Birmingham super set St Philip’s Chambers is setting up a commercial advocacy unit for top local firms after regional heavyweight Wragge & Co threatened to take the £1.3m it spends annually at the Bar in-house.

Legal Week understands that St Philip’s will set up a seven-strong team of approved commercial specialists to focus on top firms’ regionally-based litigation under John Randall QC, deputy head of chambers and one of the region’s leading commercial silks.