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Athena Markides

Call 2011

"Very bright, extremely conscientious and hardworking; she picks up issues and absorbs large volumes of information quickly and provides accurate, timely advice."
(Legal 500, 2021)

Athena Markides practises in all of Chambers’ core areas of work and has particular expertise in insurance, commercial litigation, construction and property damage. She has a particular interest in work with an international dimension.

Athena has considerable advocacy experience, regularly attending trials and interlocutory hearings on all three tracks and in the High Court and county courts across the country. This has enhanced her drafting skills and enables her to advise on tactics and merits swiftly and succinctly where required.

As Chair of the Young Bar in 2019, Athena was instrumental in negotiations with the Ministry of Justice and Crown Prosecution Service, securing the first pay rise for prosecuting counsel in eighteen years and thereby avoiding strike action by criminal practitioners. She also wrote and spoke widely about the key issues of the day (including Brexit, wellbeing and virtual hearings) and was a keynote speaker at the Annual Bar Conference, addressing delegates on the meaning of justice and the metrics by which it could be measured.

Before coming to the Bar, Athena gained valuable experience undertaking in-house work. Between 2012 and 2013, she worked at a start-up providing online invoice discounting services (the first of its kind in Europe). As such, she is confident undertaking work involving complex financial products and facilities and collections operations. Working with institutional investors and with SMEs also honed Athena’s understanding of the needs of corporate clients and how best to deliver for them.

Between 2011 and 2012, Athena gained experience of the telecoms industry and related regulatory, public law and competition law issues through her work as a paralegal at the Office of Communications (Ofcom). She undertook a wide variety of work including advising upon competition and procurement disputes and judicial reviews and also drafted documents for the Leveson Inquiry. She worked with people at all levels of seniority and across Ofcom’s departments, and continues to enjoy working as part of a team as well as individually.

Athena welcomes instructions from solicitors, in-house legal departments and qualified foreign lawyers.

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Awards


  • Lincolns Inn BPTC Lord Denning Scholarship (2010)
  • Lincolns Inn Hardwicke Entrance Award (2009)
  • Cambridge European Trusts Scholarship (2009)
  • Trinity Hall Dr Cooper Law Studentship (2009)
  • Trinity Hall Alan King-Hamilton Bursary for Excellence (2009)
  • Winner of the Cambridge University De Smith Mooting Competition (2009)
  • Winner of the Trinity Hall Law Society Moot (2006 & 2009)

News


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Events


Articles


Qualifications


  • BA (Hons), University of Cambridge (2005 – 2009)
  • Erasmus Exhange, Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands (2007 – 2008)
  • LLM, University of Cambridge (2009 – 2010)
  • BPTC, BPP Law School (2010 – 2011)

Memberships


  • COMBAR
  • LCLCBA
  • PNBA
  • PIBA
  • TECBAR
  • European Circuit

Athena is also an elected member of the Bar Council and a member of the Young Bar Committee and EU Law Committee.

Recommendations


“Athena is incredibly detailed and thorough and always manages to identify the key issues be they commercial or technical at a very early stage. Her advocacy and in particular communication is excellent. Athena is a go-to barrister.”

Legal 500, 2024

“A joy to work with – she has a great capacity for hard work, while remaining enthusiastic and responsive, regardless of pressure. Very bright and can be relied upon to produce work of very high quality within the required time frame.”

Legal 500, 2022

“Very bright, extremely conscientious and hardworking; she picks up issues and absorbs large volumes of information quickly and provides accurate, timely advice.”

Legal 500, 2021


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