Temple Bright hires leading City commercial, IP and technology partner
06/01/2025
Temple Bright has expanded its commercial, IP and technology law practice with the hire of high profile practitioner, Ben Chivers, in the firm’s London office. Ben was previously a partner at Travers Smith LLP, where he trained and became a partner in 2014.
Ben has a broad-based commercial practice with experience across multiple sectors including leisure and hospitality, entertainment, retail, real estate, infrastructure and energy and financial services. He has also worked extensively on M&A transactions, including carve-outs. He is ranked as a Notable Practitioner in Chambers UK and a Leading Partner in the Legal 500 for commercial contracts work.
Ben said: “I am so excited to be joining Temple Bright. For this next stage of my career, I wanted to explore advising a broad range of clients at different stages of development, who will benefit from a streamlined model but with zero compromise on quality.
“Among the many non-traditional firms that have sprung up over the last two decades, Temple Bright is distinctive for its high standards and selectivity in recruitment – being, in effect, a differently structured City firm. This enables longstanding City lawyers like me to continue to offer a premium service, working alongside talented and experienced partners, at a competitive price.”
Tim Summers, co-founder of Temple Bright, said: “We are delighted to welcome Ben Chivers, a highly regarded commercial lawyer with two decades’ service at Travers Smith, a firm we have always admired.
“Ben is a first class addition to our Commercial and IP & Technology teams and joins a wider community of specialists across all commercial practice areas, with whom he will be working closely.”
Launched in 2010, Temple Bright is a firm of 75 partners from a City and leading regional firm background, with offices in London EC2 and Bristol. It operates a non-traditional structure that it calls a “chambers practice,” making a comparison with barristers in chambers. As a “new model” law firm, it distinguishes itself from other such firms by its priority to preserve the best virtues of traditional firms: selectivity, working in teams, and a distinctive service for clients.
The Temple Bright service involves four promises – City quality; reasonable fees; senior lawyers; responsiveness – which the firm keeps through its streamlined model.
Tim Summers said: “We think Temple Bright offers both clients and lawyers something unique. We are a cohesive group of partners who work in a distinctive style, without delegation to juniors, with autonomy and flexibility.
“Instead of prioritising firm growth, like many new model firms, we have maintained a single-minded dedication to quality. We want to be a viable alternative to the traditional City firm, for clients at every stage of growth.
“Our ability to attract lawyers of Ben’s calibre is a vindication of our approach.”
Last year the firm recruited leading pensions specialist Rosalind Connor, a former chair of the Association of Pension Lawyers who was a partner at Jones Day and Taylor Wessing and then managing partner at Arc Pensions Law.
At the opening of 2025, alongside Ben Chivers, Temple Bright celebrates the addition of corporate lawyer Nick Cheshire, who joins the firm from Ashurst where he was a partner for 16 years.
