructure disputes across the region, notably in Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as in Malaysia and Australia.

He is also well known in Dubai, where many of the set’s law firm clients like CMS and Pinsent Masons have strong practices, and he was instrumental in building up the set’s South African connections while at Keating.

Redmond led Keating Chambers, a leading construction, engineering and infrastructure set, during a period of lateral expansion and management change. He worked with the late Paul Darling KC, who left to join 39 Essex Chambers in 2017, before working alongside both Marcus Taverner KC and Alexander Nissen KC as head of chambers.

His two joint senior clerks replaced him – Will Shrubsall and James Luxmore – both former deputies, alongside Alison Crosland, the set’s chief operations officer since June 2021, a testament to his workload at the set.

He was previously the senior clerk at Wilberforce Chambers, becoming chief executive in 2002 until his exit in 2017, transforming the commercial operations of the Chancery set together with Nick Luckman.

Redmond’s move accentuates a trend for senior clerks to seek roles outside the Bar, with peers like Ian Moyler leaving Brick Court to take up consultancy roles at both Grant Thornton and legal services consultancy Prosperant, which former Fountain Court deputy senior clerk Paul Martenstyn leads.

Redmond’s predecessor at Keating, Nick Child, now leads a highly regarded Secretariat International team with former Essex Court and Atkin Chambers clerk Natasha Willicombe. At the same time, 39 Essex Chambers’ Mark Winrow joined HKA in Dubai in 2023.

Many such moves have been inspired by the desire to harness commercial opportunities outside the Inns within large, well-resourced professional services firms with international reach at one remove from the intense pressures of the clerks’ room. 

Recently, Niki Merrison – once of 4 Pump Court and 39 Essex Chambers – left clerking to join JS Held as a senior director, having worked in the sector since 2005.

Merrison was, like Redmond, an active member of the Institute of Barristers Clerks. He previously chaired the junior clerks’ committee, sat on the education committee and, more recently, the management committee.

The IBC and the Legal Practice Managers Association last year published the results of a survey project looking at workplace culture at the Bar, which cited work/life balance concerns among crucial findings.